One of India’s top women chess players has pulled out of an upcoming championship in Iran in protest at having to wear an Islamic headscarf.
Soumya Swaminathan, a former world junior girls champion wrote on Facebook.
“I find the Iranian law of compulsory headscarf to be in direct violation of my basic human rights including my right to freedom of expression, and right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It seems that under the present circumstances, the only way for me to protect my rights is not to go to Iran.”
In 2016, US chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes boycotted the world championship in Tehran after also refusing to wear the hijab.
Swaminathan criticised chess officials for allotting events to countries without taking players’ rights into account.

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