{"id":5743,"date":"2016-10-01T22:45:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T03:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=5743"},"modified":"2016-10-01T22:45:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T03:45:49","slug":"female-chess-players-to-boycott-iran-championship-over-hijab-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/5743\/","title":{"rendered":"Female chess players to boycott Iran championship over hijab rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the world’s best female chess players are refusing to attend next year’s championship in Iran over the country’s dress code.<\/p>\n

They have denounced a decision made by the World Chess Federation to hold the event in the Islamic country after being told they will have to wear hijabs to compete.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Canadian Chess Federation executive director Robert Gillanders said no decision has been made as to whether any of our players will be participating.<\/p>\n

“It’s a long way off,” he said. “We are debating it.”<\/p>\n

Gillanders said he would prefer the tournament be held in a different country.<\/p>\n

“The problem is, it’s difficult to find organizers to put on the women’s championship,” he explained.<\/p>\n

Russian-born Natalia Khoudgarian is the current top-ranked player in Canada.<\/p>\n

Women are required by law to wear a hijab in public in Iran and, if they fail to cover up, they can be arrested.<\/p>\n

\"16287340-48575198-600x450i-5a856a57239a\"<\/a>
Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, who represents the U.S. and is the No. 1-ranked player in the world<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, who represents the U.S. and is the No. 1-ranked player in the world, is boycotting the 64-player tournament.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” she said in an Instagram post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honoured and proud to have qualified to represent the United States in the Women\u2019s World Championship,” she added. “But, if the situation remains unchanged, I will most certainly not participate in this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Chess Federation \u2013 known by its French acronym FIDE \u2013 called on players to respect \u201ccultural differences\u201d and accept Iran\u2019s hijab law.<\/p>\n

FIDE has been embroiled in controversy before. Its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who was placed on a U.S. sanctions list for allegedly doing business with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the world’s best female chess players are refusing to attend next year’s championship in Iran over the country’s dress code. They have denounced […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5746,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5743\/revisions\/5746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}