As Iran returns to the global spotlight, its football team has become an unlikely vessel for national memory, resilience and a civilisation’s refusal to forget

FIFA’s 20th-ranked team, ie, Iran, is not amongst the frontrunners to win the 2026 Football World Cup. Yet it is amongst the most talked-about teams participating. Much like the nation in the midst of its war with the United States of America and Israel, it is built around a solid control framework, with a highly defensive ability to counterpunch and transition through its battle-hardened players. It can spring surprises when least expected.

Perhaps the most symbolically poignant image to come out of the tournament was the sight of Iranian footballers wearing “#168” lapel pins, a silent homage to the memory of 168 schoolgirls killed in the deadly missile airstrike by the United States of America on a school in Iran. It was a continuation of an effort to memorialise the conscience and wounds imagined by a hurt (but not defeated) people. Weeks earlier, Iranian footballers had movingly held up pink and purple school backpacks while their national anthem played in a warm-up game in Turkey. Even Team Melli’s (Iranian National Football Team) anthem is a telling ode to perseverance, pride and fighting spirit, with the evocative lyrics “until the last breath”!

In Shi’a sensibility, symbolism and remembrance of suffering are fundamental because they keep alive the memory of Karbala and the moral struggle........

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