MOSCOW, Oct 17Rock climber Elnaz Rekabi of Iran faces jail time for performing at international competitions without a hijab, reports The National. On Sunday, Rekabi competed at the Asian Climbing Championships in Seoul, finishing fourth in the all-around. Before the ascent, the 33-year-old athlete gathered her hair in a ponytail. According to Iran's penal code, women who do not wear a hijab in public face jail time and fines. Rekabi became the second Iranian athlete to compete in public competitions without a hijab. Before that, Sadaf Khadem did this in 2019 at a boxing tournament. In Iran, women can play professional sports provided that they are coached by a woman and they compete in a hijab. On September 13, a young woman, Mahsa Amini, was detained in Tehran by the vice police and sent to one of the Faraj centers belonging to the police department and military intelligence for an explanatory conversation. In this center, the girl had a heart attack, after which she was immediately taken to the hospital. Three days later, on September 16, she died. Residents blamed the vice police for Mahsa's death. People in different cities of the country began to gather on the streets to protest. Videos were posted on social networks showing girls cutting off their hair and burning a «hijab» or a «rusari» headscarf (which must necessarily cover the head of an Iranian woman). As a result, protests and riots continuously took place in a number of large cities of Iran for several weeks. According to the latest reports, four members of the Basij militia were killed during them, and another 180 were stabbed. According to unofficial local media reports, 41 people were killed and about 100 people were injured. Videos of police being brutally treated and beaten by protesters were posted on social media. In addition, people staged robberies and pogroms on the streets of cities, causing damage to public and state infrastructure. So, for example, in the first days of the protests, more than 60 ambulances were smashed. In response, the Iranian authorities held large-scale demonstrations in support of the state system and the country's regime.
