Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee

Gianni Infantino, FIFA President


Mr. Bach and Mr. Infantino,

We are writing to you as Iranian citizens concerned about the impact of sanctions on our country and our people. We are writing to you to express our strong opposition to the requests of pro-sanctions individuals such as Shirin Ebadi who has recently formed a group to call for sanctions on Iranian sports. Shirin Ebadi and her organization have called for IOC and FIFA to suspend the participation of all Iranian teams in international tournaments. We urge you to reject their unjust demands, which will only hurt the people of Iran.

Shirin Ebadi does not represent the Iranian people. Since the start of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran by the Trump administration, Shirin Ebadi has also been a strong supporter of unjust economic sanctions against Iranians.

The unjust sanctions have impacted every Iranian and severely impoverished millions of our fellow citizens. During the global pandemic, the sanctions have prevented our people from accessing medicine and medical equipment. UN experts have said that the sanctions violate the basic human rights of the Iranian people.

Shirin Ebadi tries to justify her calls for sanctions by stating the situation of human rights in Iran. However, for improving the situation of human rights the civil society inside the country must be strengthened. Yet the sanctions had the complete opposite effect and have only weakened the Iranian civil society.

During these difficult times, sporting events have been one of the only sources of national hope and national joy for millions of Iranians. Any suspension of Iran's involvement in international tournaments only further isolate over 80 million Iranians without any positive impact on the situation of human rights in Iran.

We urge you to reject calls from Shirin Ebadi, Masih Alinejad, Abbas Milani and the National Union for Democracy in Iran and refrain from imposing any sanctions on Iranian sports teams. Ebadi, Alinejad, Milani and their affiliate organizations are lobbying for further sanctions against Iran in order to advance their political agenda of instigating a foreign-imposed regime change in Iran. Ebadi and her fellow regime change activists and lobbyists do not represent the Iranian people.