A female rock climber who competed overseas without a hejab has become the latest athlete to defect.
Elnaz Rekabi gained global attention in October 2022 when she took part in championships in South Korea without wearing a headscarf. That was just after the outbreak of nationwide protests in September 2022 sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
photographer as she competed in Seoul in 2022 with her hair flying.
Rekabi said her lack of a headscarf was an accident—that she forgot to put it on when she was told she had to rush to compete.
She returned home and largely vanished from public view, with some Persian-language media based outside Iran reporting she had been placed under house arrest and banned from competing abroad.
News of her departure from Iran was confirmed in mid-March in an Instagram post by her brother, Davood. “I wish this was a better place for you, so that missing you like this would not weigh on our hearts,” he wrote.
The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported she had moved to Spain.
It is not clear when and under what circumstances Rekabi left Iran.
In another development, the International Federation for Sport Climbing announced in February that Rekabi had been appointed as the “athlete role model” for sport climbing in the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Dakar in 2026.
IranWire and other outlets have reported previously that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been closely watching her case and were deeply concerned over her inability to travel outside of Iran.
After her disappearance and alleged arrest following her return from Seoul, a source told IranWire: “Elnaz made her decision to appear without a hejab around a month ago…. She did not seek asylum either because her husband is in Iran, and she wanted to return after the competition.”
She was subsequently placed under house arrest at her father’s home in Zanjan and was prohibited from meeting freely with other athletes, giving interviews, or using her cellphone.
According to a source cited by IranWire at the time, the National Olympic Committee and the Minister of Sports warned Elnaz that “her family’s land would be confiscated if she left the country, gave interviews to the media, or engaged in sensitive activities on social media.” The family’s property was reportedly worth $300,000.
Before heading to Seoul in 2022, Rekabi was required to hand over a $35,000 check and grant full power of attorney to Iran’s climbing federation, allowing them to sell her family’s property as a guarantee that she would return.
