LE SCAN SPORT – Elnaz Rekabi participated in a competition in South Korea, without a veil. A sign perceived as a protest and support for Mahsa Amini.
Concern persisted on Tuesday over the fate of an Iranian sportswoman, Elnaz Rekabi, who participated without a veil in the Asian climbing championships in South Korea, a gesture seen as a sign of solidarity with the demonstrations in Iran.
Elnaz Rekabi, 33, wore a bandana during the bouldering event and a headband showing his hair during a second event, according to footage released by the International Climbing Federation.
The competition, where she placed fourth, took place on Sunday, a month to the day after the death of Mahsa Amini arrested in Tehran for “wearing inappropriate clothes” due to a veil insufficiently covering her hair in view of the morality police and sparked a wave of protests across the country.
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Sport has become an extremely sensitive topic in Iran since these protests, with several prominent Iranian sportswomen speaking out in favor of women’s rights. Famous footballers have also come under fire for comments about the move, such as soccer legend Ali Daei, who had his passport briefly confiscated.
In his first comment since Sunday, Elnaz Rekabi featured on his Instagram account, which has over 200,000 followers, “apologies for the worry» that she was able to cause and assures that the decision to remove her veil was not “not intentional» but motivated by the call to carry out the test earlier than planned. The Islamic Republic imposes on Iranian sportswomen the wearing of the veil even in competitions abroad.
Social media supporters of the protest had called Ms. Rekabi “heroin“, publishing images of his climbing accompanied by the slogan of the mobilization”woman, life, freedom».
«I am currently on my way back to Iran with the team on schedule“, announces the interested party on Instagram.
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But the circumstances of the release of this statement have raised many questions as unconfirmed reports have reported pressure on Elnaz Rekabi from Iranian officials in South Korea.
The BBC in Persian quoted an unnamed source as saying her friends failed to reach her and the team left their hotel in Seoul on Monday, two days earlier than planned. His mobile phone and his passport were confiscated, according to the same source.
The Iran Wire news site reports that the president of the Iranian climbing federation allegedly lured her to the Iranian embassy to drive her directly to the airport.
He would have promised Elnaz Rekabi that she could return safely to Iran on condition that she handed over her phone and passport, according to the media.
But the Iranian embassy in Seoul deniedall the fake news and misinformationabout her situation and claimed she left South Korea with her teammates on Tuesday, according to a statement to AFP.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations has indicated that it is “aware” of this file and warned that he “would follow very carefully“, According to a statement by one of its spokespersons, Ravina Shamdasani, in Geneva.
Elnaz Rekabi is the second Iranian known to have participated unveiled in a sports competition since the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979, after the boxer Sadaf Khadem in 2019, exiled in France since.