One of the most disturbing aspects of the ongoing ordeal of the Iranian footballers — the courageous young women who sought and were granted asylum in Australia after competing in international matches there — is the punitive consequences that their families suffer at the hands of the dictators.
As is well known, the young women were going to return to Iran, but they knew that after refusing to cover their heads with the hijab and sing the national anthem of the country’s tyrants, they would face imprisonment, torture, and possibly the gallows.
It is reported that the regime has already taken the athletes’ parents and close relatives hostage, putting them under unbearable psychological pressure in order to force the girls to return.
This is not, of course, the first time that the families of dissidents in Iran have been “condemned” along with them by the regime – let us not forget the case of the climbing champion, Elnaz Rekabi, who competed without a headscarf in international competitions in South Korea in 2022 and was placed under “house arrest” as punishment when she returned to her homeland. Shortly afterwards, she didn’t even have a “home” to stay in, as the rulers ordered the demolition of her house…
Inhumane punishments of the families of dissidents occur throughout history in totalitarian regimes that have different ideologies but are united by the same misanthropy and brutality.
In the prison state of North Korea, hundreds of thousands of political prisoners are locked up as slaves in concentration camps along with their wives, children, and elderly parents, because they are all considered “enemies of the people.” The regime arrests and imprisons three generations of people—grandparents, children, and grandchildren—to crush what little morale remains among the terrorized masses.
Of course, the historical “grand master” of collective punishment for those who disagreed with the Soviet system and government was Joseph Stalin. In the years between 1928, when he took control of the Party leadership, and 1953, when he died, approximately 25 million people were executed, imprisoned in the Gulag, sent to “special settlements” for forced labor, or deported as members of ethnic groups “hostile” to the regime.
Among them were relatives of the dictator’s victims, their spouses and children, who were also imprisoned or sent to reformatories, resulting in the breakup of millions of families and irreparable damage, with profound social consequences that are still felt today.
After years of separation due to imprisonment and displacement, families could not easily reunite. Relationships were lost and there was no longer any “normal life” for people to return to…
