A prominent Iranian chess official said she was afraid of returning to her country after images of her presiding over the Women’s World Chess Championship seeming not to wear a hijab reportedly circulated online. At 32, Shohreh Bayat is one of the few top female chess arbiters in the world with the Category A classification, a distinction given to international chess referees who have shown an excellent command of the rules of the sport. “I turned on my mobile and saw that my picture was everywhere,” Ms. Bayat told the BBC, seeming to refer to Iranian media. “They were claiming I was not wearing a head scarf and that I wanted to protest against the hijab.”Images of her were captured during the tournament in Shanghai earlier this month, seemingly with her head uncovered, a violation of Iranian law.

Source: International New York Times January 15, 2020 22:30 UTC