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| Elnaz Rekabi on Instagram |
A female Iranian rock climber, who did not wear a hijab at an international competition in South Korea, has returned to Iran as Iranian groups based abroad raised alarms over her fate back home. Elnaz Rekabi, 33, competed without a hijab during the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s Asian Championships in Seoul on Sunday. Videos of her wearing a headband with her hair in a ponytail while competing spread on social media. —CNN, October 19, 2022
I slide into a seat.
I slide through videos tagged @mahsaamini.
Women wave black hijabs as they march.
A cluster of men beat another
curled on the ground.
NPR posts: A rock climber forgets,
or forgoes, her hijab; becomes ‘accidental hero.’
Comments exhort the reader
to pray.
They say: She was called back.
They say: She will be arrested.
They say: She will die!
I imagine the climber speaking:
A
AM
I
Heaven.
Toward
Climb
I
I climb. I go home.
Either way, I move
closer to heaven.
Outside my train window, I see the river
and a perfect blue October sky.
I watch the waves rise
as the wind whips the water.
I think: in some places, we cannot move without a hijab.
Here, we are free to wear what we want.
I wear black.
Most of the passengers wear black.
Black has become de rigueur;
as if we are in mourning,
forced to bear the unwanted.
Hannah L Brooks is a retired surgeon and now writes. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in Chronogram, Hudson Valley Magazine, and the podcast Anamnesis. She founded the Newburgh Literary Festival because she lives in the Hudson Valley, and it was necessary.