Mitra Hejazipour, of Iranian origin, 2023 French chess champion, and Marzieh Hamidi, Afghan taekwondo champion, received, this Wednesday, October 11, the medal of honor from the National Assembly from the hands of MP Hadrien Ghomi. This distinction was awarded to them in order to salute their fight for the rights and freedom of Iranian and Afghan women.
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“ You are the ambassadors of an emancipatory sport. You are the voice of all those they try to silence », Says Hadrien Ghomi, Renaissance MP, awarding the distinctions to Mitra Hejazipour and Marzieh Hamidi. Both exiled athletes, one excels at chess and the other at taekwondo. Forced to leave their country, they represent the fight of women who fight for their freedoms, in Iran for Mitra and in Afghanistan for Marzieh.
“ By presenting you with its medal of honor, the National Assembly salutes your fight for women’s freedom, which you have linked since the first day to that for the development of the sporting practice of women and young girls. », Declares Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports, during the medal ceremony.
Role models for oppressed women
French chess champion 2023, Mitra Hejazipour was born in Iran in 1993, almost fifteen years after the Islamic revolution. She never knew that this liberticidal regime “, she says. Mitra ended up challenging the Islamic Republic of the mullahs in 2019, during the world blitz chess championship in Moscow, where the player refused to wear the veil. “ This is the Achilles heel of the regime. » Banned from the Iranian national team, Mitra went into exile in Brest and joined the city’s chess club. In August 2023, under the colors of the French team and five months after her naturalization, she became the new French women’s chess champion.
Marzieh Hamidi is an Afghan taekwondo champion, she had to flee her country in August 2021, which had fallen back under the yoke of the Taliban, to settle in France. “ I am an athlete, a refugee and a proud Afghan, coming from a culture where women are now rebels ”, she says with a smile. At only 21 years old, Marzieh now trains on the tatami at Insep, the temple of high-level French sport. Expected to be included in the refugee team, established in 2016 by the International Olympic Committee, she dreams of competing in her first Olympic Games in a few months.
Read alsoOlympic Games-2024: Marzieh Hamidi, the refugee who dreams of playing “house”
A medal of support
For the two champions, it is a source of pride to be honored by the National Assembly and to represent the many women who are still crushed by the Afghan and Iranian regimes. “ This medal shows support for the movement “Woman, life, freedom” and all the women who fight for their rights », rejoices Mitra Hejazipour. “ This medal is a symbol of freedom and combat. She’s not for me, she’s for all the women in Afghanistan », continues Marzieh Hamidi.
These two women are medalists under the leadership of Hadrien Ghomi, Renaissance deputy, who in November 2022 brought a resolution in support of the Iranian people, adopted unanimously by the National Assembly. “ It was very important for me to honor Iranian and Afghan women who have been subjected to gender apartheid for several years. “, he insists. Currently, the revolt movement is still bloodily repressed by the Iranian regime, while the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan erases women from society.