Yesterday, Monday, Al Arabiya.net published news reinforced by a video regarding Iran’s representation in the Asian climbing competitions finals in the South Korean capital, Seoul. Alnaz Rakabi, 33 years old.
The BBC’s Persian section quoted an “informed source” as saying that she had disappeared and “became one of the missing following they confiscated her passport and mobile phone” without mentioning who made the confiscation, unless it was those in charge of her team.
And it all started when none of the runner’s friends was able to contact her since Sunday night, while yesterday the management of the hotel in which she was a guest with her Iranian team issued a statement that the team “left the hotel yesterday morning,” with the weighting that the runner did not return with the team to Iran, which knows that severe sanctions are waiting for it there, has to remove its veil, according to what we see in a video presented by “Al Arabiya.net” below, so it is likely that she stayed in South Korea to manage her affairs, or she left for another country where she may seek asylum.
In a historic move, Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi who represented Iran at the Asian Climbing Competitions finals in Seoul, competed without hijab, disobeying the Islamic Republic’s restrictions for female athletes. pic.twitter.com/KvxE5NoQLi
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) October 16, 2022
Rekabi was another young woman who grabbed the spotlight amid protests in Iran since last September 16 non-stop, by defying the laws related to the veil in public places, and her participation in the finals of climbing competitions without the veil, in rebellion once morest a law issued in 1983 threatening those who do not cover up with the veil with imprisonment and fines.
I decided to take it off
The runner had participated in other competitions in the finals with her hijab, but it seems that she changed her position following being affected by the protests in Iran, so she decided to remove it and appear in public without it last Sunday, as a support for the protesters who continue their protests so far.
Ragabi, according to the English-language Tehran Times in Iran, became in 2021 the first Iranian woman to win a medal at the International Federation for Climbing Sports (IFSC) and a bronze as well. Then, following competing in South Korea, she became one of the first female athletes to publicly break Iran’s strict decency laws.
