The Iranian women’s national soccer team made quite the statement on Monday night during the opening match of the Women’s Asian Cup, as they refused to sing while their national anthem played over the speakers at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast. 

The players were in their customary line before their match against South Korea, when the Iranian national anthem began to play. The women, looking straight ahead and barely moving, were stoic as it appeared there were jeers from the crowd. Later, applause erupted from those in attendance following the 3-0 South Korea victory.

Iran’s manager, Marziyeh Jafari, was also seen smiling as she looked upon her players’ silence from the sidelines. 

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This silence is particularly deafening following the confirmed U.S.-Israeli strikes over the weekend that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has since counterattacked by firing missiles and drones at Israel and regional countries that host U.S. allies or military bases, including Bahrain and Qatar. 

During questioning by media on Sunday, Iran women’s national team captain Zahra Ghanbari, alongside Jafari, was asked about Khamenei’s death. The question was shot down quickly. 

Jafari answered in Farsi, but an AFC media representative cut off her response without any translation, according to ESPN. 

"OK, I think that’s all for your question. Thank you for asking. Let’s just focus on the game itself," the media rep said before questioning continued. 

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While the content of Jafari's response remains unknown, the team's stoic nature during the national anthem, which is usually met by at least some players singing, says enough. 

The U.S. and Israel’s massive joint military operation, known as "Operation Epic Fury," left many of Iran’s major leaders dead, including Khamenei. President Donald Trump warned on Sunday against any Iranian retaliation, saying if Iran were to "hit very hard," they would be met with "a force that has never been seen before."

The attacks have impacted the sports world as well as the rest of the country; the football federation’s president shared a bleak outlook about playing in this year’s FIFA World Cup. Iran has already qualified for the tournament and is set to face New Zealand in Los Angeles in June to kick off its Group G schedule.

"What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope," football president Mehdi Taj told sports portal Varzesh3 on Sunday. 

"The US regime has attacked our homeland, and this is an incident that will not go unanswered."

FIFA also noted it will be monitoring the situation with Iran. 

Iran’s national team will not be preparing for the World Cup at this time, as a 40-day mourning period following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is in effect. However, the women’s national team was allowed to compete in the Asian Cup.

Elsewhere in the sports world, Fox News Digital learned that Israel’s national gymnastics team suspended all training and team activities amid the counterattack, with the Israel Gymnastics Federation (IGF) providing a statement announcing that the violence has caused "unavoidable disruptions."

"The current security situation in our region has resulted in unavoidable disruptions to our regular training schedule and has created significant uncertainty regarding the national teams’ professional plans, particularly as we are at the outset of the international season," the statement read.

A source within the team also told Fox News Digital on Saturday that the gymnasts have been moving between bomb shelters since Iran's counterstrikes began. 

Iranian airstrikes killed at least eight Israelis on Sunday, when a missile barrage landed just miles from Jerusalem in Beit Shemesh. 

Fox News' Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for California schools to notify parents if their children want to change their gender identity without approval from the student amid a challenge against the Golden State's ban on so-called forced outing of transgender students.

The court granted an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group, the Thomas More Society, blocking, at least for now, a state law that prohibited automatic parental notification requirements if students change their gender expression or pronouns at school.

The Thomas More Society praised the decision as "the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation." Two sets of Catholic parents represented by the legal group argued that the state law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, caused schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate the students' gender transitions.

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But California contended that students have the right to privacy about their gender expression, particularly if they fear rejection from their families who may not support their decision to adopt a new gender identity. The state also said school policies and state law sought to balance student privacy with parental rights.

Last year, state education officials told school districts that the state's policy "does not mandate nondisclosure." Newsom's office also previously said that "parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records as required by federal law."

The Supreme Court sided with the parents on Monday and reinstated a lower-court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continues.

"The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs," the majority wrote in an unsigned order, adding that state policies also burden the free exercise of religion.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also said they would have gone a step further and granted the teachers' appeal to lift restrictions for them. The three liberal justices dissented, saying the case is still working its way through lower courts and there was no need to take action now.

"If nothing else, this Court owes it to a sovereign State to avoid throwing over its policies in a slapdash way, if the Court can provide normal procedures. And throwing over a State’s policy is what the Court does today," Justice Elena Kagan wrote.

A federal judge ruled in December 2025 that schools cannot prevent teachers from sharing information about a student’s gender identity with their parents, but an appeals court blocked that ruling last month, leading the plaintiffs to ask the nation's highest court to step in.

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The high court has been weighing whether to hear arguments in cases out of other states such as Massachusetts and Florida filed by parents who say schools facilitated gender transitions without notifying them.

The U.S. Department of Education also announced last month that the California law violates federal law. The findings of the federal investigation could put at risk the nearly $8 billion in education funding the federal government gives the state each year if state officials do not work with the Trump administration to resolve the violations.

The Trump administration is also pursuing legal action against California and threatening to withhold funding over a policy allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.