- Par Chris Bockman
- BBC News, Royan, France
Born in Iran, Sadaf Khadem says her life and home are now in France.
Sadaf Khadem trains at his boxing club in Royan, on the southwest coast of France, three nights a week. This boxer of Iranian origin hopes one day to turn professional.
Several posters of the 28-year-old in boxing gear are pinned to the walls of the club.
But Sadaf has paid a heavy personal price for her passion: she has lived in exile here, in France, for three years.
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She was introduced to this sport in Tehran, practicing shadow-boxing in parks or discreetly in boxing rings, women not being allowed to box in Iran.
Desperate to progress in the sport and thanks to contacts in the Iranian diaspora in France, a fight was set up in the coastal town of Royan in 2019.
Local boxing club president Franck Weus, a former boxer and local community leader, took up the challenge. About 40% of the boxers at his club are women and he even raised the funds to fly Sadaf in for the fight, which drew 1,500 spectators.
Franck Weus, president of the Royan boxing club where Sadaf trains, has gathered the necessary funds to pay for his flight to France.
“I immediately accepted this job because there is boxing and sport of course, but also the human factor to take into account,” he told me. “An Iranian woman who wants to box but is not allowed to at home. We all know the obstacles they face and especially now with hundreds of deaths just because they want to take their veil off.”
He refers to mass protests that have erupted in Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September.
She died in custody after being arrested by the vice squad, allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
His death sparked protests across the country, which left hundreds dead, mostly among young protesters, and dozens killed among members of the security services, according to human rights groups.
Thousands of protesters have been arrested, although Iran’s supreme leader has indicated that many could be pardoned.
Four men accused by the Iranian authorities of participating in a violent uprising have been executed in very quick trials.
Sadaf Khadem won her fight and when she returned to the airport to go home, she learned that she risked being arrested on arrival for boxing and playing sports without wearing the veil or hijab . So she turned around and has stayed in France ever since.
“I know the situation in Iran and, unfortunately, I am not with the Iranian people, but my life and my home are now in France,” she said. “I say we don’t have accidents in life. I paid to be Sadaf Khadem, Iran’s first female boxer. So I’m not saying why me? All the things that happened to me, I’m not saying why me ? “.
Sadaf has been invited to a reception by her local agent, who hopes to get her a French passport.
Sadaf’s plight struck a chord in this region of southwestern France. She has been invited to a reception by her local MP, Christophe Plassard, who is trying to pull the strings to get her a French passport.
“She would like to have French nationality, but she doesn’t meet all the conditions because she hasn’t been there for five years,” he told me: “But I’m trying because she deserved it and her fight is extraordinary”.
At the reception, Sadaf wore clothes that could well have gotten him in trouble in Tehran. Something she often emphasizes in the photos she posts on her social media accounts for her supporters back in Iran.
“Every day, on my Instagram or in my emails, I get too many messages: ‘In Sadaf, when I see the ways in your life, we are motivated to continue for our lives.’ For me, it’s a pleasure, an honor for me. I’m very happy to be a good motivation for a lot of people too.”
When she’s not boxing, Sadaf is earning a degree in marketing and gaining work experience.
Touched by her story, Corrine Huet volunteered to be her coach and business advisor at a training school in Royan. “I’m a mother of five and as a teacher I couldn’t ignore his cry for help,” she says. “She deserves it – she’s a fighter.”
Corrine Huet has volunteered to be Sadaf Khadem’s coach and business advisor.
Since the start of his voluntary exile three years ago, Sadaf has met his father and sisters once a year in Turkey or Dubai. Due to her exile, she was unable to be with her mother when she died with Covid in Iran.
She hesitates to give advice to those who, at her age, fight for freedom in their country, because of the risks they run. “I found in France the courage that I never had in Iran. What is important is that I found humanity here. Unfortunately, because of this government in Iran, people there have lost their human rights.”
She does not know if she still risks being arrested if she tries to return home. A spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Paris told me he had nothing to say about it.