Iran, US Try Volleyball Diplomacy

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Iran’s national volleyball team is attracting record crowds on its first visit to the United States, part of a new wave of people-to-people exchanges promoted by both governments in recent months.

Playing the US national team in the first of four exhibition matches on Aug. 9, the Iranians could be forgiven for thinking they were back in Tehran, not “Tehrangeles,” as Los Angeles is known for its huge Iranian diaspora community.

The largely Iranian-American crowd sang a patriotic song that predates the founding of the Islamic Republic but remains popular among Iranians worldwide. Many in the crowd at the Galen Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles also waved the current Iranian flag — an unusual outpouring of support for the visitors in a city where many Iranian emigres have been harshly critical of the policies of the Islamic Republic.

“For me, the purpose is to create a dialogue that is without political agenda, that shows we are of the same kind,” Sheila Irani, one of the facilitators of the visit, told Al-Monitor. Irani, who was born in the United States to parents who came from Iran in the 1950s, arranged for the Iranian team to be presented with a proclamation from the Los Angeles City Council welcoming them, noting their accomplishments in the sport and wishing both teams good luck. The city of Anaheim gave the Iranians a similar document.

Bahman Baktiari, executive director of the International Foundation for Civil Society, a Salt Lake City nonprofit that assisted the US and Iranian volleyball federations in arranging the exchange, said the ceremony Aug. 12 at Los Angeles City Hall “says a lot about the changing atmosphere” toward Iran. In February, the City Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on investors in Iran’s energy sector. Yet this week, council members — including a Jewish member — enthusiastically greeted the Iranian team, Baktiari said.

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