Soccer gave Iranians a venue for politics and opportunities for connection. Then the regime stepped in.

Growing up, I was always the odd one out at school. My parents had been members of the communist Tudeh Party, an affiliation which, together with their atheism, had landed them in prison in the 1980s. After they married, they isolated themselves—and me—from the broader community. In a society that was still conservative and religious, I was raised secular and on a steady diet of American and European pop culture.

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Soccer gave Iranians a venue for politics and opportunities for connection. Then the regime stepped in.

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