Iran wrestling champion speaks out against country's treatment of female athletes amid soccer player concerns

World champion Iranian wrestler Sardar Pashaei weighs in on the situation involving Iran’s women’s soccer players being forced to return home and reveals how the regime treats other female athletes.

Former Iranian wrestler Sardar Pashaei, like many, feels concern about the Iranian women's soccer players who are returning to their home country after not standing for the national anthem and being offered asylum by Australia. 

Pashei, who won the 1998 World Youth Championship, knows how athletes who protest are treated in Iran, and he especially knows how female athletes are treated there. 

"If you are a woman, you have a different layer of discrimination. You know, so it's a sexual harassment. It's forcing you to wear something that you don't want. And also, as a woman, you are banned from many sports," Pashaei told Fox News Digital. 

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Pashaei has seen close friends who are female athletes face this discrimination and are pursued by the regime.

"I know Soheila Farahani, she was a captain of the national volleyball team. She was sentenced to 74 lashes because there was a picture of her without hijab went public. So, this is the kind of example of the discrimination that they're facing," he said. 

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"Shaqaiq, one of my good friends who was a captain of handball team … she was under a lot of pressure. And now I think she lives in a country that she does not want to make it public because of her safety. Because the Islamic regime really went after her, even outside of the country, in European soil to bring her back."

Three of the six Iranian women's soccer players who accepted asylum