For Iranian parachuting enthusiast Bahareh Sassani, skydiving is “a way to prove that women are just as capable as men” — a small step from a big height for women’s equality in her country.
The 35-year-old accountant has been skydiving less than two years, but already has more than 220 jumps under her belt.
“I encourage all women to try this experience. It gives you the feeling you can do whatever you want. Women should not be excluded from anything,” she said.
Photo: AFP
Sassani — one of just a handful of female skydivers in her deeply conservative homeland — refuses to describe herself as a “feminist.”
However, her motto is firmly “there is no difference between men and women and a woman can do anything she wants and succeed.”
That still runs against the grain of Iranian society, where women have had a lower legal status than men since the Islamic revolution of 1979, even if they have battled to stay equal in daily life.
Her favorite pastime is still very much the preserve of men in Iran — made more complicated by the fact there is no parachuting club so she must do it with the army.
“When they organize jumps, the army invites everyone, including civilians,” she said.
There were a handful of women parachutists in pre-revolutionary Iran: Archived images published recently by the Iranian Students News Agency showed the first four female army skydivers from 1965. However, today, women are not permitted to join the army.
The police has an elite unit that does some parachuting practice, but Sassani says she knows only five other qualified women from the civilian population.
Unlike her friends who chose to buy a car, clothes or jewelry with their first pay checks or savings, Sassani said she opted instead to invest in parachuting, despite the adventurous sport being a male bastion in Iran.
At the start, her motivation for taking up skydiving was to combat a fear of heights, she said.
But now, she loves the sense of liberation from everyday cares that it gives her, she added.
Male reactions can be rather extreme though, she says.
“Men often avoid women like me, thinking we aren’t made for marriage because we are uncontrollable,” she said, bursting into laughter. “But a small number do show an interest in what I’m doing.”
It can also generate interest abroad, said Sassani, who has jumped in Russia, Kenya, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
“Even abroad, when I skydive, people are surprised. They think there are a lot of restrictions in Iran, but I explain to them that there are women doing motocross, flying planes and, yes, parachuting,” she said.
A recent photograph did the rounds in the Iranian media, showing Sassani jumping with an Iranian flag.
“I meet lots of cultures and beliefs abroad, but I’m a patriot and I love doing jumps in Iran more than anything,” she added.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other