Hijab Row: Elnaz Rekabi had sensationally disappeared from Seoul after competing at the Asian Championship, landed back home today. Accorded rousing reception.
“Elnaz is a hero,” chanted hundreds of supporters who gathered outside the Imam Khomeini International Airport terminal, while clapping their hands vociferously.
Rekabi had caused a stir as she competed without wearing Hijab.
Her actions could another fire-ball in the frying pan.
Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian climber, whose sensational act of competing without Hijab (Islamic-scarf) is ought to ruffle the already determined administration, who have initiated stringent actions to suppress the five weeks long nationwide agitation. At the same time she was given a rousing welcome by her supporters on her arrival at Khomeini International Airport, Tehran.
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With Iran still shaken by women-led protests over the death of Mahsa Amini one month ago, Elnaz Rekabi drew enough courage to come back to Tehran airport after the competition in South Korea.
But, as a safety measure Elnaz, in an Instagram post and comments at the airport, has apologised over what happened and insisted her hijab – which all Iranian women including athletes must wear – had accidentally slipped off.
Activists fear her comments have been made under pressure from the Iranian authorities who must have been infuriated by her actions.
She further stated “I apologise to the people of Iran because of the tensions created,” she said, adding she had “no plan to say goodbye to the national team.”
But the Islamic republic has been repeatedly accused by activists of coercing people into making statements of penitence on television or social media.
The British actress of Iranian origin Nazanin Boniadi, who is an ambassador for Amnesty International in the UK, tweeted that it was clear Rekabi had been “being forced to make this statement by authorities that constantly use forced and televised confessions”
Unconfirmed reports had already suggested she had been pressured by Iranian officials in South Korea.
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