Senator Marsha Blackburn to the International Olympic Committee: Exclude the Islamic Republic for Human Rights Violations from the 2024 Games

Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, called for the exclusion of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the 2024 Paris Olympics in a letter to the President of the International Olympic Committee. On Wednesday, March 14, she emphasized that the committee "must send a strong message" and remove Iran "until it stops its human rights violations." In her letter, Senator Blackburn stated: "As the eyes of the world turn to Paris ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee must immediately sanction Iran and send this decisive message: the harassment of athletes and violations of the Olympic Charter are intolerable." She added: "Iran is governed by an evil regime that systematically victimizes its citizens, especially women and girls." Referring to the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of government forces, she wrote: "Violence has spread to all aspects of Iranian women's lives. While the horrific murder of Mahsa Amini - a 22-year-old woman killed by Iran's morality police for refusing to wear a headscarf - was a stark example of this systemic violence, countless Iranians face these human rights violations every day." Senator Blackburn further emphasized that "athletes are not safe from harassment in Iran. In fact, Iran has only one female Olympic medalist, Kimia Alizadeh. This inequality is not due to a lack of talent [in women] but is a direct result of the oppression and abuse that female athletes face in Iran; the same oppression that later forced Alizadeh to leave her country." She pointed out the mandatory hijab for women's sports and the prohibition on Iranian women participating in major Olympic sports such as gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, and boxing, stating that several Iranian athletes have been harmed, imprisoned, or killed "simply for speaking out against the regime's injustices." Senator Blackburn also stressed the centuries-old role of sports in "empowering the powerless" and accelerating change, noting that according to the Olympic Charter, "sport is a human right" and the goal of the Olympic Games is "to promote a peaceful society with respect for human dignity." She emphasized: "The Iranian regime routinely prevents women from participating in sports by directly violating this charter and even kills and arrests those who do not comply with its rules. Likewise, the Iranian government has no interest in promoting a peaceful society, as it prides itself on being the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and currently funds attacks on American forces abroad and Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East." The 2024 Olympics will take place from July 27 to August 12, 2024, in Paris. Previously, Hadi Vafaeipour, an Iranian wrestler in the 86 kg category who replaced Hassan Yazdani in the Zagreb wrestling competitions, fell victim to the Islamic Republic's unwritten "must lose" law due to the presence of two Israeli wrestlers in the first round of the 2024 World Wrestling Federation ranking competitions. The violation of women's rights in sports by the Islamic Republic authorities, which Senator Blackburn referred to, is not new and has repeatedly occurred in Iranian sports, even affecting some sports managers. In recent months, the sports and youth director of Kohgiluyeh County was dismissed for participating in a sports event in Dehdasht where two 12-year-old taekwondo athletes appeared without mandatory hijab. Regarding gender discrimination in Iranian sports, Ghazal Khalaj, captain of the women's kabaddi national team, previously emphasized that "this issue exists in wushu, wrestling, kabaddi, and even football," stating: "I was the goalkeeper of the national team for five years. We slept next to a container while the men were in the Olympic hotel. For this reason, I actually retired. How long will they continue to treat women this way?"