The Women's World Chess Championship wrapped up this past Friday in Vladivostok, with champion Ju Wenjun successfully defending the title against challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina. But there was a lingering controversy as the tournament's chief adjudicator Shohreh Bayat of Iran told media covering the event that she feared arrest or imprisonment upon her return home.
At one point during the tournament, Bayat was photographed not wearing a hijab. This photograph was circulated in Iran and gave rise to public outrage. The hijab is compulsory for women in Iran, and the country claims a right to compel this requirement of Iranian women traveling outside the country as well, with some sports teams and delegations often including a minder whose job it is to enforce the hijab rule on female athletes and delegates. Claims arose that Bayat had refused to wear the hijab as a protest against the rule (as some feminist rights groups in Iran have occasionally done) which she insists was not the case initially; although after learning of the public outcry and expressing her fears to the press, she decided not to wear one for the remainder of the tournament because she personally doesn't care for the scarf and feels she's already doomed to suffer consequences anyway.
Bayat has expressed that she fears either being jailed or her passport being permanently confiscated when she arrives back in Iran, although she did not at the time she made these statements to the press indicate that she had any sort of plan on how to respond. She spoke to the press while the tournament was still underway; now that the championship has ended, the time has obviously come when Bayat would have had to make a decision about returning to Iran or pursuing some alternative such as seeking safe harbor elsewhere, as Iran's sole female Olympic medalist did earlier this month. I have been searching for news of her decision, but have not seen anything being reported yet.
At one point during the tournament, Bayat was photographed not wearing a hijab. This photograph was circulated in Iran and gave rise to public outrage. The hijab is compulsory for women in Iran, and the country claims a right to compel this requirement of Iranian women traveling outside the country as well, with some sports teams and delegations often including a minder whose job it is to enforce the hijab rule on female athletes and delegates. Claims arose that Bayat had refused to wear the hijab as a protest against the rule (as some feminist rights groups in Iran have occasionally done) which she insists was not the case initially; although after learning of the public outcry and expressing her fears to the press, she decided not to wear one for the remainder of the tournament because she personally doesn't care for the scarf and feels she's already doomed to suffer consequences anyway.
Bayat has expressed that she fears either being jailed or her passport being permanently confiscated when she arrives back in Iran, although she did not at the time she made these statements to the press indicate that she had any sort of plan on how to respond. She spoke to the press while the tournament was still underway; now that the championship has ended, the time has obviously come when Bayat would have had to make a decision about returning to Iran or pursuing some alternative such as seeking safe harbor elsewhere, as Iran's sole female Olympic medalist did earlier this month. I have been searching for news of her decision, but have not seen anything being reported yet.
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