I'm John Dach to with Professor Brenda Schaefer, the Foundation for the Defense of

Democracy's.

Her new book, Iran is more than Persia, ethnic politics in Iran.

Soccer, football.

The World Cup, a young man named Nasser Nasser Azadane

spoke out in favor of the protest for women's rights in his home country while he

was participating in the World Cup. We're told now that he is detained and

possibly will be condemned to death for his enmity with

God. I think that's the accusation they make. That's the English translation of

the crime. We already know that young people have been executed brutally by the

regime for enmity with God in these round protests. But soccer, football. Brenda, what is the tractor soccer team and who are the tractor fans?

Right, so ethnic politics really plays out in the soccer field in Iran.

I mean, it's actually pretty logical because it's,

you know, the soccer stadium is a place where

30,000 people can come together without a permit, you know, without any sort of planning, without sending out invitations.

So for years, soccer stadium of a tractor, for years, their

their name was Tractor Tabriz, the name of the team.

Tabriz is the largest Azerbaijani populated city in Iran.

They changed their name to tractor Azerbaijan, which I think is significant that they, you know, they, they don't, it's not just the name of a city, but a, about a land.

And for, for at least 15 years the soccer stadium has been a real arena of

ethnic protest, ethnic politics in Iran and chanting and calling you know to bring in allow women into the stadium

and but but all done in the in the case of tractor in the Azerbaijani language

...