January 22, 2020

IRAN: Iran's Sole Female Olympic Medalist Says She's Defected. ESCAPED HER COUNTRY, Islamic Republic of Iran. "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years."

CNN World News
written by Vasco Cotovio, CNN
Sunday January 12, 2020

Iran's sole female Olympic medalist, Kimia Alizadeh, has announced that she's permanently left her country for Europe.

"Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences," the 21-year-old wrote in an Instagram post explaining why she was defecting. "I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years."

Alizadeh became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal after claiming bronze in the 57kg category of Taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Affectionately known in Iran as "The Tsunami," Alizadeh announced she was leaving her birth country amid searing criticism of the regime in Tehran.

"They took me wherever they wanted. I wore whatever they said. Every sentence they ordered me to say, I repeated. Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me," she wrote, adding that credit for her success always went to those in charge.

"I wasn't important to them. None of us mattered to them, we were tools," Alizadeh added, explaining that while the regime celebrated her medals, it criticized the sport she had chosen: "The virtue of a woman is not to stretch her legs!"

Reports of her defection first surfaced Thursday, with some Iranians suggesting she had left for the Netherlands. It was unclear from her post what country Alizadeh had gone to.

On Friday the head of Iran's Taekwondo Federation, Seyed Mohammad Pouladgar, claimed Alizadeh had assured both her father and her coach that she was traveling as part of her vacation, a trip he claimed was paid for by the Iranian government. He dismissed the reports of Alizadeh's defection as politically motivated rumors amplified by the foreign media.

Alizadeh confirmed the rumors Saturday, saying she "didn't want to sit at the table of hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery" and that she did not want to be complicit with the regime's "corruption and lies."

"My troubled spirit does not fit with your dirty economic ties and tight political lobbies. I wish for nothing else than for Taekwondo, safety and for a happy and healthy life, she said adding that she was not invited to go to Europe.

She said the decision was harder than winning Olympic gold. "I remain a daughter of Iran wherever I am," she said.

Her defection came amid anti-government protests in cities across Iran Saturday and international pressure after Iran admitted it had accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner, killing all 176 people aboard.

Canada, Sweden and other countries whose citizens died on the plane have increased demands on Tehran to deliver a complete and transparent investigation against the backdrop of fresh US sanctions on Iran and a dangerous escalation with Washington.

"Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them," said US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus about Alizadeh's defection.

👇 IN OTHER RELATED NEWS 👇
👇 I'm throwing this in just because... 👇
UN Watch
written by Staff
Thursday March 14, 2019

The United Nations announced on March 13 that Iran will get a seat on the U.N. women’s rights committee which judges complaints alleging violations of women’s rights.

The appointment of Iran, a regime that tortures women’s rights defenders, and which arrests women who fail to comply with its misogynystic forced hijab law, was gaveled by Ireland’s Geraldine Byrne Nason, Chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Ireland came under heavy criticism from members of its parliament in 2017 for voting to elect Saudi Arabia to the commission.

According to the UN, as a member of UN Women’s Working Group on Communications, Iran will be expected to judge the following categories of allegations of women’s rights violations from women in countries around the world:
  • Arbitrary arrests of women
  • Deaths and torture of women in custody
  • Forced disappearances or abductions of women
  • Discriminatory application of punishments in law based on sex, including corporal and capital punishment
  • Violation of the rights of women human rights defenders to freedom of expression and assembly
  • Threats or pressure exerted on women not to complain or to withdraw complaints
  • Impunity for violations of the human rights of women
  • Stereotypical attitudes towards the role and responsibilities of women
  • Domestic violence
  • Forced marriage and marital rape
  • Virginity testing
  • Contemporary forms of slavery, including trafficking in women and girls
  • Sexual harassment of women in the workplace
  • Unfair employment practices based on sex, including unequal pay
  • Lack of due diligence by States to adequately investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of violence against women
  • Discrimination against women under immigration and nationality laws
  • Violations of the rights of women to own and inherit property
  • Discrimination against women in accessing international humanitarian aid
  • Forcible evictions of women in conflict situations

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 9:08 PM

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