Published on :
Dozens of people welcomed Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi back to Tehran on Wednesday morning after having participated in one of the events of the Asian climbing championships in South Korea without a veil. In front of the cameras, she claimed that her gesture was not intentional.
Elnaz Rekabi is safely back in Iran. State media reported that several dozen people welcomed the Iranian climber to Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on the morning of Wednesday, October 19.
His participation in the competition with a jersey in the colors of Iran, wearing only a bandana and not a veil, had been interpreted as a gesture of solidarity with the demonstrations sparked a month ago by the death of the young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini after his arrest by the vice squad. The Islamic Republic indeed imposes on Iranian sportswomen the wearing of the veil even in competitions abroad.
Dozens of people gathered outside the airport terminal to welcome the young woman with applause and cheers, according to a video posted online by the reformist daily Shargh.
They then surrounded a white van and a car where the sportswoman and members of her team would have taken place.
Dressed in a black hooded jacket and a baseball cap, Elnaz Rekabi was welcomed into the terminal by her relatives, before speaking to the media.
“I returned in peace to Iran”
“Due to the climate during the finals of the competition and the fact that I was called to start when I was not expecting it, I found myself entangled in my technical equipment (…). Because of that I didn’t pay attention to the scarf I should have worn,” she said.
“I returned to Iran in peace, in perfect health and according to the planned program. I apologize to the Iranian people for the tensions created,” she said, adding that she had “no intention of saying goodbye to the national team”.
Her statement is similar to the story posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday, in which she apologized for the “concerns” caused and insisted that her bareheaded appearance was “unintentional” and unrelated to current protests. .
Rights groups outside Iran had expressed concern about the young woman’s situation after her friends were unable to contact her for 48 hours.
Franco-Iranian sociologist Azadeh Kian, researcher at Paris Cité University, recalled in a recent interview with France 24 that “Forced confessions are commonplace in Iran. We saw it again recently with the confessions of two French people.”
A thesis that the information published by Iranwire on Tuesday would accredit. The Iranian media claims that Elnaz Rekabi’s brother, Davood, also a climber, has been arrested.
With AFP