“Elnas Rekabi is definitely a folk heroine. While other national athletes attracted negative attention because of her silence, she impressively demonstrated her protest against the dictatorial mullah regime with her courage,” Parisa Farshidi told DW. She thinks that the sport climber was rightly greeted with applause at the airport after her performance without a headscarf at the Asian Championships in Seoul. “This act by Elnas Rekabi is without a doubt a major breach of taboo within the dictatorial Islamic regime.”
While Farshidi comes from a different sport than Rekabi, she also understands the pressure on athletes representing Iran in international competitions abroad. The taekwondo fighter won the silver medal for her home country at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. However, according to the regime’s moral watchdogs, she was too revealing at celebrations afterwards.
“I was arrested by the vice squad and summoned for interrogation for wearing sunglasses and painting my fingernails,” Farshidi said. “I had to report to the Iranian Taekwondo Federation for this and was also kicked out of the national team.” In 2019, Farshidi left her homeland. She applied for asylum in Germany and has been living and training in Berlin ever since. Here she leads a free life that is not possible for young women in Iran.
“I could have been instead of Mahsa Amini”
Today it terrifies her when she thinks about what happened to Mahsa Amini. The young woman was arrested by the moral police on the street because of a crooked headscarf. Her still unexplained death in police custody was the trigger for the violent protests that have dominated Iran for weeks – and which have since been violently suppressed by the mullahs’ regime. “I could have been instead of Mahsa Armini myself,” says Farshidi. “I experienced the same as them when I went to university or training in Iran. The vice squad harassed me in a similar way.”
Since Amini’s death and the start of the protests, Farshidi has hardly found peace in Germany. She follows the events with great concern. “The last time I was able to speak to my sister, she told me that my family is also taking to the streets, protesting and fighting for freedom,” Farshidi told DW. “My niece was abused by the police, her hands were beaten until bloody.”
Farshidi is also worried about Elna’s Rekabi. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed hours after their arrival in Tehran on Wednesday that Iran’s sports leadership had guaranteed Rekabi’s safety, fears remain. After landing back home, the athlete made a public statement regretting what had happened in Seoul. She didn’t wear a headscarf due to an “unintentional oversight”.
“This forced confession was made with absolute certainty under enormous pressure from the Iranian leadership,” Farshidi told DW. “Her external contact with acquaintances and with the media has been scrutinized by the regime. It is absolutely realistic that her courageous act could ultimately lead to her being imprisoned and also suspended from sports activities.”
Sardar Azmoun: “You are the liars!”
Farshidi is not the only prominent voice from the sporting world to speak out in no uncertain terms against the regime. One of the loudest is former national soccer player Ali Karimi. The former player from Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 does not mince his words and criticizes the Iranian leadership in harsh and clear words. He condemned Amini’s death and wrote that not even holy water could “wash away this shame”. Karimi currently lives in Dubai, in Iran itself he would be in great danger of being arrested and punished for his outspoken opinions.
In addition to Karimi, there are other prominent footballers – current and former – raising their voices. Former international Hossein Mahini was arrested for supporting the protests following Amini’s death. He was only released on bail a few days later. “Ashamed of you all, how carelessly people are murdered. Iranian women live long,” Sardar Azmoun, Iranian international in the service of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, wrote after Amini’s death in a post that has since been deleted. Record national player Ali Daei also supported the protests of Iranian women on social media. The Iranian authorities temporarily confiscated the passport of the former Bundesliga player, who played for FC Bayern, Arminia Bielefeld and Hertha BSC in Germany.
“You are the liars!” Leverkusen’s attacker Sardar Azmoun attacks the regime with sharp words
Bayer professional Azmoun then followed up on social networks: “Even if Ali Daei dies too, you can’t discredit him and break him!” Wrote the striker. “The DNA of this idol is like the DNA of the people. May his shadow always hover over us! You are the liars here!”
“Freedom at Last”
“The Internet has been massively restricted by the Mullah regime. That’s why the social media play a very important role in the current freedom movement of the people in Iran,” says Parisa Farshidi, who – even though she is in Germany and therefore far away – don’t just want to be a spectator.
“The only thing in my power is that I take part when demonstrations against the Iranian regime form in Germany. And that I reproduce and multiply this on social networks. Everyone should see what incredible events are currently happening play in Iran,” says Farshidi. “My heartfelt wish is that my fellow citizens will win this blatant confrontation with the mullah regime in Iran. And that my country will finally experience freedom again.”