Head of Iran’s sports federation resigns after outcry over women running unveiled
State news agency says Hashem Siami quit ‘due to the controversies that arose’ after photographs circulated of women competing without a hijab at event in Shiraz
TEHRAN, Iran — The head of Iran’s athletics federation resigned Sunday over a sporting event featuring women without the mandatory headscarf, state media reported, as the Islamic Republic toughens enforcement of hijab rules.
“Hashem Siami resigned from his post due to the controversies that arose from the endurance [running] race organized in Shiraz” in Iran’s south, official news agency IRNA said.
According to images from Friday’s competition published by Iranian media, some women were running without headscarves, made compulsory shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Local organizers of the public event have also been summoned to provide “explanations,” the provincial prosecutor said Sunday in a statement.
Siami told IRNA he was not involved in organizing the competition, and the unveiled athletes were not part of the national federation.
A new police program came into force last month aimed at stricter enforcement of hijab-wearing in public.
در پی برگزاری مسابقه دوی ماراتن در شیراز که برخی دوندگان زن بدون حجاب اجباری و با پوشش اختیاری شرکت کردند، هاشم صیامی رییس فدراسیون دوومیدانی از سمت خود استعفا داد.
این مسابقه به مناسبت روز شیراز برگزار شده بود.#زن_زندگی_آزادی #مهسا_امينی pic.twitter.com/Nav3ViwFqk
— safa (@Safa_8863) May 7, 2023
The number of women in Iran defying the dress code has increased since a wave of protests after the September 16 death in custody of Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, 22, for allegedly breaching it.
Authorities in Tehran last week launched proceedings against at least four actors who had appeared in public without headscarfs, local media said.
More than 150 commercial establishments nationwide were closed after employees had allegedly violated the dress code, authorities said in mid-April.
Police in Shiraz arrested in June girls who removed their veils at a skateboarding event, as well as the organizers.
The Times of Israel Community.