A crowd welcomes a climber in Iran who competed without a hijab as a heroine

Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi, who competed without a veil in a tournament in South Korea, returned to Tehran on Wednesday, where a crowd greeted her like a hero at the airport.

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Rekabi competed bareheaded wearing only a hair tie at a championship in Seoul on Sunday.

This gesture was interpreted by some as a show of solidarity towards the protest movement that has been shaking Iran for a month, after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained in Tehran by the morality police because her veil supposedly showed some locks of hair.

The Islamic Republic requires Iranian sportswomen to wear headscarves even at competitions abroad.

Rekabi, 33, arrived at Imam Khomeini International Airport early on Wednesday, according to a video released by the state agency IRNA.

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The athlete’s apology

Dozens of people gathered to greet her, with cheers and applause as she walked out the doors, according to a video posted online by the reformist Shargh newspaper.

“Elnaz is a heroine”, shouted the dozens of people gathered at the airport.

The athlete appeared in a hood and a baseball cap and was received by her family and then addressed state media.

“Due to the atmosphere that prevailed in the final of the competition and the fact that I was called up unexpectedly, I got confused with my technical equipment and that caused me to forget about the hijab,” said.

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“I return to Iran in peace, in perfect health and according to my plans. I apologize to the people of Iran for the tensions this created.”, he stated and added that he had no intention of leaving the national team.

Human rights activists considered that these statements by the athlete upon her arrival in the country and on social networks could have been made under pressure and with the threat of suffering. “arbitrary detention, torture or other types of ill-treatment”, according to Amnesty International.

The British actress of Iranian origin Nazanin Boniadi stated that the athlete was “forced by the authorities to make these statements, a kind of forced confession on television.”

“You can see it in his eyes. She does nothing but repeat what she has been told”, tweeted the Iranian journalist in exile Maziar Bahari.

After arriving in Tehran, Rekabi, 33, was received by Sports Minister Hamid Sajjadi, according to an official statement.

The crowd gathered at the airport, which included women without veils, surrounded the van and a car in which the athlete got in, which left the airport to applause.

“A welcome worthy of a heroine, including women without the mandatory veil, outside the Tehran airport for the athlete Elnaz Rekabi. Concerns remain for her safety,” commented the NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), based in New York.

State propaganda?

The comments made by the climber confirm a message posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday, in which she apologized for “any concern” that could cause and said that the decision to remove the veil “it was not intentional”, but because she was called to compete earlier than expected.

The Islamic Republic has been repeatedly accused by activists of pressuring people to make contrite statements on television and social media.

The Observers”They must not be influenced by state propaganda.” CHRI warned.

Human rights groups expressed their concern for the athlete after complaints from her friends who said they had not been able to contact her.

However, in a statement sent to AFP, the Iranian embassy in Seoul denied “any false information and misinformation” about his situation.

In a first phase of the competition, the athlete appeared with a bandana, but in the main climb her hair was uncovered.

This gesture coincides with the protests over the death of Amini, 22, in which many women have participated, removing their veils in the street and in universities and schools across the country.

The violence in the streets has caused dozens of deaths, most of them demonstrators, but there are also deaths among the security forces, and hundreds of detainees.

The spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said that the UN “will follow very closely” the case.

Iran accuses the United States of being behind the protests and the authorities are studying the possibility of “criminalize” the sale of virtual private networks (VPN), used to bypass the restrictions imposed on internet access imposed by the rulers to try to limit the demonstrations.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.