An Iranian chess player has become a powerful symbol and reminder of just what Iran looses in its continued oppression and war against women and girls.
The country’s top female chess player, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (better known as Sara Khadem), will not be returning to Iran after competing in two world championships last week, without wearing a head scarf. Instead, she arrived with her husband and baby in southern Spain this week.
The defection means Iran now has no women chess players at the international level.
An international master and ranked 17th in the world, Khadem left her head uncovered last week, seemingly in solidarity with those who’ve demonstrated for months in the country, following the murder of Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of the country’s morality police.
She had been competing in the world rapid and blitz championships in Kazakhstan in late December, where she finished 31st in the rapid competition and 19th in blitz.
The Iranian government requires women to wear a hijab not only in public at home, but also when traveling abroad.
While Khadem has not yet commented to media about her decision to return home, the family recently purchased a house in Southern Spain, so it’s believed they anticipated the risk of Iranian authorities coming down hard on them. Khadem’s husband is also a documentary filmmaker who has previously been imprisoned for the content he’s created.
Khadem has posted a photo of her competing in the tournament on Instagram, and used the same image as her user profile photo.
The translation of the caption Khadem has published with her photo says that she had returned to world chess after an 18-month break due to pregnancy and the birth of her son. The caption says that “our immigration issue is a family decision, not a political one” and that “Iran is our first home”. But Khadem notes that “In the end, I will not answer to the federation and the ministry of sports.”
Khadem was the only Iranian woman competing in these tournaments but is not the first to reject the order to wear a hijab while playing internationally. Iran has lost female chess players in the past, including Dorsa Derakhashani who moved to the United States after being banned from competing in tournaments by the Iranian Chess Federation for not wearing a headscarf in 2017. Other players to have left Iran include Mitra Hejazipour, who was banned from the Federation for not wearing a head scarf while competing in Moscow in 2020 and later moved permanently to France. Iran also lost Atousa Pourkashiyan to the United States and Ghazal Hakimifard, who moved to Switzerland.
When Hejazipour was banned from competing by Iran after playing for the national team for 12 years, she voiced her objections to the hijab, describing it as a “limitation, not protection, as official regime propaganda claims.”
A number of female athletes have returned to Iran after not wearing a headscarf while competing overseas – including Elnaz Rekabi, who in October, apologised for not wearing a hijab while competing in a climbing competition in South Korea and saying that it had accidentally fallen off.
Meanwhile, the men’s Iranian football team refused to sing the national anthem, in solidarity with the protesters, before their first game at the FIFA World Cup.