A collective, including former world boxing champion Mahyar Monshipour and Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, wrote to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to demand the exclusion of Iran from the Paris Olympics for violation of the principle of non-discrimination in sport. Frédéric Thiriez, member of the collective and lawyer, explains the motivations of their fight to RFI.
Published on: 09/13/2023 – 6:16 p.m.
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RFI: Maître Thiriez, can you explain to us what your action is about, which aims to exclude Iran from the Olympics for discrimination?
Frédéric Thiriez : We are less than a year away from the Paris Olympic Games and we have chosen this moment to call on all men and women of good will to support Iranian women. They are the object of violence and discrimination in their daily lives, but also in sport which is our terrain. What we want – when I say “we”, it is Master Shirine Ebadi, Nobel Peace PrizeMahyar Monshipour, six-time world boxing champion, and myself – is to get the International Olympic Committee to suspend the Iranian Olympic Committee and exclude it from the Paris 2024 Games, until this discrimination must be put an end to.
What kinds of discrimination in sport are you talking about?
For example: women in Iran are not allowed to appear in stadiums. There are sports disciplines that are prohibited for them, such as swimming, boxing, wrestling, gymnastics and beach volleyball. They must also, in all cases, wear the “Islamically” correct clothing, covered from head to toe. This is completely contrary to the text of the Olympic charter which prohibits any discrimination based on race, skin color, sex, opinions, etc. There is a precedent, it is apartheid in South Africa, since the IOC had banned the Olympic Games from South Africa. This lasted more than twenty years. We consider that the discrimination against women in Iran amounts to a form of apartheid, it must end, we must fight.
One of your first actions was to send a letter to the International Olympic Committee. What was his reaction?
The response we received at the end of August to our letter was a polite response, I would say a response of expectation, but which showed little determination. We specifically wanted the IOC President to include the proposal to suspend the Iranian committee on the agenda of the executive committee, which is responsible for taking sanctions. Or failing that, we even proposed a slightly gentler solution, which is that Iran be excluded only from the five disciplines which are prohibited for women there: swimming, boxing, wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball. -beach ball. We will have to continue the fight and we do not exclude, through legal means, taking the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. We are launching a petition, because public opinion needs to change, people, men and women, even simply in France, need to wake up and demonstrate that the fate of women is not tolerable. in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Your actions somewhat coincide with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. It’s also symbolic…
This is why we scheduled this meeting with the press for September 13, which is the day of Mahsa Amini’s arrest. Unfortunately, she died a few days later, on September 16. We consider it an assassination. The women and men of France and other European countries must wake up.
Mahyar Monshipour presented you as a humanist. Is this a humanist commitment on your part, or do you have a particular link with Iran?
I have no particular connection with Iran, except an immense admiration for this civilization. My dream is to go there. Above all, I have been fighting for women’s rights for a long time. I am a sort of traveling companion of the Women’s Rights League and I also lead a fight for secularism. This is what led me in particular to commit myself against the wearing of hijab in football and all kinds of fights of that nature. And these are personal battles that I fight, not as a lawyer, but on a personal and, of course, voluntary basis.
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