Sajjadi, Seyed Hamid Hazaveh
"Hamid Sajjadi is Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth. He is responsible for pressuring Iran’s athletes into silence and for preventing them from speaking out internationally against repression in Iran. He was personally involved in the case of Elnaz Rekabi, an Iranian athlete climber who competed without hijab at the Asian Championship rock climbing competition in Seoul in the autumn of 2022. After her competition, Rekabi was tricked into entering the Iranian embassy building in Seoul, where her passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the orders of the authorities in Tehran. Upon her likely forced arrival in Tehran, she was interrogated by two of Iran’s political and sports institutions and met with Sajjadi. In this meeting, she was coerced into making a statement apologising for competing without a hijab and was threatened with the confiscation of family land. In December 2022, it became clear that Elnaz Rekabi’s family home in Zanjan had been demolished. Hamid Sajjadi is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran."1
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