Iranian authorities demolish home climber who competed without a hijab

Rekabi, 33 years-old, broke Iran's strict dress code by competing without a headscarf in South Korea. She later apologized in a TV state interview saying that she “forgot” her hijab.

According to BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, Rekabi was censured and forced into that apology by the Iranian regime.

In the picture, Rekabi in 2016.

Rekabi said in the state interview that she was “suddenly and unexpectedly called on to compete” while in the women's locker room. "I was busy wearing my shoes and fixing my equipment and forgot to wear my hijab, which I should have worn”, she said.

Photo: Youtube/SBS News

BBC Persian's Rana Rahimpour said that to many people, the language used looked as though it had been written under threats.

Photo: Youtube/France 24

Other Iranian sportswomen who have competed abroad without wearing a hijab in the past said they were pressured by Iranian authorities to issue similar apologies and some of them decided not to go back to Iran, according to Rahimpour.

Photo: Youtube/France 24

British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi told BBC World News: "When I saw the interview on state TV with Elnaz Rekabi, all I could think of was the hundreds and hundreds of false confessions that we are accustomed to seeing out of Iran”.

Boniadi added that Iranian authorities use forced confessions to disprove any dissident voices.

BBC Persian reported that a very reliable source told them that Rekabi's family and friends had lost contact with her after she said she was with an Iranian official.

Photo: Youtube/SBS News

There were also reports that her passport and mobile phone had been confiscated and that she had left her hotel in Seoul two days early.

Photo: Ashland Forouzani/Unsplash

The Iranian embassy in Seoul  strongly denied what it called "all fake news, lies and false information" about her and said Rekabi had left Seoul after the Asian Championship ended.

Hadi Ghaemi of the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said Rekabi "risked her freedom and safety and has since been under extreme pressure by the government to cover up her courageous act of civil disobedience".

"It is now the responsibility of all people who support women's and human rights to stand with her and not let the government in Iran cover up the true story," Ghaemi added.