FIFA lets fans take rainbow flags to Iran-Egypt match, but bars Lion and Sun

For most football fans, Brazil vs Scotland is just a World Cup pairing. For many Iranians and now Venezuelans, it has never been that simple.

The match recalls the early hours of June 21, 1990, when millions in Iran were awake for Italy 90 and Brazil’s 1-0 win over Scotland in Turin. Minutes later, northern Iran was shattered by the 7.4-magnitude Rudbar-Manjil earthquake, one of the deadliest disasters in the country’s modern history.

Now, 36 years later, the same fixture has coincided with another national tragedy, this time in Venezuela.

As Brazil beat Scotland 3-0 in Miami on Wednesday, two powerful earthquakes struck west of Caracas, sending buildings crashing down, forcing terrified residents into the streets and triggering a major rescue operation. US seismologists said the first quake measured magnitude 7.2 and was followed less than a minute later by a stronger 7.5 tremor.

Venezuelan authorities said at least 164 people had been killed and nearly 1,000 injured, with the toll expected to rise as rescue teams searched through collapsed buildings in Caracas, La Guaira and other damaged areas for over 14,000 missing people.

The US Geological Survey warned the eventual death toll could run into the thousands.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency and said rescue crews were racing to reach those trapped beneath the rubble. Power outages, damaged roads and continuing aftershocks complicated the response. International offers of aid quickly followed.

For Venezuelans, the images were immediate and devastating: dust rising from apartment blocks, airports and hospitals under strain, families searching through debris, and people too frightened to return home.

For Iranians watching from afar, the timing reopened a wound buried deep in national memory.

40,000 people killed

The Rudbar-Manjil earthquake struck shortly after midnight local time in 1990, destroying towns and villages across Gilan and Zanjan provinces. Around 40,000 people were killed, tens of thousands were injured, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.

Many survivors later told the same story: they were awake because of the Brazil-Scotland match. Some said football saved their lives, giving them the seconds they needed to run outside or protect their families when the walls began to shake.

There has never been an official study proving that the match reduced casualties, but the story became part of Iran’s collective memory.

That is why this week’s coincidence feels so jarring.

There is, of course, no scientific link between a football match and an earthquake. Seismology has no room for curses, omens or fixtures written into the earth’s plates. Venezuela sits in a seismically active zone, just as northern Iran lies along dangerous fault lines. The two disasters were geological events, not cosmic messages.

But memory does not always obey science.

For Brazil, Wednesday’s match was a clean passage into the World Cup knockout stage, with Vinicius Junior scoring twice and Matheus Cunha adding a third. For Scotland, it was a damaging defeat that left its hopes hanging by other results.

For Iran and Venezuela, however, Brazil vs Scotland now carries a darker meaning.

In Iran, it will always evoke the night Rudbar and Manjil collapsed. In Venezuela, it may now recall the evening when two quakes, 39 seconds apart, turned a World Cup night into a national disaster.

Messages sent to Iran International from residents in Khuzestan, Ilam, Lorestan, East Azarbaijan, Alborz, Tehran and other provinces described hours-long daily power cuts and recurring water shortages that began with the onset of summer.

The reports come as much of Iran experiences extreme heat, placing additional strain on the country's aging electricity and water networks.

A resident of Khuzestan, one of Iran's main electricity-producing provinces, said scheduled power cuts had resumed despite the province generating far more electricity than it consumes.

"On the first day of summer, with temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius, they started cutting electricity again in a province that produces twice its own needs."

Residents in Ilam province also reported electricity outages lasting up to four hours as temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius. One warned that if the blackouts continue, authorities would face "angry and protesting people."

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In Pardis, east of Tehran, a resident of a 14-story apartment building said electricity was cut for four hours during the day, leaving elevators out of service.

"How are we supposed to climb all these stairs?"

Others said the loss of elevator access posed particular difficulties for elderly residents and families with young children.

Water shortages deepen disruption

Citizens also reported prolonged water outages, which they said often coincided with electricity cuts because pumping stations stopped operating.

