Sport

Iran-HRM – In stark contrast to developed countries where athletes are honored, their situation in Iran is way below the minimum international standards. The Iranian regime ruling Iran mistreats, arrests, and executes Iranian athletes. In the regime’s dark record of human rights violations, there are numerous cases of executing athletes and national champions. No regime in human history has committed …

Iranwire -In the last two weeks, the Iranian Football Federation has sent a handful of female journalists to Azadi Stadium in Tehran to cover Pro League matches. In no other city in Iran are women journalists or photographers allowed to attend. Simultaneously, Tabnak reports that in the coming days, the Federation will launch a special ticket sales system just for women. These …

Iranwire – This week it emerged that in her first week at the Ministry of Sports and Youth, senior official Maryam Kazemipour has blocked women’s participation in “bodybuilding-related activities”. Previously the decision was attributed to Mohammad Tabatabaei, director-general of sports for Isfahan province, but a newly-published document showed otherwise. The directive from Kazemipour ordered the activities of all Iranian women …

Iran-HRM – Iran’s football federation threw its weight behind former national team captain Mehdi Mahdavikia Wednesday after he faced criticism for wearing a jersey bearing an Israeli flag during a friendly game. “He is one of the greats of Iranian football” and “a symbol of pride for the Islamic Republic of Iran”, secretary-general Hassan Kamranifar said in a statement on …

VOA – Shaghayegh Bapiri, an Iranian handball player who defected to Spain this week, told VOA Persian on Thursday that she saw no future for women handballers in Iran if conditions for players do not change. Bapiri, 30, has been a constant fixture on the Iranian women’s national handball team and at the Iranian government funded Sepahan Club since 2015 …

Iranwire – This week, two separate, telling statements were issued by the Iranian judiciary and an MP within 48 hours of each other. First, the Islamic Republic has imprisoned a female journalist named Mahtab Gholizadeh for “inciting corruption by trying to enter the [football] stadium”, “conspiracy against national security” and “propaganda against the regime”. Second, in an interview with the IRGC-aligned Tasnim …

Iranwire – “FIFA insists the match between the Iranian national football team and Iraq at Azadi Stadium, which could become a celebration of [Iran] reaching the World Cup, be attended by both men and women.” So writes the Iranian state-controlled ISNA news agency of a forthcoming 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifying match set to be hosted by Iran on January …

Shabtabnews – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today applauded President Joseph R. Biden for implementing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics given the Chinese government’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses. USCIRF has publicly expressed concerns over the Beijing Olympics in its 2020 and 2021 Annual Reports and recommended that the United …

Iranwire – The ever-resourceful Football Federation of Iran has unveiled its latest wheeze to block women from joining men inside the country’s football stadiums: stop online ticket sales, form a wall of ticket counters in front of the stadium doors, and finally imply to FIFA that it’s the women themselves that don’t want to attend matches. This scenario was launched …

Iranwire – What the now 18-year-old chess genius Alireza Firouzja has created could have been under the Iranian flag. His accolades and achievements could have been in the name of Iranian sports. His departure from Iran made headlines around the world, and he’s still admired and followed by many in the country. In December 2019, the Iranian Ministry of Sports …