An Iranian competitive climber left South Korea on Tuesday after participating in an event in which she climbed without her country’s mandatory headscarf, authorities said. Farsi-language media outside Iran warned that she may have been forced to leave early by Iranian officials and could be arrested at home, which Tehran quickly denied.
Elnaz Rekabi’s decision to give up the headscarf, or hijab, came as protests 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 vice police for her clothes.
The protests, drawing school children, oil workers and others to the streets in more than 100 cities, represent the most serious challenge to Iran’s theocracy since mass protests surrounding its disputed 2009 presidential election. .
A subsequent Instagram post on an account attributed to Rekabi, a multiple medalist in competitions, described her as “unwitting” not wearing a hijab, although it’s not immediately clear whether she wrote the post or in what state it was in at the time.
Rekabi left Seoul on a flight Tuesday morning, the Iranian embassy in South Korea said.
The BBC’s Persian Service, which has extensive contacts in Iran despite the ban on operating there, quoted an unnamed “informed source” who described Iranian officials as having seized both the mobile phone and the passport of Rekabi.
WATCH | Level of anger against the regime not seen in years: human rights activist:
Kaveh Shahrooz, a lawyer, human rights activist and senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says Iran is on the verge of change as people continue to protest against the regime despite brutal crackdowns.
BBC Persian also said she was originally due to return on Wednesday, but her flight was apparently brought forward unexpectedly.
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 after arriving in the country. Evin prison was the scene of a violent fire this weekend which killed at least eight prisoners.
Later Tuesday, the South Korean Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the Iranian athlete and her team had left the country, without giving further details.
Apologies in the Instagram post
In a tweet, the Iranian embassy in Seoul denied “all fake news and misinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure on Tuesday. But instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul competition, he posted an image of her wearing a headscarf from a previous competition in Moscow, where she won a bronze medal.
Rekabi did not wear a hijab in Sunday’s final at the International Federation of Sport Climbing Asian Championships, according to the Seoul-based Korean Alpine Federation, the organizers of the event.
Federation officials said Rekabi wore a hijab in his first appearances at the week-long Climbing event. She wore just a black headband when competing on Sunday, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail; she had a white jersey with the Iranian flag as a logo on it.
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The latest Instagram post, written in the first person, issued an apology on behalf of Rekabi. The post blamed her for a sudden call for her to scale the competition wall – although footage from the competition showed Rekabi relaxed as she approached and after competing. He also sought to describe his trip back to Iran on Tuesday as “on schedule”.
Rekabi was part of Iran’s 11-member delegation, made up of eight athletes and three coaches, at the event, according to the federation.
Federation officials said they were not initially aware Rekabi would compete without the hijab, but looked into the matter after receiving inquiries about him. They said the event had no rules requiring female athletes to wear headscarves or not. However, Iranian women who compete abroad under the Iranian flag always wear the hijab.
“Our understanding is that she is returning to Iran, and we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops upon her arrival,” said the International Sport Climbing Federation, which oversaw the event. in a press release. “It is important to emphasize that athlete safety is paramount to us and we support all efforts to ensure the safety of a valued member of our community in this situation.”
The federation said it had been in contact with Rekabi and Iranian officials, but declined to elaborate on the substance of those calls when contacted by The Associated Press. The federation also declined to discuss the Instagram post attributed to Rekabi and the claims it contains.
Hundreds killed in protests
Rekabi, 33, has finished on the podium three times at the Asian Championships, winning a silver and two bronze for his efforts.
So far, human rights groups estimate that more than 200 people have been killed in the protests and the violent crackdown by security forces that followed. Iran has not offered a death toll for weeks. Demonstrations have been seen in more than 100 cities, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Thousands of people were reportedly arrested.
front burner27:16The long struggle for women’s rights in Iran
Since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iranian vice police on September 16, protests have erupted across Iran and in some 160 cities around the world, with some of the largest protests taking place here in Canada. . Despite the violent crackdown on protests in Iran, protesters continue to take to the streets. And the women remained on the front line, 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 look at how the Mahsa Amini protests fit into a long history of women’s activism in Iran – and whether or not this time around feels any 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.
Gathering information on the protests, however, remains difficult. Internet access has been interrupted 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 claimed that the country’s foreign enemies were behind the ongoing protests, rather than Iranians angered by Amini’s death and the country’s other woes.
Iranians have seen their savings evaporate; the country’s currency, the rial, is collapsing; and Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers has been torn to shreds.
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