Iranian football legend Ali Daei, who has backed protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, said on Monday that a plane from Tehran to Dubai had been rerouted and his family ordered off.
Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian-Kurdish Ms Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for wearing her hijab "inappropriately".
Daei, 53, a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him, is one of Iran's most famous footballers.
He said his wife and daughter had been on a Mahan Air flight, that took off from the capital Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport for Dubai, Isna news agency reported.
But the plane was rerouted and made to land on Iran's Kish Island in the Gulf, where his family were removed, the state news agency Irna said.
Quoting the judiciary, Irna said that "Daei's wife had pledged to inform the relevant institutions of her decision before leaving the country", after their "association with the groups against the Islamic revolution and rioters and calling for strikes".
"The flight landed at Kish airport and Ali Daei's wife and daughter got off the plane," Irna said
The former Bayern Munich player, who played in Iran's 2-1 World Cup victory against the US in 1998, has said he has been threatened after backing the protests caused by the death of Ms Amini.
"My daughter and wife were taken off the flight, but they were not arrested," Daei said, according to Isna.
"Had they been banned [from leaving], the passport police system should have shown it. No one has given me an answer about this. I really don't know what is the reason for these things".
Daei said he was trying to arrange his family's return to Tehran.
"Did they want to arrest a terrorist?" he asked. "My wife and daughter were going to Dubai for a few days' trip and back.".
Daei on September 27 used social media to call on the government to "solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests".
In October, he said his passport was confiscated by police on his return from abroad, before being returned to him a few days later.
He said he had not gone to the World Cup in Qatar because of the Iranian authorities' crackdown on the protests.
Earlier in December, his jewellery shop and restaurant in Tehran's fashionable north were sealed, with local media reporting they had been ordered shut for "co-operation with anti-revolutionary groups in cyber space to disrupt peace and business of the market".
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Bert van Marwijk factfile
Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder
Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia
Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
- Steve Baker
- Peter Bone
- Ben Bradley
- Andrew Bridgen
- Maria Caulfield
- Simon Clarke
- Philip Davies
- Nadine Dorries
- James Duddridge
- Mark Francois
- Chris Green
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Anne-Marie Morris
- Sheryll Murray
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Laurence Robertson
- Lee Rowley
- Henry Smith
- Martin Vickers
- John Whittingdale
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors
Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km
Price: from Dh199,900
On sale: now
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books
Mobile phone packages comparison
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
