We have known about Iran’s brain and artist drain. Now, more and more Iranian athletes are fleeing the country.
Why are more and more Iranian athletes fleeing the country, or
refusing to return after competitions abroad? We have known about Iran’s brain
drain and artists leaving the country. Yet now we are faced with this new
phenomenon. Gifted and talented young men and women with high potential for
their society see no future in Iran under the mullah’s rule and are left with
no choice but to seek a better opportunity in foreign lands.
Sports and athletic competitions are a medium to promote
vitality, exhilaration and health throughout our societies. Athletes are also
considered national treasures for each country
In Iran, however, the mullahs’ policies have rendered a new
“muscle drain.” There is a long list of athletes who have left Iran for good:
·
Rahele Asemani gone
to Belgium
·
Mohammad Hossein Ibrahimi, a fencing athlete, found refuge in
France
·
Vahid Sarlak,
judo specialist, found refuge in Germany
·
Arezu Motamedi,
kayaking athlete, immigrated to the United States
·
Ehsan Rajabi, heavyweight judo specialist, found
refuge in the U.S
·
Mehdi
Jafargholizadeh, karate specialist, found refuge in Germany
·
Alshen
Moradi, Saman Tahmasebi, Sabah Shariati, Milad Bigi, Sina Bahrami, Iman Jamali,
Mina Alizadeh, Puriya Pour-Ibrahim, Mahmoud Zaviyeh, Shervin Pakdel, Saeed Fazl
Avali, Payam Zarinpour, and the list goes on.
This immense dilemma has reached a point that even members of
Iran’s so-called parliament voiced concern.
Sodeif Badri, an
Iranian MP, admits negligence regarding Iran’s athletes, and the fact that
their living conditions and employment remains unresolved, has fueled their
immigration abroad.
“We must not allow this to be repeated elsewhere, as
it has psychological side effects,” said Ehsan Ghazizadeh,
another Iranian MP.
“This is an alarm bell for our country’s athletics,”
said Homayoun Yousefi,
anr Iranian MP.“When Iran’s medal-winning weightlifters are all set aside due
to their protests in London’s 2012 Olympics, what else is there to expect?” he
added on the issue.
Iran’s successful athletes continually weigh the possibility of
fleeing the country in order to realize their dreams, Yousefi added.
Iranian officials’ direct political interference and lack of
interest in athletics is another reason behind this phenomenon, he explained,
adding if these athletes remain in Iran they would have no choice but to “drive
taxis or sell cigarettes to help make ends meet.”
An Iranian athlete living abroad says one of the reasons behind
the regime’s lack of interest in athletics lies in the worry amongst regime
officials about national heroes becoming too popular and using their reputation
to stand against Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iranian athletes “are used as tools”
and “mandatory praying and being forced to kiss mullahs’ hands” significantly
increases anger amongst athletes and escalates their will to depart the
country.
On the other hand, the regime’s complete economic
control over this private sector, including sports clubs, has plunged athletics
into a completely state-run affair managed by the Revolutionary Guards and
senior Iranian regime officials.
To this end, it is a known fact that Iran’s athletics are
controlled and plundered by the Guards and affiliated officials.
A look at the Iran’s status in the Olympics, the world’s most
important athletic stage, is a clear signal of not only the regime’s neglect to
athletics, but the use of it as a tool for further plundering.
Following the hijacking of the 1979 revolution by the mullahs,
the regime boycotted the 1980 and 1984 Olympics for bogus reasons. Its first
Olympics participation came in the 1988 Seoul summer games, resulting in only
one silver medal.
Iran gained only two medals in 1992, three in 1996, four in
2000, six in 2004, two in 2008 and eight in 2016. And this is while Iran could
have easily used a small fraction of vast oil and gas revenues to provide its
very talented athletes.
However, the mullah’ regime has wasted hundreds of
billions of dollars in its state sponsorship of terrorism and warmongering abroad,
its preposterous and highly controversial nuclear program and its huge apparatus focused on domestic crackdown against protests, resulting
in human rights violations.
:Explanation
Maryam Rajavi viewpoint : WOMEN'S FREEDOMS AND EQUALITY IN TOMORROW'S IRAN
1.
Fundamental freedoms and rights
2.
Equality before the law
3.
Freedom of choosing one’s own
clothing
4.
Equal participation in political
leadership
5.
Equality in the economic sphere
6.
Equality in the family
7.
Prohibition of violence
8.
Prohibition of sexual exploitation
9.
Repealing Mullahs’ Sharia laws
10.
Social benefits
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