One of India’s top women chess players has pulled out of an upcoming championship in Iran in protest of having to wear a hijab.
Soumya Swaminathan, a former world junior girl’s champion, said the dress code at the Asian Nations Chess Cup starting next month violated her rights.
“I find the Iranian law of a compulsory headscarf to be in direct violation of my basic human rights, including my right to freedom of expression, and right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” the grandmaster said.
“It seems that under the present circumstances, the only way for me to protect my rights is not to go to Iran,” the 29-year-old wrote on Facebook.
In 2016, US chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes boycotted the world championship in Tehran after also refusing to wear the hijab.
The Iranian Chess Federation last year banned Dorsa Derakhshani for attending competitions abroad without wearing the headscarf.
She now plays for the US.
Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran has required women to wear a headscarf in public places.
Under Iranian law, women can only show their face, hands and feet in public and are supposed to wear only modest colors.
Over the years, women have pushed back the boundaries of the law, with many, particularly in the capital, wearing loose, brightly colored headscarves far back on their heads.
However, they still risk fines and even lashings from “morality police” if they go too far.
Swaminathan criticized chess officials for allotting events to countries without taking players’ rights into account.
“I understand the organizers expecting us to wear our national team dress or formals ... for our games during official championships, but surely there is no place for an enforceable religious dress code in sports,” she said.
Swaminathan is ranked No. 97 among active women players in the world and No. 4 in India, according to the World Chess Federation.
The Asian Nations Chess Cup takes place in Hamadan from July 27 to August 4.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB