Elnaz Rekabi, the Iranian climber who competed without a veil last Sunday at the Asian Climbing Championships in Seoul and became a social media icon of anti-regime protests, is back in Tehran. There were doubts about her whereabouts, even sources from her environment had told the BBC that she could be detained, without a mobile phone and without a passport, but the images of her arrival at the Imam Khomeini airport in the Iranian capital are in line with what was expressed in the Rekabi's own Instagram account: it's fine, she assures that it was all a misunderstanding and that, in no case, did she want to compete without the hijab, but in the rush of the competition she forgot it.
With a cap and hood, covering her hair, Rekabi arrived in Tehran this morning, where she was received as a heroine shouting "champion" by hundreds of people. Also for her family, who have embraced her for a long time after expressing fears for her safety.
Likewise, the climber has been awarded flowers and has explained her version on state television: competing without a hijab was "involuntary" and not a show of support for the protests over the death of the young Mahsa Amini. "I was putting on my shoes before leaving, I forgot to put on my hijab and they called me to go compete," she excused herself, again attributing her gesture to carelessness, despite the fact that in the images of the competition she looks calm and without haste both before climbing and after.
"My mind is at peace because although there have been days of great tension and stress, thank God, nothing has happened," Rekabi continued in a statement upon his arrival in Tehran that his brother had already anticipated.
On Monday, the BBC reported that Rekabi had disappeared from her hotel in Seoul and her passport and mobile had been confiscated, prompting a flood of tweets expressing concern for her safety and whereabouts. It was even reported that the Iranian expedition's return trip home, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was urgently moved up a day.
However, on Tuesday, Iran's embassy in Seoul rejected what it called "fake news and disinformation" and said Rekabi was headed to Iran with the rest of his team. In fact, another Iranian climber posted on Instagram that Rekabi was not missing and that she would arrive in Iran, via a stopover in Doha, early Wednesday, as she has been. The International Climbing Federation limited itself to stating that it had been able to speak with Rekabi and the Iranian Federation, without giving further details of her situation.
An arrival in which Rekabi has insisted on the message that Instagram already published this Tuesday – and whose authorship was questioned by sources around her – asking for "apologies for the concerns caused" and stressing that it was an "involuntary" gesture caused due to the rush of the competition.
This Tuesday, in a testimony published by the Tasmin news agency, related to the Revolutionary Guard (a branch of the armed forces designed to protect the political system of the country's Islamic republic), her brother Davoud Rekabi already assured that the athlete would give a press conference upon arrival in Iran, where he would explain all the details.
"Unfortunately, some are trying to ride waves on this issue," said Elnaz's brother, before pointing out that his sister was wearing a headband at the time of the competition and was not trying to defy the Islamic Republic's rules. .
Videos of Rekabi nimbly climbing at the Asian Climbing Championships on Sunday, unveiled, with her hair flying, went viral on Twitter and other social media platforms as it was understood as a brave show of support for the women of her country who They have been protesting for weeks against the obligation to wear the veil after the death in September of the young Mahsa Amini, after being arrested for improperly wearing the veil.
The protests unleashed by the death of Amini on September 16 are mainly led by young people and women shouting "woman, life, freedom", who launch slogans against the Government and burn veils, one of the symbols of the Islamic Republic and something unthinkable not long ago.
The protests have been evolving as the authorities have reacted: they began with medium mobilizations in dozens of cities to go to the universities, and from them to small concentrations, sporadic and scattered through the streets, to return to the faculties.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights NGO has recorded 108 deaths, including 23 minors, aged 11 to 17. In addition, there are thousands of detainees, including former soccer players, activists, lawyers and singers, some of whom have been released on bail.
