Islamist Engineering of Sports

News regarding ideological and religious restrictions on competitive and public sports in the country occupy the media space of Persian-speaking outlets and domestic propaganda machines every day. In just the last week of November and the first week of December 2017, several news stories related to ideological restrictions on sports drew public attention, from the failure of another taekwondo champion to return to the country to the pressure from clerics in Qom (Makarem Shirazi and Subhani) for sports facilities to remain closed to women, from the hijab of a Thai male coach in Tehran to Alireza Karimi's voluntary loss to a Russian wrestler to avoid competing against an Israeli athlete, and from requests by some social media users to the World Cup draw presenter to adhere to state television regulations regarding attire so that the event could be broadcast by this propaganda machine to a female chess champion's change of her competition team from Iran to the United States. The latest news was Iranian weightlifter Ali Hashemi's refusal to shake hands with a female medal presenter at competitions in the United States, stating, "I am a Muslim, Islamic [person]." In no other country are competitive and public sports so faced with marginal issues that are effective, decisive, and very disappointing for athletes. What is the problem? The main issue is the attempt to fit all the realities of the world into a very small bundle of Islamism and to revert the world back two hundred years and Iran back to the Qajar era, when women had no role in the public sphere, including sports, there was no Israeli state, photographic and filming tools had not yet been invented, and electronic media had not yet emerged. Officials of the Islamic Republic and other Islamists suffer from a kind of psychosis in distinguishing reality from delusion and want to impose their delusions and very limited world on the real world by denying a significant portion of it. They do not want to recognize the changes that have occurred in the real world and believe that what they have done by force inside the country (mandatory hijab and segregation) is possible everywhere in the world. They think they can drag the world behind them with money and force. Unlike ISIS and the Taliban, who wanted to accomplish these things in a matter of months, the officials of the Islamic Republic have considered a multi-decade period for implementing their policies; otherwise, there is no fundamental difference between Shia and Sunni Islamism. In today's world of sports, 1) women play a role at all levels, 2) taboos regarding bodies, voices, and movements have been set aside, and 3) the mixing of women and men in all dimensions is a daily reality. With government punishment and promises of rewards (which are sometimes not paid), one cannot cover this new body (including sports) with a tight garment. Islamist ideology seeks to deny and ignore all occurrences in sports, especially women's sports. Saudi Arabia, ISIS, and the Taliban completely removed women from the realm of sports (like the first two decades of the Islamic Republic), but the Islamic Republic wants to impose its values (the same Sharia) on the whole world by participating in global arenas, relying on an identity policy that is also popular with the left. Forcing these misogynistic, fearful, and discriminatory values on the poor, weak, and voiceless segments of the country may yield results for a time, but in a world where Shiites and Islamists are a small minority, it will not work. Not everyone submits. Officials of the Islamic Republic have tried to design and create bizarre hijab outfits for women and establish an inner-outer division in sports and lobby in global sports federations to accustom the world to mandatory hijab and segregation, but there are those who do not recognize this Daesh-like custom as "law." This is where the male hijab's inner-outer division emerges. It is said that one reason for the hijab-wearing Thai male coach's presence was his attempt to be present in a women's gym. Public opinion does not accept it. Public opinion is generally not justified in ideological red lines for sports. In the wrestling case of Alireza Karimi, even Rasoul Khadem, who is on the conservative side, gently questioned the issue. Sports and political websites have also posed serious questions against the Islamic Republic's "you must lose" policy. Even regime-supporting athletes ask what benefit Iranian athletes' losses really bring to the Palestinian people? The public's question is what benefit has come and will come to the Iranian people from the delusional denial of the Israeli state? Can a fake championship podium in a military camp and Karimi's being coached by Revolutionary Guard generals compensate for an order to lose in a sports field? If he is a "champion," why should he be ordered to lose? Non-Sharia chest, Sharia arms. Some football fans in Iran (who are mostly regime soft war officers) recommended to a Russian female presenter in an internet campaign to dress in a way during the World Cup 2018 draw in Russia that the event could be broadcast live on the Islamic Republic's state television. These Iranian fans asked this presenter on her Instagram to adhere to the live broadcast standards of Iranian television. Otherwise, the state television would have to use archival footage during the draw ceremony to avoid showing this presenter. Similar events in the past, such as the Olympic opening or the Brazil World Cup draw, were not fully broadcast in Iran. During the 2014 World Cup draw, the Islamic Republic's television used archival images. The astonishing aspect of this request is that these fans (if they were ordinary people seeking to broadcast the ceremony on television) have made an unusual request from the presenter to dress according