Elnaz Rekabi: Concerns grow for female climber from Iran who competed without hijab
Concerns are growing for a female Iranian athlete, who took part in a climbing competition in South Korea without wearing her nation's mandatory headscarf covering.
The decision by Elnaz Rekabi, a 2021 climbing world championship bronze medalist, to forgo the headscarf, or hijab, came as protests sparked by the 16 September death of a 22-year-old woman have entered a fifth week. Mahsa Amini was detained by the country's morality police over her clothing.
The Iranian Embassy in Seoul said Rekabi, 33, left the country on Tuesday morning.
It has been reported that she was due to leave on Wednesday, but that her departure was brought forward by Iranian authorities.
The BBC's Persian service, which has extensive contacts within Iran despite being banned from operating there, quoted an unnamed “informed source” who described Iranian officials as seizing both Rekabi's mobile phone and passport.
A new Instagram post on an account attributed to Rekabi described her not wearing a hijab as “unintentional," though it wasn't immediately clear whether or not she wrote the post under duress.
The Iranian government routinely pressures activists at home and abroad, often airing what rights groups describe as coerced confessions on state television.
IranWire, a website founded by an Iranian-Canadian journalist who once was detained by the regime, alleged that Rekabi would be immediately transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison after arriving in the country.
Evin Prison was the site of a massive fire last weekend that killed at least eight prisoners.
In a tweet, the Iranian Embassy in Seoul denied “all the fake, false news and disinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure on Tuesday.
But instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul
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