A group of Iranian dissidents, including a former world boxing champion and a Nobel laureate, has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to exclude Iran from the Paris 2024 Olympics for violating the principle of non-discrimination in sport.
Iran’s ban on women’s participation in some sports
The group, which sent a letter to the IOC at the end of July, said that Iran violates the Olympic Charter, which states that “the practice of sport is a human right” and that there must be “no discrimination of any kind, in particular on the grounds of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
The letter said that Iran bans women from competing in several sports, such as boxing, wrestling, swimming, sailing and others. It also said that Iran imposes strict Islamic dress codes on women athletes and prevents them from attending stadiums as spectators.
The group drew a parallel with the exclusion of South Africa in 1970 for its apartheid policy and asked the IOC to suspend Iran or at least ban it from the disciplines that are forbidden for women.
The voices of Iranian women athletes
The letter was signed by Mahyar Monshipour, a former Franco-Iranian boxing world champion who organized the first fight of an Iranian woman in France in 2019; Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian political activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2003 for her defense of women’s rights; and several other Iranian athletes who had to flee their country to pursue their passion.
The group was supported by Frédéric Thiriez, a lawyer and former president of the Professional Football League in France. They held a press conference on Wednesday at the Cité Audacieuse in Paris, where they shared the testimonies of Iranian women athletes who faced persecution and violence in their homeland.
Shiva Nariman, a boxer who now lives in France, said that she had to practice her sport “in apartments or basements” and that she was arrested several times by the morality police. Shirin Shirzad, a former wrestler who now resides in the Netherlands, said that she endured “pain and suffering” and that it was “not possible to imagine what we experience in Iran.”
The IOC’s response and the legal action
Thiriez said that he was “working on a referral to the Court of Arbitration for Sport” and a petition to pressure the IOC to act on their demand. He said that the IOC had replied: “Rest assured, we are closely monitoring the situation in Iran.”
The group said that they hoped that their campaign would raise awareness and solidarity among the international community and the Olympic movement. They said that they were not against the Iranian people or their culture, but against the regime that oppresses them.
They also said that they were not alone in their fight. Last month, two associations lodged a complaint in Paris against Ghafoor Kargari, the Iranian president of the 2024 National Paralympic Committee, who was visiting France at the time. They accused him of torture and crimes against humanity.
The death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd who died in September 2022 after she was arrested by the morality police for failing to comply with strict Islamic dress regulations, sparked months of demonstrations in Iran. The protests were met with bloodshed and arrests by the authorities.
