{"id":5865,"date":"2016-10-12T22:16:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T03:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=5865"},"modified":"2016-10-12T22:16:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T03:16:23","slug":"u-s-chess-stars-petition-against-holding-womens-tournament-in-iran-exceeds-15k-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/5865\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Chess Star\u2019s Petition Against Holding Women\u2019s Tournament in Iran Exceeds 15k Signatures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"featuredimage_2016-10-11_105710_youtube_nazi_paikidze-barnes\"by<\/i> TheTower.org Staff <\/a> <\/span> |

\n
\n

Iran is forcing women to cover their hair at the next world chess championship\u2014and the reigning American female chess champion is circulating a petition<\/a> in protest. Naz\u00ed Paikidze-Barnes, 22, exceeded her initial goal of collecting 15,000 signatures on Tuesday, one week after her appeal was first posted online.<\/p>\n

The petition calls on the World Chess Federation (FIDE)\u2014which \u201crejects discriminatory treatment for national, political, racial, social or religious reasons or on account of sex\u201d in its handbook\u2014to reconsider its choice of Iran as tournament host. Paikidze-Barnes, who\u00a0authored the document,\u00a0declared<\/a> she will be boycotting the contest \u201ceven if it means missing one of the most important competitions of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome consider a hijab part of culture,\u201d Paikidze-Barnes said in an Instagram post announcing her decision. \u201cBut, I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. That\u2019s why I will NOT wear a hijab and support women\u2019s oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has been harshly criticized by prominent officials involved with the chess federation and by Iranian media outlets, and more recently has been the target of op-eds in several<\/a> prominent<\/a> news outlets. In turn, some Muslim women\u2019s rights activists pushed back in support of Paikidze-Barnes, with former Wall Street Journal<\/em> reporter Asra Q. Nomani describing<\/a> one of the op-eds as \u201ctragic because it uses women to tell other women to shut up.\u201d Nomani wrote<\/a>\u00a0against \u201cIran\u2019s hijab fetish\u201d in The Washington Post<\/em> last week.<\/p>\n

Nomani also previously co-wrote an op-ed<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Arab female journalist Hala Arafa in December 2015, which challenged the idea that Islamic scriptures require\u00a0women to wear head coverings. \u201cTo us, the \u2018hijab\u2019 is a symbol of an interpretation of Islam we reject that believes that women are a sexual distraction to men, who are weak, and thus must not be tempted by the sight of our hair. We don\u2019t buy it. This ideology promotes a social attitude that absolves men of sexually harassing women and puts the onus on the victim to protect herself by covering up,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new Muslim Reform Movement, a global network of leaders, advocating for human rights, peace and secular governance, supports the right of Muslim women to wear \u2014 or not wear \u2014 the headscarf.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1979, legendary Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci\u00a0interviewed<\/a> the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on the topic of the hijab.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not only talking about piece of clothing, but what it represents,\u201d Fallaci told\u00a0Khomeini. \u201cThat is, the condition of segregation into which women have been cast once again, after the revolution. The fact that they can\u2019t study at university with men, or work with men, for example, or go to the beach or to a swimming pool with men. They have to take a dip apart, in their chadors. By the way, how do you swim in a chador?\u201d<\/p>\n

Khomeini replied: \u201cThis is none of your business. Our customs are none of your business. If you do not like Islamic dress you are not obliged to wear it. Because Islamic dress is for good and proper young women.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Khomeini\u2019s response conflated Islamic dress with \u201cproper\u201d behavior, it also suggested that Westerners would not be forced\u00a0to wear the hijab in Iran, contrary to the current practice in the country.<\/p>\n

[Photo:\u00a0Chess Studio \/ YouTube ]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by TheTower.org Staff | 10.11.16 1:35 pm Iran is forcing women to cover their hair at the next world chess championship\u2014and the reigning American female […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,5,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-human-rights","category-news","category-society-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865","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=5865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5867,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5865\/revisions\/5867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}