An Iranian competitive climber was kicked out of South Korea on Tuesday after competing in an event in which she climbed without her country’s mandatory headscarf, authorities said. Farsi-language media outside Iran warned that she had been forced to leave early by Iranian officials and that she could be arrested at home, which Tehran quickly denied.
Elnaz Rekabi’s decision to ditch the headscarf, or hijab, came as protests in Iran sparked by the September 16 death in custody of a 22-year-old woman entered their fifth week. Mahsa Amini was arrested by the country’s moral police for her clothes.
The demonstrations in more than 100 cities represent the most serious challenge to Iran’s theocracy since mass protests surrounding its disputed 2009 presidential election.
A later Instagram post on an account attributed to Rekabi described her not wearing a hijab as “unintentional,” though it was not immediately clear whether she wrote the post or what condition she was in at the time.
Rekabi, 33, left Seoul on a flight Tuesday morning, the Iranian embassy in South Korea said.
But in a tweet, the embassy also denied “all false, fake news and misinformation” about Rekabi’s departure. She posted a picture of her wearing a headscarf at a previous competition in Moscow, where she won a bronze medal.
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The BBC’s Persian service, which has extensive contacts inside Iran despite being banned from operating there, quoted an unnamed “informed source” who described Iranian officials as seizing both the mobile phone and Rekabi’s passport.
BBC Persian also said he had initially been scheduled to return on Wednesday, but it appears his flight had been unexpectedly rescheduled.
IranWire, another country-focused website founded by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was once detained by Iran, alleged that Rekabi would be immediately transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison . Evin prison was the site of a massive fire this weekend that killed at least eight inmates.
Rekabi did not wear the hijab during Sunday’s final at the International Sport Climbing Federation Asian Championships, according to the Seoul-based Korean Alpine Federation, which organized the event.
“It’s about human rights and women’s rights”
Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian international chess arbiter, had a similar experience at the Shanghai Women’s World Chess Championship in January 2020.
She says she wore her hijab loose, letting her hair show, and received a warning from the Iranian Chess Federation to wear it properly. She refused.
“I even tried to pull it further back to show more of my hair as a protest,” she told CBC News’ Idil Mussa.
Shohreh Bayat, after deciding not to wear the hijab during the 2020 International Chess Federation Women’s World Chess Championship in Shanghai on January 11, 2020. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Bayat says that as a result, he was ordered to apologize in writing, say that all his achievements belonged to the Iranian regime and that he would only grant interviews to state news agencies. She refused again.
“I couldn’t do the things they asked me to do because it went against what I believe,” he said. “This was the right thing to do, and I just wanted to be myself and I wanted to support women’s rights and human rights.”
Bayat says she stopped wearing the hijab altogether and ended up seeking asylum in the UK after being warned she would be arrested if she returned home to Iran.
She calls Rekabi “our champion” and says her decision not to wear the headscarf was a very strong statement.
“It’s not just about the hijab. It’s about human rights and women’s rights.”
LOOK | Rekabi is “our champion,” says Bayat:
“I think she is our champion”
Iranian international chess referee Shohreh Bayat, who defied the Iranian regime two years ago by refusing to wear the hijab while working in China, tells how Elnaz Rekabi made a strong statement about women’s rights by not wearing the hijab during the competition.
Apologies for the Instagram post
Federation officials said Rekabi wore a hijab during her initial appearances at the week-long climbing event. She wore just a black headband when she competed on Sunday, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail; he was wearing a white T-shirt with the flag of Iran as a logo.
The subsequent Instagram post, written in the first person, offered an apology on Rekabi’s behalf. The post blamed a sudden call for her to climb the wall at the competition, although footage from the competition showed Rekabi relaxing while approaching and after competing.
According to the federation, Rekabi was at the event with Iran’s 11-member delegation, made up of eight athletes and three coaches.
Protesters chant slogans as they march during the Iran Solidarity March in Washington on Saturday. Demonstrations have taken place in Iran and around the world following the death in mid-September of Mahsa Amini in prison. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
Federation officials said they were initially unaware that Rekabi was competing without the hijab, but investigated the case after receiving questions about her. They said the event has no rule requiring female athletes to wear headscarves or not. However, Iranian women competing abroad under the Iranian flag always wear the hijab.
“Our understanding is that he is returning to Iran, and we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops upon his arrival,” the International Sport Climbing Federation, which oversaw the event, said in a statement. “It is important to stress that athlete safety is paramount to us and we support any effort to keep a valued member of our community safe in this situation.”
The federation said it had contacted both Rekabi and Iranian officials, but declined to elaborate. The federation also declined to discuss the Instagram post attributed to Rekabi and the claims in it.
Hundreds dead in protests
Rekabi has been on the podium three times at the Asian Championships, with one silver and two bronze medals for his efforts.
So far, human rights groups estimate that more than 200 people have died in the protests and the violent crackdown by security forces that followed. Iran has not offered a death toll for weeks. Thousands are believed to have been arrested.
However, gathering information about the demonstrations remains difficult. Internet access has been disrupted for weeks by the Iranian government. Meanwhile, authorities have detained at least 40 journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have repeatedly alleged that the country’s foreign enemies are behind the ongoing protests, rather than Iranians angry over Amini’s death and other problems in the country .
Iranians have seen their life savings evaporate; the country’s currency, the rial, is plummeting; and Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers has been torn to shreds.
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Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s moral police on September 16, protests have erupted across Iran and in some 160 cities around the world, with some of the largest protests ‘have produced here in Canada. Despite the violent crackdown on demonstrations in Iran, protesters are still taking to the streets. And women have stayed on top, sometimes burning their headscarves or cutting their hair. But this is far from the first time that women have led protest movements in the country. So today we take a look at how Mahsa Amini’s protests fit into a long history of women’s activism in Iran, and whether or not this time feels different. Our guest is Mona Tajali, Associate Professor of International Relations and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Agnes Scott College. She is also the author of the recent book Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table.