Mehdi Masaeli, secretary of Iran's Electricity Industry Syndicate, said last year that water supplies are interrupted when electricity fails because pumps stop working.

Residents in Boumehen near Tehran said they had access to running water on only two days during the previous week, and then only for a few hours.

"We have a sick person at home. We no longer know who to turn to."

People from Shahriar and Qods, west of Tehran, also described prolonged water cuts, with some saying supplies were unavailable from mid-afternoon until early the following morning. Several said repeated calls to the local water utility produced only tracking numbers and recorded messages.

"Water is a basic necessity, not a luxury service."

Officials have cited falling reservoir levels, declining rainfall and rising consumption as the main causes of the shortages. Many people, however, said authorities were blaming consumers instead of addressing years of underinvestment and poor management.

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One message from Ilam province said the city of Shabab had gone without running water for three consecutive days.

Some also compared the shortages with recent warnings about attacks on infrastructure.

"There was no need for anyone to attack the energy infrastructure," one citizen wrote. "Government inefficiency has taken our water away and pushed us back to the Stone Age. We carry water home in containers."

Higher bills, aging infrastructure

People also complained that utility bills had increased even as services deteriorated.

A resident in Zanjan said electricity and water tariffs had quietly risen just as power cuts resumed. In Ahvaz, people reported sharply higher water bills, with one saying many families could no longer afford to pay them and that local authorities were unwilling to offer installment plans.

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Energy experts have long warned that Iran's electricity and water systems suffer from years of inadequate investment in power generation, transmission networks and water infrastructure.

They say authorities have repeatedly relied on rotating blackouts and water restrictions to manage seasonal shortages rather than addressing the underlying causes, leaving households increasingly vulnerable during periods of extreme heat.

Ryu Hyun-woo, a former acting ambassador at North Korea’s embassy in Kuwait, made the remarks in an interview published this month by the Korea Development Institute, a prominent South Korean think tank.

“North Korea provided Iran with tunnel design and technology in the early 2000s, receiving about $25 million,” Ryu said.

“I understand that North Korean tunnel technology was applied to a considerable extent at underground nuclear facilities in areas such as Natanz and Isfahan,” he added.

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Possible transfer to Hezbollah and Hamas

Ryu said reports of direct North Korean links to Hezbollah and Hamas were inaccurate.

“Many media outlets talk about North Korea-Hezbollah and North Korea-Hamas links, but that is not true,” he said.

He said North Korea was unlikely to have directly transferred tunnel expertise to either group, but added: “It cannot be ruled out that Iran transferred tunnel-related technology it received from North Korea to Hezbollah or Hamas.”

Earlier reporting

The comments follow a March report by The Washington Times, which said North Korean entities had supplied Iran with underground construction expertise and missile technology.

The newspaper cited Bruce Bechtol, a former US Marine and political science professor at Angelo State University, as saying North Koreans helped build underground facilities in Iran, including at Isfahan, in the early 2000s.

“Most of Iran’s underground facilities – including Isfahan – were built in the early 2000s by North Koreans,” Bechtol told the newspaper.

Bechtol said North Korea’s support also included missile systems, help with arms-factory construction, specialized components and technical personnel. Iran and North Korea have not publicly confirmed the reported transfers.

Bennett said he began a "process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors" to keep internet and social media access available during protests.

The systems were meant to help protesters organize and eventually bring down Iran’s government, he told the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem.

"Unfortunately, the current incompetent Israeli government stopped doing that," Bennett said. "And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there."

Internet shutdowns

Iranian authorities have repeatedly cut public access to the internet during unrest and during the US-Israeli war with Iran that began in late February.

Iran has accused Israel and the US of bringing Starlink equipment into the country to undermine its security.

During nationwide protests in January, activists and engineers used thousands of smuggled Starlink terminals to send images of security forces and protesters abroad, according to a New York Times report in January.

Iran responded by using military-grade electronic equipment to disrupt the GPS signals on which Starlink terminals rely, the report said.

