Mitra Hejazipour, gifted at chess, took refuge in France after spectacularly opposing the Iranian regime. A difficult period of adaptation followed, far from his family. She has finally been naturalized French and is once again setting out to conquer her place at the top of the chess championships. From April 18, she will compete for the European Championship in Rhodes (Greece).
I wouldn’t have gotten here if…
…If I hadn’t decided to take off my veil during the World Blitz Chess Championship (very fast games) in Moscow, December 25, 2019. I was representing the Iranian national team. This act, which went around the world on social networks and in the media, changed my life. I was excluded from my team on January 2, 2020 and I understood that I could no longer return to my country.
However, it was a long-thought-out decision…
I’ve been thinking about doing something for years. Since the age of 9, thanks to chess, I have traveled abroad a lot and I could see that things did not happen the same way as at home. I went to around thirty countries, it wasn’t to visit, just to play. However, I was able to observe very early on cultural differences and the freedoms that others enjoyed by watching how women dressed and walked in the street.
Read also (2021): Article reserved for our subscribers For Iranian champion Mitra Hejazipour, freedom at the end of the board
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Politically, the older I got, the more certain things shocked me. As soon as opposition emerged in Iran, it was immediately suppressed, opponents were arrested or killed. Thousands of people were executed, I knew from discussions with friends who had lost family members or who had disappeared after opposing the regime. I also had information through social networks, despite censorship.
What triggered your rebellion?
My great source of inspiration was this woman who, in December 2017, took off her veil, climbed onto an electrical box in the middle of Tehran and had herself photographed bareheaded with her veil on the end of a pole that she brandished in protest. This gesture was repeated by others and this protest caused a wave of arrests.
Read also (2018): In Iran, around thirty women arrested for removing their veils in public
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I started to think about doing something to make an impact and draw attention to the condition of women in my country. At that time, we no longer talked about the Iranian women’s movement, which nevertheless started during the revolution in 1979, with long periods of pause. The pressure from the regime was so strong that speech was muzzled. The World Chess Championships attract a lot of media, it seemed like the ideal time.
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2024-03-24 04:00:15
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