Background: The protests in Iran
The biggest wave of protests to shake Iran in many years started with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini.
Amini, a Kurdish woman from northwest Iran, was arrested by morality police in Tehran on September 13 for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.
Amini was taken to hospital after passing out and suffering what police say was a heart attack. This is disputed by the 22-year-old’s family, who claim that she was subjected to severe violence to the head. On September 16, Amini died in hospital after being in a coma.
At Amini’s funeral in his hometown, spontaneous protests erupted, which then developed into a demonstration where women took off their headscarves and chanted anti-regime slogans. The protests quickly spread across the country and have since come to be about much more than just the obligatory veil.
On many occasions, the demonstrations have been put down with brutal violence from the regime’s security forces.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have been arrested. Even more of those arrested risk being sentenced to death for their participation in the protests.
She is one of Iran’s top chess players, with several heavy championship titles to her credit. But when Sara Khadem’s name is now spread around the world, it is not about her strategic skills at the board, but about what has been interpreted as a wordless protest against the rule of her home country.
During the recently concluded World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championship, which was decided in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 25-year-old Khadem played all the matches without the hijab that Iran’s theocratic regime requires to be worn.
Iran has been shaken since September by massive democracy protests with feminist overtones. The igniting spark was the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini in the custody of the morality police. The young Kurdish woman, visiting the capital Tehran, had been arrested on charges of not wearing her headscarf properly.
Tributes and concerns
Alongside praise for her courage, concerns have been raised about what might happen to Sara Khadem upon her return to Iran. Athletes and cultural figures who have expressed support for the protest movement have previously been arrested by the regime.
When Iran’s national football team did not sing along to the national anthem during the World Cup in Qatar, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened, according to reports in international media, to subject the players’ relatives to torture.
Secret place in Spain
Now it is clear that Sara Khadem does not plan to travel back to her home country.
“She is well aware that her safety is at risk if she returns to Iran,” writes the Spanish daily El País citing sources close to Khadem.
Together with her husband and the couple’s infant, she will instead settle in a secret location in Spain.
According to the sources, it is unlikely that Sara Khadem will ever represent Iran in international chess contexts again: “But you never know.”