The coming Paris Olympics will see talented athletes from 206 countries striving for medals under their national banners – but not for the members of the Refugee Olympic Team, or the almost 40 per cent of whom come from Iran.
For more than a decade after the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, women were barred from international sports. Public pressure eventually led authorities to permit their participation in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, provided they could cover their hair and body.
Dozens of Iranian athletes, many of them women, have fled their homeland citing obstacles such as the mandatory hijab, social discrimination, political interference, and limited access to training facilities, coaching, funding and opportunities to compete internationally.
Here’s a look at some of the most notable Iranian female athletes who have defected and who will be showcasing their talents under different flags at the Paris Olympics…
Kimia Alizadeh
Iran’s first and only female Olympic medallist, Kimia Alizadeh, announced her defection in January 2020, describing herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran”.
The then-21-year-old Olympian said in an Instagram post she fled because she did not want to be part of “hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery”.
Her words were accompanied by a photo from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she made history for Iran by winning a bronze medal in taekwondo at the age of 18 – the first medal won by an Iranian woman since the country first entered the games in 1948.
Affectionately known in Iran as “The Tsunami”, Alizadeh wrote on social media that authorities had used her success as a propaganda tool.
“They took me wherever they wanted,” she said. “I wore whatever they told me to wear. I repeated every sentence they ordered me to. Whenever they deemed it necessary, they exploited me.
“They attributed my medals to compulsory hijab and their own management and wisdom.”
A year after her defection, she beat Great Britain’s double Olympic gold medallist Jade Jones at the delayed Tokyo Games, coming within striking distance of winning the Refugee Team’s first medal as she narrowly missed out on a bronze.
The 25-year-old said it was “hard when you leave your country”, but had learned to adapt. She will represent her new home, Bulgaria, in the French capital, where she is aiming to win gold at her third Games.
Saman Soltani
A national champion in swimming and artistic swimming for 15 years, Soltani turned to winning on the water rather than in it because domestic success was all she could hope for otherwise.
“That was the limit because for the Iranians, because of the hijab, you can’t participate in any international races,” she told France 24 in an interview in May. “It’s forbidden for the women.”
She switched to kayaking in 2016, and two years later won silver at the Asian Championships. But the desire to compete in artistic swimming never left her, and she defied convention to attend a high-end training camp in Barcelona in 2022, despite the risks.
“This was my childhood dream,” Soltani told the International Canoe Federation. “I had to be a role model for these girls, and for so many girls and women in Iran.”
Authorities though did not react well, and hours before her flight home, her parents warned her not to return to Tehran.
She travelled to Vienna, where her only friend in Europe lived, with the hope she could return after a couple of weeks. But unprecedented nationwide protests broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022.
“The pressure became more and more, and they started to kill the people because of their hair. Imagine me as a member of the national team, participating at the artistic swimming camp, so it was not accepted at all,” Soltani said.
“I lost three of my friends in this revolution, and so many of my friends, members of the national team, were in prison. They tortured them, and two members of the canoe family [were] also in prison. ”
The 27-year-old kayak paddler was granted asylum in Austria, and will compete in canoe sprint at the Paris Games as part of the largest refugee Olympic team to date.
Yekta Jamali Galeh
The first Iranian female weightlifter who won medals in international tournaments, Yekta Jamali Galeh sought asylum in Germany in May 2022 after leaving Iran’s delegation at the World Junior Weightlifting Championship in Greece.
She fled “to be able to continue safely practising her sport”, according to the International Olympic Committee. Women were not allowed to practise weightlifting in Iran until 2018.
While being a relative newcomer to weightlifting, whose journey into this sport began just six years ago – before that, she was a handball player for three years – she already has several accolades to her name: she excelled at national junior levels and won medals at international championships.
The 20-year-old is one of two weightlifters and the only female weightlifter in the refugee team at the Paris Games.
“I have no family in Germany, and when I arrived I could not train for about six months,” she recalled.
If she were to achieve one thing from her Olympic debut, Galeh said it would be inspiring women across the world to take up weightlifting. “Every woman is strong, you just have to keep going,” she said. “Why shouldn’t they do weightlifting? Don’t listen to what other people say.”
Dorsa Yavarivafa
Dorsa Yavarivafa and her mother fled Tehran on a rainy day in November 2018, and a journey that included fake passports and months on the road through Germany, Belgium and France, eventually ended in England almost a year later.
The 15-year-old said she fled her country for two reasons: her mother wanted to change her religion and Yavarivafa had been repeatedly rejected by the national badminton team without being told why.
Now studying sports and exercise science at Middlesex University in London, she will also compete for the refugee team in Paris.
Last year, at the Middlesex Senior Gold event, her father watched her play for the first time after more than 15 years, despite the fact she lost in the first round.
“In Iran, it’s not allowed for people to see women play, so it was such a great experience,” the 20-year-old said. “We got emotional after the match and he was so proud of me. Both my parents will be in Paris this summer – we are all ready.”
Source » scmp