Iran’s Only Female Olympic Medalist Defects to Europe, Citing Regime’s ‘Lies and Injustice’

Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics, recently wrote on social media that she is leaving her home country to move to an undisclosed nation in Europe.

“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,” Alizadeh wrote in an Instagram post.

She continued with a long message about how she was forced to wear hijab, silenced, and was exploited as a political tool.

“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 said.

Alizadeh said although she is sad to leave her country, she is proud of the Iranian people.

Iranians are in the streets this week protesting the deaths of 176 people who were killed after the Iranian military shot down an Ukrainian airliner. Most of the passengers on board were Iranian citizens.

Officials are reportedly responding to the protests by open firing on civilians and using tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Alizadeh is not the first Iranian athlete to speak out against the Iranian government.

In December, Iran’s Chess Federation said chess champion Alireza Firouzja had decided to no longer play for Iran over its policy of banning competitors from competing against Israelis.

Iranian Judoka champion Saeid Mollaei also defected last year due to Iran’s policies.