Courage: Iran’s Sole Female Olympic Medalist Defects

Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, defected from her home country so they wouldn’t be able to use her athletic success as a propaganda tool.

The 21-year-old athlete, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the Rio Olympics, said she didn’t want to be part of the Islamic republic’s “hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery.”

Alizadeh wisely kept her location secret, but her defection comes at a challenging time for Iran.  They just had a show down with the United States (after we took out one of their main leaders), they accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner (and lied about it), and their own citizens are risking their lives to protest the lies and corruption.

Now this.

“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran whom they’ve been playing for years,” Alizadeh shared on social media. “I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated. None of us matter for them, we are just tools.”

Also, the BBC reported she claimed that “although the government would exploit her sporting success politically, officials would humiliate her with comments such as: ‘It is not virtuous for a woman to stretch her legs.’”

Sounds about right.  The life of an Olympic female athlete in an Islamic republic must be really hard.  Even harder?  Taking this brave stand against the totalitarian leaders.

Journalist Yascha Mounk tweeted out, “This is what true political courage looks like,” and he’s exactly right.

May the example of Alizadeh encourage others in Iran to defy the government and may peace ultimately reign.

Hat Tip: the BBC

Image Credit: Wikimedia