Last Updated on: 25th November 2022, 10:37 pm
Who is Voria Ghafouri? Biography, Wiki
Voria Ghafouri, a former prominent member of the Iran national football team, was arrested by Iranian forces for criticizing the government. It came as Iranian authorities grappled with nationwide protests looming over the World Cup.
Ghafouri was a former national football team player. He was arrested The semi-official news outlets Fars and Tasnim reported that Ghafouri had been arrested for “insulting the national football team and spreading hatred against the government”.
Voria Ghafouri Age
His current age is 35 years.
Iranian Footballer Arrested Amid World Cup 2022
According to Iranian media close to the state, a prominent Iranian soccer player was arrested on Thursday for allegedly having destroyed the image of the Iranian national team. Voria Ghafouri is a former member of the Iran national team and a frequent critic of the government.
His arrest came at a time when Iranian football players were under scrutiny for their comments about Iran’s ongoing national insurgency.
The Iranian team refused to sing in Monday’s game against England. This was widely interpreted as an acknowledgment of the protests. Iran’s national broadcaster showed footage of some spectators cheering for Iran during the game but showed no political signs.
Protests in Iran
The death of Mahsa Amini (a Kurdish woman arrested by Tehran’s Vice Police) on September 16 sparked the protests. They grew rapidly and included nationwide protests demanding the fall of the Islamic Republic. Protests have erupted in the central-western Kurdish region, where Amini, Ghafouri, and other members of the Islamic Republic hail. The area was closed to business Thursday after calls for a general strike.
Iranian officials do not say whether Ghafouri’s activism played a role in the decision not to select him for the Iran national team. He is part of the Khuzestan Foolad, a group from Ahvaz. Hamidreza Garshasbi, the club’s president, later resigned without elaborating, according to the semi-official ILNA news agency.
The protests, which show no signs of abating, pose one of the biggest challenges facing Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Human rights groups say security forces have used live ammunition, bird shots, and beatings to arrest the protesters. Much of the violence was filmed. Iran last week sentenced one person to death for taking part in the protests.
Human Rights Advocates in Iran, an organization that monitors the protests, reports that at most 442 people have been killed and more than 18,000 arrested.
