Iran’s only female Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh says she has defected

Taekwondo titleholder Kimia Alizadeh, who obtained a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, hinted in an Instagram post that she had flown to Europe. She communicated on an account she has used for some time, but it was not directly feasible to confirm her location, reported Reuters.

“No one has invited me to Europe and I haven’t been given a tempting offer. But I accept the pain and hardship of homesickness because I didn’t want to be part of hypocrisy, lies, injustice and flattery,” she said.

Alizadeh said Iran had credited her success to their management and the truth that she wore the Islamic veil, which is obligatory in Iran.

“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran whom they’ve been playing for years… I wore whatever they told me and repeated whatever they ordered. Every sentence they ordered I repeated,” she wrote. “None of us matter for them, we are just tools.”

She stated that while the government utilised her medals politically, officials would humiliate her with comments such as “It is not virtuous for a woman to stretch her legs!”

“Should I start with hello, goodbye or condolences? Hello oppressed people of Iran, goodbye noble people of Iran, my condolences to you people who are always mourning,” she penned.