5 Centimeters of Hair: Iranian Chess in 2023

I once managed to play Shohreh Bayat in a friendly OTB game and I just noted that she was a really friendly person who was nice to talk to; soon after, my friend (who had seen me playing against her) found a picture of her online, and we soon discovered that for some reason whenever you searched up 'chess arbiter/referee' she was the top result (in bing, google etc images at the time, it seems now on google she's moved to the 2nd position when I search her up) and there weren't many other people on the top images. So, we remembered her as the 'only chess arbiter in the world' and mostly just moved on from the topic.

I would have never thought that something like this would have happened to her, and I never realised/found out what the situation in Iran and chess was like. This whole hijab story sounds ridiculous, it's no wonder all the players from the 2014 Iranian Women's Chess Olympiad team have left now. And all this happened to Shohreh because of 5cm of hair.

All women should be treated equally. Like Ziomp9 said:
> I hope it will go better for the different Iranian chess players.

@Corvisquire said in #32:
> This would be valid if i bring other regimes in response to what is happening in Iran and avoid responding to the central issue. I am not.
>
> I'm saying that i prefer if lichess leaves all politics outside of lichess. if political blogs become thing in here, this will invariably create a political bias simply due to what gets left out.

You say these things shouldn't be discussed because of other things that have not been discussed. It's economical/implicit Whataboutism. You are free to (separately) bring up similar issues that also deserve discussion, why try to minimize this one?

(Calling it politics and "ridiculous" is minimizing it. It's basic human rights and more scary than ridiculous. This does not mean that the West did not do similarly cruel things, incl. its historical treatment of Iran and its attempts at democracy, which is in large part to blame for the current situation.)

Such needless repression will lead to unprecedented hollowing out and emigration of talents, creative minds and well-educated people at the maximum pace possible.
This is why intolerant societies that cancel people for slightest mistakes fail to develop beyond a point and this is also possibly why, the right-wing in Western countries who are generally lambasted in general for being against SJWs are justified to some extent despite the fact that their fears being verily exaggerated for political mileage

@IvanSlavaUkraini The facts of conquest, imperialism, oppression by "the West" are true. That does not excuse oppression in other places, or make it incorrect for us [the West] to criticize oppression everywhere, in whatever country. I have fought for years against the wrongs in the US. I will speak out against unfair oppressive regimes wherever they exist, which is in many places.
@Corvisquire Oppression exists in many countries and regions. Xin Jiang, Myanmar, Egypt, Russia ... the list could take up many pages. The difference is that people in Iran are fighting for their freedom right now. It is happening today. And the chess world is a battlefield for it. The fact that the struggle is now ongoing, in our backyard, justifies making comments.
Yes, if I wanted to express my views on history and politics and class struggle, I should do it in the "non chess topics" area, but the situation in Iran is immediate, is about basic human rights, and is life and death.

This rule of hijab in Iran is ridiculous. The women have to be free, not about covering their hair up...
<_>
Cette règle du hijab en Iran est ridicule. Les femmes doivent être libres, ne pas se couvrir les cheveux...
<_>

All chess players in Iran, like me and others, are under pressure both from the chess federation and from the dictator regime, that's why many chess players and people are forced to emigrate so that they can live comfortably. I hope that one day Iran will be freed from this dictator regime.
#Woman_Life_Freedom

and finally ....
a post about us(iranian women)
:)))))))

@RApro said in #8:
> we hate our goverment in iran
> we started revoulotion almost 4 month to prove that.
> every chess prodigy like firouzja and dorsa derakhshani and more leave iran because of this laws And Dictatories make them to Migrate another countries
> I wish overthrow this goverment soon.
> tnx lichess
exactly. I wish this government would be destroyed and they'll be free ...

Down with the IRI. Freedom to the Iranian people. Iranian people are not muslim and dont want islam in their country. Javid Shah