The “Bernstein & Holmes” show on The Score took an emotional turn Wednesday when co-host Leila Rahimi discussed the Iranian national soccer team that competed in the World Cup in the context of the unrest in the country.
CNN reported that families of the team’s players were threatened with imprisonment and torture if the players didn’t “behave” before their match Tuesday against the U.S. Specifically, the team was expected to sing the national anthem, which it did not do before its first game to protest the Tehran regime. That prompted a meeting with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The unrest began when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in custody of Iran’s morality police. She allegedly was detained for failing to wear her government-mandated hijab (headscarf ) properly. The country’s response to the unrest has been violent.
“As long as my father has lived here, we’ve heard about these stories,” Rahimi, who is an Iranian American, said while fighting back tears. “And I didn’t know that I was gonna get upset. He moved, but it doesn't stop me from thinking about my family who’s there, wondering whether I can communicate with my cousins when they decide to limit the internet.”
Rahimi’s father’s side is from Iran; her mother is American. He and his brother are two of four siblings who moved to the U.S. His late other brother and sister stayed in Iran with their parents. Their children are the cousins she spoke of.
“These are educated people who know what it’s like to have rights, and when basic ones are taken away, people are upset,” she continued. “And it’s not just women, it’s men who are also helping be the solution, speaking up for them. Good people are the solution.
“You can’t continue to keep people down like this and not expect it to be upsetting. Those who have protested, many have been killed, many don’t know where their family members are. All they’re asking is for us to listen. Listen to the people who are talking about this. More so than me. News reporters, people who are there. Understand that when people can’t trust their government, when it was put in in ways that they didn’t freely elect ...
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen to that team when they go home. I also don’t know what’s gonna happen to any individual who doens’t want to wear her headscarf. The weaponizing of individuals is a thousand-year-old playbook piece. They’re just asking to be heard.”
Rahimi was born in the U.S., and most of her family moved here. She also has been active on Instagram and Twitter sharing news reports from Iran.