Tougher penalties

Iran’s parliament later considered a draft anti-espionage law that would increase penalties for using or possessing unauthorized satellite internet equipment.

The draft, published in October after the 12-day war with Israel and the US, set prison terms of six months to two years for personal use of Starlink or other unlicensed satellite internet services.

It also set the death penalty for people found to have used such systems for espionage or to act against the state.

Crackdown during war

Iran intensified its crackdown on satellite internet access during the latest war, seizing terminals, blocking bank accounts and detaining people accused of using, selling or sharing access to the service. Officials have linked some cases to contact with foreign media and activities they describe as threats to national security.

Authorities said the suspects had traded access to the service, shared information with foreign-based media and taken actions against national security.

NetBlocks said at the time that internet connectivity in Iran had dropped to about 1% of normal levels, leaving satellite services among the few ways to reach the global internet.

In May, a source familiar with the case told Iran International that Hesam Alaeddin, a 40-year-old man arrested in Tehran over his alleged use of Starlink equipment, died after security agents beat him.

Regional risks

Iran has also signaled that it could target assets linked to Musk’s companies in the Middle East.

The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported in June that Iran was considering adding Starlink-related infrastructure in Israel, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Oman to a new target list.

Fars said the review followed what it described as evidence that the US and Israeli militaries had used infrastructure managed by Musk, including Starlink.

Videos and reports received by Iran International showed 11th- and 12th-grade students protesting in multiple cities on Monday, calling on authorities to revise the timetable for final examinations.

The students say the short gaps between exams, combined with the proximity of final tests to the national university entrance exam, have increased pressure and reduced opportunities for study.

"We do not have enough time to prepare for both the final exams and the university entrance exam," one protesting student told Iran International.

The final exams were originally scheduled to begin in late May but were postponed following disruptions linked to recent events and the aftermath of the conflict between the Islamic Republic and the United States.

The dispute comes after education officials said the exam calendar had been arranged to conclude before Arbaeen, the annual Shiite pilgrimage marking 40 days after the killing of the third Shiite Imam.

On June 6, Hossein Sadeghi, head of the Education Ministry's information center and public relations office, said final exams were scheduled to end before the event so students could benefit from what he described as Arbaeen's "spiritual and educational opportunity."

The controversy touches on a longstanding debate in Iran over the role of religious ideology in education. Critics of the Islamic Republic's policies argue that authorities frequently align academic and civic programs with religious events as part of broader efforts to promote the state's ideological and religious narrative.

Some students, however, have objected to the timetable and are calling for exams to be postponed until after Arbaeen, arguing that the compressed schedule has reduced the time available for preparation.

Students seek timetable revision

Students had circulated calls in recent days urging classmates to join demonstrations and press officials to change the exam schedule.

In some provinces, including Lorestan, parents joined the gatherings and discussed the students' demands with education officials.

Several students also criticized what they described as efforts to prevent the protests from gaining visibility.

A student in Mashhad told Iran International that officials warned participants that city surveillance cameras would record their presence and that they could later be questioned about attending the gathering.

Another student said demonstrations outside education offices in Tehran and Karaj were quickly dispersed and participants were not allowed to continue protesting. Some students later gathered outside the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution building, according to the same account.

Education policies draw repeated criticism

The latest protests follow earlier demonstrations over education policies, including the weighting of 11th-grade final exam scores in university admissions and the format of final examinations.

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On June 2, groups of 11th- and 12th-grade students gathered outside the Education Ministry in Tehran, calling for the cancellation of a policy that gives 11th-grade scores a decisive role in university entrance results, or at least changing it to a positive weighting system.

Students have repeatedly complained about changes to exam schedules, testing procedures and university admission regulations, warning that frequent policy shifts have disrupted educational planning and increased psychological pressure.

The issue has also spread beyond secondary education. On Sunday, graduate and doctoral students at Tehran's Islamic Azad University protested outside the university's central offices against the decision to hold exams in person while the whole term courses were held online.