Female Iranian chess player competes at tournament without wearing hijab
FOX NewsNov 26, 2022
Spain Grants Nationality to Self-Exiled Iranian Chess Player
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Image copyright: Fars Media Corporation [via Wikimedia Commons]
The Facts
The Iranian chess player Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, also known as Sara Khadem, has been granted Spanish nationality after facing pressure to defect over her decision to compete in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Kazakhstan without wearing a hijab.
Khadem reportedly refused to wear the Islamic veil at a World Cup event last December so as to support the protests that broke out in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, who was detained over an alleged breach of the strict hijab rules.
The Spin
Anti-Iran narrative
The case of Sara Khadem shines a light on the experiences suffered by Iranian women under the country's theocratic regime, as she has been forced to flee to an adopted country in order to live a free life. Iran must end its discriminatory laws, or protest against state policies of arbitrary detention, torture, and denial of education, employment, and public spaces to women may one day turn the nation to ruins.
Pro-Iran narrative
While enemies of Iran attempt to create division in the country's foundation by opposing the Islamic headscarf, Iranian women and girls are refusing to surrender their Muslim identity. The hijab is unquestionably a religious necessity, as well as a practical principle of a nation that bolsters the traditional family. The state will do everything possible to protect and uphold divine policy, so as to keep its population unified and promote stability in Iranian society.
