The captain of Iran’s women’s national football team, Zahra Ghanbari, has withdrawn her application for asylum in Australia, becoming the fifth member of the Iranian delegation to reverse course after initially seeking protection.

According to Iran’s state news agency Islamic Republic News Agency, Ghanbari departed from Malaysia on Sunday and is expected to return to Iran.

Australian authorities also confirmed that another member of the delegation had dropped their asylum request but did not disclose the individual’s identity.

The development follows reports a day earlier that three other players had similarly withdrawn their applications.

The athletes had initially sought refuge after fears they could face repercussions at home for remaining silent during Iran’s national anthem ahead of their opening match at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

With the latest withdrawal, only two of the seven players who originally accepted Australia’s offer of humanitarian visas remain in the country.

Human rights advocates have suggested that the players may have come under pressure to abandon their asylum claims, citing alleged threats directed at their families in Iran.

Exiled former Iranian futsal international Shiva Amini said she had received information indicating that Iran’s football authorities, in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, exerted “intense and systemic pressure” on the players’ relatives.

“Several of the players decided to return because the threats against their families became unbearable and the intimidation was relentless,” Amini wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

Iranian media outlets welcomed Ghanbari’s decision. The Islamic Republic News Agency described her move as “returning to the embrace of the homeland,” while the semi-official Mehr News Agency characterized it as a “patriotic decision.”

On Saturday, three other players—identified by human rights activists in the Iranian diaspora as Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, Mona Hamoudi and Zahra Sarbali—also withdrew their asylum bids.