Iran’s trailblazing female boxer dominated her match. Now she fears arrest if she returns home.
Iran’s trailblazing female boxer dominated her match. Now she fears arrest if she returns home.
Seconds into the third round of what some consider an Iranian woman’s first official boxing match, Sadaf Khadem had her opponent, Anne Chauvin of France, timed up. She landed a flurry of right hooks, knocking Chauvin’s head guard off kilter.
At the closing bell, the ringside crowd in Royan, in western France, rose to give Khadem a standing ovation. Chauvin — defeated, but no worse for the wear after three rounds — gave Khadem a hug in the middle of the ring, grabbed her wrist and raised her hand in the air.
And when the announcer on Saturday night read the judges’ scorecards aloud and declared her the official winner, Khadem cried.
But Khadem and her trainer, dual French and Iranian national Mahyar Monshipour, won’t return to a champion’s welcome in Tehran. They reportedly canceled their return trip on Tuesday, fearing persecution in the Islamic Republic for fighting outside the country’s strict religious doctrine, although an Iranian official denied that Khadem faced arrest.
“I was fighting in a legally approved match, in France. But as I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, which is completely normal in the eyes of the entire world, I confounded the rules of my country,” she told L’Equipe newspaper.
“I wasn’t wearing a hijab, I was coached by a man — some people take a dim view of this.”
Khadem, 24, wore a green tank top with “IRAN” printed across the chest with orange trunks with a white waistband, the colors of Iran’s flag. She did not wear a head covering — which is required in Iran of women and children older than 9 years-old — beneath her blue head guard.
Khadem told the paper she was in a taxi on the way to the airport when she was tipped off that prosecutors had issued warrants for her and Monshipour’s arrest. She’s declined to say how she knew they’d be in detained upon landing.
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Read More: The Washington Post
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