Until the last minute, the women’s alpine ski team and the Iranian ski federation wanted to believe it: everything had been organized so that, if ” the problem “ was resolved, the trainer of Iranian skiers, Samira Zargari, could receive an Italian visa and travel with the others to participate, from February 9 to 21, in the world championships, organized in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy.
Nothing helped: 37-year-old Samira Zargari was prevented by her husband from leaving the territory, under a law of the Islamic Republic. According to this law, Iranian women must obtain written permission from their husbands to apply for a passport and travel abroad. The husband has the possibility to revoke this authorization at any time.
“My husband has been laughing at my job for days, months, years. A husband who was born in the United States and who did not even grow up in Iran ”, reacted Samira Zargari on her Instagram account on February 19. “I will explain the reasons for this ban later, but right now I need the support of the leaders, because I have been fighting for the flag of my country for years.”, wrote the sportswoman who continued to post, on Instagram, the photos and videos that her team sent her from competitions in Italy.
Taken up by the Iranian media, the news caused an uproar on social networks where Internet users expressed their outrage and their rejection of laws that discriminate against women. “You invest your whole life to realize your dreams and, when you approach them, you will still need the agreement of your husband: Samira Zargari was not able to accompany her disciples to Italy”, laments a user on Twitter. “Every Iranian is equal to a slave”, reacts another.
Collection of signatures
Samira Zargari is not the first Iranian sportswoman to pay the price of this law. Before her, Zahra Nemati, double medalist at the world archery championships, suffered the same fate in 2017. Her husband had justified her decision, bluntly, by existence “Of problems” in their relationship and the fact that his wife refused to live with him and that she had filed for divorce. In 2015, Niloufar Ardalan, captain of the national women’s futsal (indoor football) team, was also prevented by her husband from traveling to Malaysia for the Asian Futsal Championship.
These incidents, which were widely publicized, gave rise, then and now, to signature-collecting campaigns in Iran demanding that Parliament amend the so-called “Passport”. None of these campaigns succeeded in the face of Iranian authorities’ intransigence on women’s rights legislation. “Alongside my compatriots, I ask for the modification of this law”, wrote on Instagram Samira Zargari. But hope that the lines will move is even slimmer today, as Parliament is dominated by the Conservatives.
In addition, in recent months, a large number of women’s rights activists have been arrested and sentenced to prison terms. In early February, sociologist Najmeh Vahedi and lawyer Hoda Amid were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison, respectively. They organized workshops in Iranian cities to inform women of the possibility offered to them of obtaining, within the framework of the drafting of the marriage contract, certain rights such as divorce (legally reserved for men) or the right to work and travel freely. The charges against these two activists were “Collaboration with the American enemy state on issues related to women and the family”.