to the desires of Shia Islamists. The request from social media users for the presenter to wear clothing within the framework of the Islamic Republic's state television is not a solution but a sign of a disease, the paranoia of "imagining the power to force the whole world to adhere to Sharia" by those who do not believe in Sharia and whose lifestyles are fundamentally different. Ultimately, the soft war officers expressed satisfaction with the female presenter's outfit, and state television's third channel broadcast the event. The presenter also displayed her arms instead of her chest. Apparently, showing the Russian woman's arms on the state television of the Islamic Republic is not a problem, but her chest is. The essence of the matter that the sports program presenter has a wish regarding the outfit of one of the program's presenters and expresses it is a regrettable topic for a society and country. How far can totalitarian Sharia orders in the public sphere humiliate individuals and force them to say bizarre things? The inner-outer division of women's sports. Those who today think that men are stimulated by seeing women exercising, even in gymnastics, swimming, diving, and other water sports, are psychologically and sexually ill or seem so. In a world where everyone (including the commanders of the IRGC, Basijis, and clerics) can access porn sites (which are designed for a specific purpose) with a few clicks, who would be stimulated by watching sports competitions? Laptops obtained from Islamist forces in the Middle East show that most of them have used porn sites. These forces, when they take power, remove women from the public sphere and sports in ordinary clothes. Creating an inner-outer division in sports in Iran and generally in the public sphere of the country is one of the wonders of the times when over 40 million people in Iran have smartphones and internet access and can watch women's sports competitions and ordinary life in other parts of the world whenever they want by bypassing government filters. The Islamization of women's clothing in other countries. Another wonder of creation in the world of Islamism is that Islamists want to show that women around the world adhere to the orders of Shia jurists. This is done through Photoshop and manipulation of images of women in the Islamic Republic's propaganda apparatus. This is a great lie, just as the adherence to hijab by all women in Iran is a great lie based on beatings, fines, insults, and censorship. Denial of realities in other parts of the world has become a habit among Islamists. When spectators of one competition are shown during the broadcast of another (to avoid showing the mixing of women and men in stadiums and the way women and men are dressed), what is delivered to the audience other than a lie? Western societies have gradually come to terms with the phenomenon of homosexuality only through the lie of denial. When lying becomes a shameful matter in Iran, mandatory hijab and censorship of women's social presence will quickly cease. The lie "I am a Muslim" does not hold. Islamists, by taking control of decision-making and policymaking in the country's sports, force athletes to avoid shaking hands with women in international competitions, while most Iranian athletes have shown in their private circles that they do not believe in these matters. Iranian athletes are Muslims, but it is unclear if their Islam is of the kind of Khamenei and Jannati. The big lie that the Islamic Republic tells the international community in this way may deceive people at one stage, but when the cameras are not present and the same athletes shake hands with women or millions of other Iranians abroad behave like others, other societies become familiar with the depth of hypocrisy and ugliness prevalent in a nation. The Islamic Republic currently holds the first place in displaying the ugliness resulting from the forced imposition of Sharia. Sports for Islamization and the destruction of diplomacy. Sports, especially competitive sports in today's world, is a political phenomenon. However, governments have frameworks for intervening in sports. These frameworks limit government intervention to determining coaches and playing the national anthem in sports competitions, ensuring the safety of athletes, and adhering to the international regulations of global and national sports federations. Government intervention to the extent of determining winners and losers, depriving part of the population from attending stadiums, determining the type of religious and Sharia dress for athletes, and failing to fulfill obligations towards them is beyond the norm of government intervention in sports affairs. When government intervention leads to public humiliation due to failure in a sports competition or is discriminatory, public opinion cannot digest it. The Islamic Republic, instead of using international sports competitions as a tool for advancing diplomacy and peaceful coexistence, uses it to send dual signals, continue bullying, legitimize Islamic fascism, and generally destroy diplomacy. The ideology of the Islamic Republic has removed sports from its primary function of recreation and entertainment and has turned it into a part of its messaging system. Every aspect of the Islamic Republic's sports must serve the project of Islamization and the expansion of its sphere of influence; otherwise, it is disregarded and ignored. The government wants to gain political and ideological benefits from every penny it spends on sports (which is not very significant). Iran is both a nation-state with responsibilities and frameworks for its presence in international arenas and a country occupied by a sectarian and totalitarian group. The Iran that Islamists dominate has been reduced to a small village under the control of an Islamist cleric and his personal guardians.