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FEMALE IRANIAN CHESS players have hit back at calls by opponents of the country’s Islamic dress code for a boycott of February’s world championships in Tehran, saying the campaign hurts Iranian women.
Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran has required women to wear the Islamic headscarf in public places and US chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes has said she will boycott the Tehran championships because she refuses to wear the hijab.
“This campaign against the tournament is against Iranian women and it doesn’t help at all,” Sara Khademalsharieh, a 19-year-old international master, told AFP.
It’s the first time we are hosting a world championship, not only in chess but (in any) sport, and I think it’s very important for Iranian women to have this chance to hold such major events.
Her comments were echoed by teammate Mitra Hejazipour, a 23-year-old grandmaster.
“The hijab is not oppression. We are used to it and it’s one of Iran’s laws and we accept it,” she said.
Petition
The US champion has launched a petition calling for the tournament to be moved.
“I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” the 22-year-old Georgian-American wrote on Instagram.
Her petition has been backed by some leading figures in chess, including Nigel Short, the British coach who once trained Iran’s national team.
Under Iranian law, women can only show their face, hands and feet in public and are supposed to wear only modest colours.
Over the years, women have pushed back the boundaries of the law, with many, particularly in the capital, wearing loose, brightly coloured headscarves far back on their heads.
But they still risk fines and even lashings from “morality police” if they go too far.
Boycott
The head of Iran’s chess federation, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, said the calls for a boycott were unreasonable.
“Everywhere in the world, there are rules on how to cover your body. There is no place in the world where people can wear nothing in public,” he told AFP.
The head of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Geoffrey Borg, expressed surprise at the boycott campaign, saying federation members had not expressed “the slightest objection” when Iran was selected as host.
“Chess players should respect the laws of countries,” Borg told a Tehran press conference last week.
“The only objections have been on personal pages, for which FIDE is not responsible,” Iranian media quoted him as saying.
‘Don’t isolate Iran’
Khademalsharieh and Hejazipour said the interests of Iranian women were better served by engagement with the world than by boycotts.
She pointed to the example of karate, in which women were previously banned from competing in the hijab.
“Now (women wearing the hijab) are allowed and they are getting some medals and I think this helps Iranian women more than isolating the country,” said Khademalsharieh.
The chess world championship in Tehran is due to feature 64 players from 26 countries, including three from Iran, with the winner receiving $60,000 (€54,250).
So far, Paikidze-Barnes is the only selected player to announce a boycott.
“I am not anti-Islam or any other religion,” the US champion wrote on Instagram. “I’m protesting… not because of Iran’s religion or people, but for the government’s laws that are restricting my rights as a woman.”
Pahlevanzadeh said the Iranian chess federation had never faced any problem hosting previous tournaments – including the women’s Grand Prix held in Iran earlier this year.
“We have organised many tournaments for women before. Many women from Nazi’s own country Georgia have joined the tournaments,” he said.
I’m sure after visiting Iran, she’ll change her mind.
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Isreal have become brazen and a law onto themselves. Its not anti semetic to condemn their murderous tactics on unarmed palistinians. Time for the world to face up to them and enact santions.
@M: it’s not today or yesterday that they have become brazen. They have flouted every UN resolution that has been passed. Time has long since passed for them to be made adhere to some kind of law & be held account for their actions. Palestinian people don’t have a life, they don’t even have an existence and before anyone has a go at me. I don’t condone violence on any side and that includes Hamas. I keep thinking of the lovely children I met while visiting Palestine in 1991 and hope they got to reach adulthood. Something we all take for granted.
@Victor Feldman: A terrorist apartheid state
@M: they are savages!
I just watched the footage of the Isr4eli forces kicking punching and beating the pallbearers carry Shireen’s coffin with batons. My blood is boiling.
Gaza , the biggest concentration camp ever seen
Ironic , isn’t it ?
I would like to ask the person who wrote the article what exactly they think is a scuffle?? I would call that an outright batton charge. Animals attacking a funeral cortège.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: I just watch it. Shocking stuff by the Israeli scu.m. But I’m not surprised by the journal at all.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: Why do riot police turn up at a funeral procession. They did it to incite a reaction. They are utter sc.um.
It’s a disgraceful headline
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: That is George Floyd levels of upsetting.
@Brendan We Are One Ireland.: well said
A US citizen, protected press correspondent murdered on foreign soul by a foreign army and no independent US investigation called for. Very strange and also noticeable that most statements coming out of politicians in the US don’t mention Israel. Unconditional love it seems.
My experiences with the IDF while in Israel were very unnerving, came across as very heavy handed always. I was only a tourist. Can you imagine living with that every day
Disgusting indignity perpetrated by the Israeli security forces. If that was a Jewish Israeli funeral and the remains of the person had been desecrated like that, there would have been a massacre in response.
Eh, a little more than ‘scuffles’, tragically.
This is not the first time the Israeli forces have murdered news reporters,sadly it will not the last. The Palestinian people have been downtrodden continuously by the Aparthied state of Israel for over 74 years now, with the help of financial and military assistance by the United States of America.
There is no analogy in the whole of the 20th and 21st century on what the people of Palestine have had to endure from the Aparthied state of Israel’s occupation forces on an ongoing basis.
Some examples of the illegal occupation of Palestine /ethnic cleansing / land theft / the building of illegal settlements / house demolitions / imprisonments without charge / the shooting of unarmed protesters / the constant intimidation and violence by IDF on civilians /
Neither the Palestinians or the Israelis can be trusted to investigate this killing!!!! It should be done investigated by the UN or any other independent organisation.
@Martin O Connell: 100%. But the Israelis would never allow that on their territory. Justice is almost impossible there.
@Eoin Roche: almost??
@Eoin Roche: the Israelis have no access to the body the bullet or the evidence the Palestinians have all that. It should be handed over independent investigators.
@Martin O Connell: What investigation is needed she was murdered by an Israeli sniper. You can pretend otherwise if you want.
@Martin O Connell: The Israelis were first out of the traps the other day to say they will not accept an international independent investigation. The US have backed them. US Department of State spokesman Ned Price said: “Israel has the wherewithal to conduct a thorough investigation”.
Israel doesn’t even recognise the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
@Martin O Connell: which the Palestinian Authority have said they will do.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: how can they stop the investigation if they do not have any of the evidence.
@Ray Finn: Hindering or even completely stopping investigators access to the site. Not allowing access to Israeli soldiers for interview. Even if the ICC found individuL soldiers guilty they wouldn’t be handed over. Any investigation needs cooperation from all sides.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: how do you know the nationality of the shooter????? Neither you or I were there.
@M Bowe: and as I said neither the Palestinians or the Israelis are trustworthy enough to give an honest version of events.
Disgraceful, no dignity for the poor girl’s funeral
Apalling, not alone did they murder her but now they attack her funeral cortege. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-palestinian-mourners-al-jazeera-journalist-1.6452439?cmp=rss
I am not buying any Isreali fruit, veg or other products for the forseeable fututre
The headline of this article is disgraceful. At what point did journalists get so lazy or cowardly perhaps?
You’d drop whatever your carrying if you where having the legs batterd of you.
What do you expect from a Racist Apartheid State
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