Iranian rock climber explains why she didn’t wear a hijab at competitions

An athlete from Iran, Elnaz Rekabi, published a post on social networks in which she apologized to friends and admirers for causing concern and indicated the reason why she performed at the Asian Climbing Championships without a hijab, reports sports.ru.

“Due to bad timing and an unexpected call to climb the wall, my headgear accidentally fell off,” Rekabi said in her post.

Public opinion in Iran took the situation with the athlete’s headscarf especially sharply against the backdrop of ongoing protests in the country over the death of a girl brought to the police because of the wrong, according to local standards, wearing a hijab headscarf.

One way or another, upon arrival in Tehran at the end of the competition, the athlete was greeted with applause from the public.