Iranian climber who competed without hijab leaves country: family
An Iranian sports climber, widely praised in 2022 for competing without a hijab at the height of nationwide protests, has left the country, her brother and an Iranian official said.
Elnaz Rekabi gained global attention in October 2022 when she took part in championships in South Korea without wearing the headscarf required for women in the Islamic republic.
She returned home and largely vanished from public view, with some Persian-language media based outside Iran reporting she had been placed under house arrest and banned from competing abroad.
The protests erupted in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested for allegedly flouting the obligatory headscarf rule. The movement lasted for months before fading in the face of a deadly crackdown.
Rekabi has left Iran, her brother Davood wrote in an Instagram story quoted by the IranWire website and Iran International television channel, that also expressed hope she could return in the future.
Iran International also shared another Instagram post by a fellow climber showing Rekabi training on an indoor wall in a vest and without a headscarf. It said that according to its information she had moved to Spain.
In Iran, the ISNA news agency also said that she had moved to Spain and quoted the head of Iran's National Olympic Committee Mehdi Alinejad as saying he was aware of Davood Rekabi's Instagram post.
"If they want to pursue their professional sports, they should be in Iran. The National Olympic Committee has supported Rekabi for the past two years, and she herself will acknowledge this," he told reporters on Tuesday.
But he added: "Everyone has the choice over where to live."
It is not clear when and under what circumstances Elnaz Rekabi left Iran.
In another development, the International Federation for Sport Climbing announced last month that Rekabi has been appointed as the "athlete role model" for sport climbing in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar in 2026.
It said her role was confirmed in a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland between the climber herself, IFSC president Marco Scolaris and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
IranWire and other outlets have reported previously that the IOC had been closely watching her case and were deeply concerned over her inability to travel outside of Iran.
At the time of the incident she had issued an apology on Instagram and insisted her bare-headed appearance had been "unintentional".
Some reports suggested she had been pressured by Iranian officials while in South Korea although this was vehemently denied by Iran's Seoul embassy.
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