Farzaneh Fasihi: Officials prevented me from participating in the World Championships

Farzaneh Fasihi: Officials prevented me from participating in the World Championships

🔸Farzaneh Fasihi, an Olympic runner from Iran, says officials have prevented her from registering for the World Championships, and she will also withdraw from the Asian Games.

🔸Ms. Fasihi wrote in a statement published on her Instagram page on Saturday that in recent months she had been warned multiple times: “Watch your behavior! You know that the World Championships and the Asian Games are ahead.”

🔸She added: “And that happened. They took away the World Championships—the greatest dream and wish of every athlete—from me; I offer you the Asian Games as well.”

🔸This Iranian runner says her registration was blocked even though she was the only athlete from Iran to secure a quota for the world competitions and finished the season as the first-place athlete in the Asian rankings.

🔸Earlier, in Bahman 1404, after the crackdown on nationwide protests in Dey, she had published a post on Instagram in which she wrote about her anger and sorrow over the killing of protesters.

🔸In her new post, she does not explicitly refer to that issue, but she writes that for months she has been taking legal action to pursue her rights and that “she will never allow” her right as a female Iranian athlete to be violated.