Sara Khadem, the best chess player in the Islamic Republic, decides to participate in the Almaty World Cup without a headscarf
Chess star Sara Khadem follows in the footsteps of climber Elnaz Rekabi and has decided to represent Iran in an international match without a hijab. Amid the protests the country has been experiencing since September against the mandatory use of the veil, the climber said upon returning home that she did it without realizing it and has not been heard from since. The regime sentenced her to house arrest.
In the case of Khadem, the most brilliant player in the country, she has already participated without a veil in the first two days of the FIDE Rapid Chess and Blitz World Cup, which will be held in Almaty. In the photos distributed by the organization, you can see the 25-year-old Iranian athlete standing in front of the board with her head uncovered.
One of the matches she has played so far was against her compatriot and grandmaster Atousa Pourkashian, who fled Iran to the United States years ago and has competed without a headscarf ever since. The competition in Almaty ends on Friday.
The chess world in Iran has been challenging the regime for years and some of its stars fled the country never to return. One of the most significant cases is that of Alireza Firouzja, who has competed under the French flag since 2021 due to her refusal to accept Tehran’s order not to play against Israelis in international competitions.
At the time, Khadem supported Firouzja’s decision and this brought him the first problems with the authorities. Since his first photos were published this Tuesday, his future plans are unknown. “Will he come back or not? It will all depend on your family, especially your baby. If he managed to get him out of the country, I think he won’t come back,” said Shohreh Bayat, a chess player from Iran who is 2020 refereed a match in China and after a photo of himself with a scarf around his shoulders was published, he was condemned by Iranian authorities who forced him to write a letter of apology.
She decided not to, she no longer wore the veil, but she did not return home either. “Survives” as a refugee in the UK. Bayat explains to this newspaper that Khadem “before traveling to Almaty had to sign a number of special documents and was subject to restrictions on his travels because of his criticism.”
Complaints against the system also come from the football world, where the possible hanging of the player Nasr-Azadani is a point of concern. Major national team legends such as Ali Daei have shown their public support for the protests and this has not been overlooked by the regime. Daei’s shops in Tehran have been closed for weeks and the flight on which his family was heading to Dubai to spend a few days on holiday together was forced to land on an island in the Persian Gulf.
Source: La Verdad
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