Iran's Sole Female Olympic Medalist Defects from Country Over Oppressive Government
The only Iranian woman ever to win an Olympic medal has defected, lashing out at the Iranian regime.
The defection of Kimia Alizadeh, 21, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo during the 2016 Olympics, came as Iranian students in Tehran were condemning their own government for the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner.
Alizadeh announced her defection in a post on Instagram.
“Let me start with a greeting, a farewell or condolences,” she wrote, according to CNN‘s translation of her post. “I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7LtxeOnZZU/
“They took me wherever they wanted,” she wrote, according to a translation published by The New York Times. “Whatever they said, I wore. Every sentence they ordered, I repeated.”
Alizadeh addressed the “oppressed people of Iran” and cited Iran’s restrictions on women, including the “obligatory veil.”
“Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me,” she wrote, adding that her success was attributed to her managers and coaches but never to her.
“I wasn’t important to them. None of us mattered to them, we were tools,” Alizadeh wrote.
Alizadeh said she wanted nothing more to do with Iran’s leaders.
She said she “didn’t want to sit at the table of hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery” or be part of the government’s “corruption and lies.”
“My troubled spirit does not fit into your dirty economic channels and tight political lobbies,” she wrote. “I have no other wish except for taekwondo, security and a happy and healthy life.”
“This decision is even harder than winning the Olympic gold,” Alizadeh wrote, “but I remain the daughter of Iran wherever I am.”
Wishing #Iran‘s Kimia Alizadeh the very best. Some have no idea of how much courage it takes for an #Iranian woman athlete to defect to the west. She is now a target for the #QudsForce terrorists that #Soleimani used to head up. Good luck #KimiaAlizadeh https://t.co/UouBBCo4Qj
— Charles Adler (@charlesadler) January 12, 2020
According to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, Alizadeh has moved to the Netherlands.
Her defection came four months after judo star Saeid Mollaei defected to Germany.
It also happened as anti-government protests were rocking Tehran.
Another video shows Iranians tearing down #Soleimani poster. You know why?
78 people killed in an stampede in his funeral, 178 people killed in exacting his revenge by downing #UkrainianPlane & 1500 killed by IRGC in #IranProtests . People are furious when you call him a hero. pic.twitter.com/2COgVHpsNV— Masih Alinejad ?️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 12, 2020
01/13/2020, Tehran, Protests continue: “They killed our elites and replaced them with mullahs.”
This started in 1979. The real #IranPlaneShootdown happened the day Khomeini’s plane landed in Iran, it was the fall of the modern prosperous Iran.#IranProtests2020#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/HgIt0KBhNq— Saeed Ghasseminejad (@SGhasseminejad) January 13, 2020
The U.S. said Iran’s ways stifle women and the regime needs to change.
“Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in reference to Alizadeh’s defection.
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