Iranian competitive climber Elnaz Rekabi received a jubilant welcome on her return to Tehran early Wednesday, after competing in South Korea without wearing a headscarf required of female athletes from the Islamic Republic.
Video shared online showed large crowds gathered early on Wednesday at Imam Khomeini international airport outside Tehran. The videos showed crowds chanting the 33-year-old Rekabi’s name and calling her a hero.
Rekabi’s decision not to wear the hijab while competing Sunday comes as protests sparked by the 16 September death in custody of a 22-year-old woman entered a fifth week. Mahsa Amini was detained by the country’s morality police over her clothing and her death has seen women removing their mandatory hijabs in public.
The demonstrations represent the most-serious challenge to Iran’s theocracy since the mass protests surrounding its disputed 2009 presidential election.
Friends and supporters raised concerns over Rekabi’s safety after she competed without the hijab.
An Instagram post on an account attributed to Rekabi described her not wearing a hijab as “unintentional”, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether she wrote the post or what condition she was in at the time. The Iranian government routinely pressures activists at home and abroad, often airing what rights groups describe as coerced confessions on state television.
On Wednesday morning, Rekabi walked into one of the airport’s terminals, filmed by state television cameras and wearing a black baseball cap and a black hoodie covering her hair. She received flowers from an onlooker, and then repeated what had been posted on Instagram, that not wearing the hijab was “unintentional” and her travel had been as previously planned.
Rekabi described being in a women’s only waiting area prior to her climb. “Because I was busy putting on my shoes and my gear, it caused me to forget to put on my hijab and then I went to compete,” she said.
She added: “I came back to Iran with peace of mind although I had a lot of tension and stress. But so far, thank God, nothing has happened.”
Outside, she apparently entered a van and was driven through the gathered crowd, who cheered her. It wasn’t clear where she went after that.
Rekabi left Seoul on Tuesday morning. The BBC’s Persian service quoted an unnamed “informed source” who said Iranian officials seized both Rekabi’s mobile phone and passport.
BBC Persian also said she initially had been scheduled to return on Wednesday, but her flight apparently had been moved up unexpectedly.
In a tweet, the Iranian embassy in Seoul denied “all the fake, false news and disinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure. Instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul competition, it posted an image of her wearing a headscarf at a previous competition in Moscow, where she took a bronze medal.
Iranian women competing abroad under the Iranian flag always wear the hijab.
“Our understanding is that she is returning to Iran, and we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops on her arrival,” the International Federation of Sport Climbing, which oversaw the event, said in a statement.
The federation said it had been in touch with both Rekabi and Iranian officials, but declined to elaborate when reached by the Associated Press. The federation also declined to discuss the Instagram post attributed to Rekabi and the claims in it.
Human rights groups estimate that more than 200 people have been killed in the recent protests and the violent crackdown that followed. Iran has not published a death toll in weeks. Demonstrations have been seen in over 100 cities, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Thousands are believed to have been arrested.
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