Asra Nomani and Masih Alinejad (of My Stealthy Freedom) on Nazi Paikidze-Barnes’s boycott of the Women’s World Chess Championship:

To us, Paikidze should not have to boycott the tournament, which an Iranian Woman Grandmaster said would hurt the progress of women’s chess in the country. Instead, Iran should respect her choice, make the headscarf optional and lift its ban on women who choose not to cover their hair.

The 22-year-old U.S. chess champion’s sincere protest is a remarkable checkmate to the government of Iran and other fundamentalist elements in our Muslim societies, who peddle “hijab” as a virtual sixth pillar of Islam for women.

If Allah is so desperate for women to wear hijab, why didn’t he (yes he) just make them with hijab pre-installed?

In a countermove, Susan Polgar, the Hungarian-born American chair of FIDE’s Commission for Women’s Chess, said she has “respect” for “cultural differences,” even noting the “beautiful choices” of scarves Iranian organizers provided women in the past.

You might as well rhapsodize about the view from Raif Badawi’s prison cell.

While American liberals call out the “slut shaming” of beauty queen Alicia Machado, they too often sacrifice their values and stay silent on the idea of the hijab. Paikidze’s protest is a welcome departure from politicians, journalists, nonprofit leaders and fashion designers who express, for lack of a better word, a hijab fetish, which romanticizes and normalizes the hijab. Indeed, hijab fetishists are like pawns for the clerics, blinded to the fact that the hijab is a symbol of sexism, misogyny and purity culture.

And is itself a very intrusive form of slut shaming, one that treats all girls and women as sluts in need of shaming.

Compulsory hijab is not part of our culture. Yet women are criminals in Iran if they remove their headscarves to feel the wind in their hair. Forcing women to cover their hair imposes a false identity on us. For years, a battery of Iranian clerics had the advantage of the bully pulpit, boasting that women embraced the hijab, but, since the launch of the #MyStealthyFreedom campaign, thousands of women have posted selfies without headscarves, showing the emptiness of the mullahs’ claim.

As many liberals and Muslims shiver at the idea of a ban on Muslims entering the United States, Iran is banning women such as Paikidze who don’t believe in covering their hair. She won the right to compete in a world championship that Iran won the right to host. In the spirit of a history that welcomed seafarers, spice traders, merchants and orphans through the span of the Persian Empire, Iran has a choice on its next move: continue its ban or host a world championship that accepts a young chess champion from America, as she is, brilliant, dynamic, collegial — and scarf-less.

My Stealthy Freedom posted this a couple of days ago:

First time in Iran, none Iranian athletes without compulsory hijab

تیم فوتسال زنان روسی را در داخل ایران به زور با حجاب نکردند، چرا زنان شطرنج باز نباید اعتراض کنند تا حجاب برای آنها هم زوری نباشد؟
Russian women play futbal without hijab in Iran after pressure from Russian federation.
These days, Fide, the chess federation, has given in to Islamic Republic’s demand that chess players competing in Tehran’s Women Chess championship must wear compulsory hijab. As everyone can see, Iranian government can be flexible if you protest instead of obeying a discriminatory law. Isn’t it time for Fide to stand up for women chess players?
جلوی ورود خبرنگاران ایرانی به این بازی گرفته شد ولی این عکس ها را رسانه های روسی منتشر کردند. این یعنی می شود قهرمانان شطرنج را هم در خاک ایران پذیرفت بدون آنکه حجاب زوری را به آنها تحمیل کرد اگر به جای تسلیم شدن در برابر حجاب اجباری اعتراض صورت بگیرد.

#MyStealthyFreedom