October 18th, is registered as national sports day on the Iranian calendar. As media around the world is going on about how Islam limits women athletes and that Iranian female athletes are oppressed, lets have a look at Iranian Muslim women plus a few Muslim women from other nationalities in the world of SPORTS.
Shahrabanou Mansourian
Shahrbanou Mansourian, has several world gold medals in Wushu and is still considered one of the most specialized in this field.
Elaheh Mansourian
The third person is from the Mansourian family. Elaheh, Shahrabanou’s younger sister, has several world and Asian gold medals, also has been fighting in the Chinese league for several years and is considered one of Iran’s prominent female athletes.
Behnaz Shafii
Behnaz Shafii is motorcycle rider who is absolute professional in this field of sports and has recently appeared in many television shows on the Iranian media. Shafii, has been a barrier-breaker in the field of women’s motorcycling.
Nora Naraghi
She is the first Iranian women’s motocross champion. She won the first place in the Iranian Women’s Motocross Championship, which was held on November 8, 2008, in Tehran, and was named the first female Motocross Champion of Iran.
Elaheh Ahmadi
This Iranian woman shooter who won the most medals in the world, achieved the best result in the history of this sport in Iranian competitions. She was also one of the most successful athletes of the entire Iranian delegation in the Asian Games in Guangzhou, where she won a silver and bronze medal.
Elaheh Ahmadi is the only Iranian female athlete who has been able to win the first place in the world ranking of sports federations in the history of Iranian women’s sports. In 2015, after receiving the gold medal in the finals hosted by Munich Germany, and then the runner-up in the Asian Games in New Delhi, in the world ranking of the World Shooting Federation (ISSF) she became first.
Noor Alexandria Abukaram – Cross Country
A young runner living in the United States of America; and in the middle of her seventh cross country race of the season, when the previous six having been run with no objections to her hijab, she was disqualified by the Ohio High School Athletic Association – after beating her personal record for a 5Km.
Indira Kaljo – Basketball
Indira, a top women’s basketball player in high school and college, playing at Tulane University in the early 2000s for eight years. While she didn’t wear hijab during her college playing days and when she played overseas, she started wearing it after and was dismayed to learn of the FIBA ban on headgear. Indira started a Change.org petition and the movement to end the ban, saying at the time of the ban, “I have witnessed sport’s awesome power to transcend barriers, but FIBA wants to keep tme up … if I’m not allowed to wear a hijab, why are some players allowed to display tattoos of their faith without discrepancy?”
Jeri Villarreal – Personal Training/Triathlon
At the age of 44, with three children, Jeri Villarreal has five years of long-distance triathlon racing experience under her belt and was one of the first hijabi triathletes to compete in the Chicago triathlon.
Zahra Lari – Figure Skating
When she was 11, she watched the Disney Film, Ice Princess, and was inspired to try figure skating. After three years of practice, she became serious about her training and became an Emirati figure skater and the first figure skater from the United Arab Emirates to compete internationally and is a five time Emirati national champion!