Missing Iranian Rock Climber Resurfaces: Claims Not Wearing Hijab ‘Unintentional’

In this image taken from video by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, Iranian competitive c
IRNA via AP
John Hayward

Iranian sport climber Elnaz Rekabi was greeted by a cheering throng at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on Wednesday morning.

The immense crowd chanted “Hero!” as her taxi passed by, saluting her bravery for competing in South Korea without wearing the Islamic headscarf mandated by the brutal Iranian regime. 

Rekabi gave a subsequent press conference in which she insisted her bare head was “completely unintentional” and claimed “nothing has happened” to her since the inadvertent act of defiance.

Rekabi, 33, traveled to South Korea to compete in the Asian Championships, where she was filmed climbing a wall without a hijab. She was flown back to Tehran early after social media began saluting her lack of a headscarf as an act of defiance against the regime. Her friends reported they were unable to contact her on Tuesday after her abrupt checkout from a hotel in Seoul.

A message posted on Rekabi’s Instagram account Tuesday claimed she forgot to wear a hijab due to an “unsuitable timetable and unexpected call for me to climb the wall” at the Asian Championships. The message read very much like previous coerced “apologies” from Iranian women spotted without hijabs while traveling abroad.

After arriving in Tehran and passing through the crowd of cheering supporters who believed she deliberately flouted the oppressive hijab law, and even receiving a gift of flowers from one admirer, Rekabi gave a state television interview in which she repeated her Instagram “apology” almost verbatim.

“If I want to explain I should say that everything conforms to what I explained on the internet. It was completely unintentional. I think my story fully explained this,” Rekabi said, referring to Tuesday’s Instagram post.

“I was unexpectedly called and I had to compete. I was busy putting on my shoes and technical gear and that caused me to forget putting on the hijab I had to be wearing. Then I went to compete,” she said.

“I have returned to Iran in complete health,” she declared, although the Washington Post noted she was visibly nervous when she said it.

Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi competes during the women's Boulder & Lead final during the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022. Rekabi left South Korea on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 after competing at an event in which she climbed without her nation's mandatory headscarf covering, authorities said. Farsi-language media outside of Iran warned she may have been forced to leave early by Iranian officials and could face arrest back home, which Tehran quickly denied. (Rhea Khang/International Federation of Sport Climbing via AP)

Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi competes during the women’s Boulder & Lead final during the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022.  (Rhea Khang/International Federation of Sport Climbing via AP)

“Fortunately, I came back to Iran with peace of mind, although I went through a lot of tension and stress. So far, thank God, nothing has happened,” she insisted.

When her state media interviewer asked about friends claiming she was incommunicado for up to 48 hours after appearing without a headscarf, Rekabi replied: “No. This didn’t happen. We came back to Iran according to the plan. Until this moment everything has been going on according to the plan.”

Rekabi’s destination after leaving the Tehran airport was not made public. Watchdog website IranWire on Tuesday speculated she could still be headed for detention or might be forced to make further public apologies to distance herself from the massive anti-hijab protests that have swept Iran for the past five weeks.

IranWire also quoted a source who said Rekabi was “tricked” into paying a visit to the Iranian embassy in Seoul after her hijab-free appearance by Reza Zarei, head of the Iranian Climbing Federation, who was following orders from Iranian Olympic Committee Chairman Mohammad Khosravivafa – who was in turn ordered to swiftly bring Rekabi back to Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite theocratic wing of the Iranian military and a designated terrorist organization.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of Iran Human Rights, a group based in Norway, said on Wednesday he is still concerned for Rekabi’s safety. He was firmly convinced her public apologies have been “forced” statements.

“Based on our knowledge of the Islamic Republic, they will go very far to set an example for other athletes and young girls in general, so that this kind of disobedience doesn’t happen again,” he said.

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