US Denies Visas to Iran’s Archery Team To Partake In World Games
Iran’s Archery Federation announced on Saturday that the United States did not issue visas for the national team members, and they lost the chance to participate in the World Games.
Iran’s Archery Federation announced on Saturday that the United States did not issue visas for the national team members, and they lost the chance to participate in the World Games.
The 2022 World Games, an international multi-sport event meant for disciplines or categories that were not contested in the Olympic Games, was inaugurated in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 7.
The president of the Iranian federation, Gholamreza Shabanibahar, said Iran plans to voice its official protest to the World Archery Federation in the coming days.
Last week, the Iranian karate team was also denied visas to enter the US for the World Games. Fox News claimed that the national team has direct links to the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) that is designated as a terrorist organization by Washington. The report said opponents of the regime and Gold Star families – a name given to immediate family members of the killed US service members -- called for an immediate ban.
Beverly Wolfer, sister of Major Stuart Adam Wolfer, who was killed in Iraq on April 6, 2008 by an Iranian-backed terror cell, said, “Allowing Iranian sports teams to compete in the US legitimizes a terrorist regime by flying its flag and playing its anthem on American soil.”
The captain of the karate team, Zabihollah Poursheib, told ISNA, "America did not issue visas for various teams, including wrestling, which shows that the Americans mix non-sports and political issues with sports."
The Islamic Republic, especially since Ebrahim Raisi took office, has appointed several former IRGC officers as top managers of government organizations such as sports federations.
In May, Canada Soccer cancelled a controversial friendly match with Iran’s national team after many Iranians objected to the visit of Iranian football officials.
In short reports, websites affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard said Tajzadeh was arrested on charges of “assembly and collusion against state security,” an accusation routinely used to jail all opponents and even those who are considered generally loyal to the principle of having an Islamic Republic.
Tajzadeh was deputy-interior minister during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami in 2000s and had become an outspoken critic of policies pursued by dominating hardliners in Iran in recent years. He spent seven years in prison after months of nationwide protests to the results of 2009 presidential elections reinstating Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a second term.
But in the past three years, Tajzadeh became increasingly vocal against the hardliners and even Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. From his public comments it was apparent that he remained loyal to the concept of an Islamic Republic but otherwise criticized almost every aspect of the political system Khamenei has nurtured.
In recent days, Tajzadeh vehemently opposed the increasingly harsh methods to enforce hijab in his tweets. In March he opposed the government's policy of not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
"Iranians still remember the bitter experience of Saddam Hussain's war (1980s) and his aggression against Iran, a neighboring country. For this, Iranians condemn the military attack" on Ukraine, he tweeted in March.
Late Friday, the government’s official news website IRNA announced that two film directors, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Alehahmad have also been arrested. They were signatories of a collective statement titles “Lay down the gun” issued by more than 100 film industry personalities in the end of May calling on military and security forces who “have become tools for cracking down on the people,” not to suppress protesters who simply want their basic rights.
Dozens of Rasoulof’s films have won international awards and he is known as an independent filmmaker, who spent one year in prison for filming without a permit from the censors of Iran’s clerical regime.
After the public statement by filmmakers, Rasoulof wrote on his Instagram page that security forces were calling signatories asking them to renounce their signatures or give interviews to state media discrediting the statement.
Some Iranian activists tweeted on Friday and Saturday that Tajzadeh’s arrest puts an end to any notion that even loyal reformists would be allowed to exist in Iran.
Mehdi Nasiri, a regime insider who was once the editor of the conservative flagship, Kayhan Daily tweeted, “Mostafa Tajzadeh’s arrest…who was still defending reforms and opposing political violence for regime change, only means that the rulers are not able to discern their own interests, or those of the people and Iran.”
