Iran reroutes plane preventing soccer star Ali Daei's wife, daughter from leaving the country

Iranian authorities rerouted a flight bound for Dubai this week that had the daughter and wife of soccer star Ali Daei aboard. The rerouting would prevent Daei’s wife and daughter from leaving the country as anti-government protests continue.

Iranian state media reported Monday that authorities had rerouted a flight bound for Dubai, preventing Daei’s wife and daughter from leaving the country in what would be a coordinated clampdown on people supporting the ongoing protests. Daei has supported the ongoing demonstrations that erupted in September.

Tehran has also said that the arrests of citizens linked to the United Kingdom were a sign of the UK’s “destructive role” in the unrest, which Iran has sought to blame its foreign adversaries for fomenting.

The Iranian judiciary said that Daei’s wife was banned from travelling overseas when authorities ordered the Mahan plane that Daei’s wife was on to land on Iran’s Kish Island in the Gulf. Daei questioned the order in his comments to the semi-official ISNA news outlet.

“I really don’t know the reason for this. Did they want to arrest a terrorist,?” said Daei, whose jewelry shop was shut down this month after the soccer star voiced support for the protests that have been taking place in September following the death of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.

The allegations of Tehran against Iran’s western adversaries, along with its arrests of dual nationals, were part of an official narrative to shift the blame away from the Islamic Republic. Around 15,800 people have been arrested in the demonstrations, according to the rights group HRANA.

Also on Monday, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said his firm is close to having 100 active Starlink internet service satellites in Iran, three months since saying that the service would be activated in light of the ongoing protests.

Musk said back in September that Starlink would be activated in Iran as part of the US-backed effort “to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information” to Iranians. Starlink could help Iranians get around the Islamic Republic’s restrictions on internet access and certain social media platforms.