John,
Team Melli was gearing up to play the Canadian men's national team on Sunday, June 5th in Vancouver. But today, Canada Soccer announced they will cancel the match after facing pressure from a group of activists that demanded the game be blocked and wanted the Canadian government to refuse visas to Iranian soccer players.
Citizen diplomacy, like sports exchanges, is crucial to countering the dehumanization of Iranians. Iranians are dehumanized by the conflicts between governments and by their own government's treatment of its citizens. We are surrendering to these forces if we begin attacking soccer teams and ordinary Iranians. Denying these exchanges only further conflates the people of Iran with their government and caricatures Iranians as evil.
Iran's government does not care that Team Melli is not playing in Canada - this is a loss for Iranians.
But we want to hear from you: do you think that Canada Soccer should have canceled the game with Team Melli? [[link removed]]
YES [[link removed]]
NO [[link removed]]
Thank you for sharing, John.
Jamal Abdi
President, NIAC
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