MADRID, July 26 (Reuters) - An Iranian chess player who moved to Spain in January after she competed without a hijab and had an arrest warrant issued against her at home has been granted Spanish citizenship, Spain said on Wednesday.

Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, better known as Sara Khadem, took part in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships held in Kazakhstan in late December without the headscarf that is mandatory under Iran’s strict Islamic dress codes.

Laws enforcing mandatory hijab-wearing became a flashpoint during the unrest that swept Iran when a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the custody of the morality police in mid-September.

The 26-year-old has told Reuters she had no regrets over her gesture in support of the protest movement against her country’s clerical leadership.

Spain’s official gazette said the cabinet approved granting Khadem citizenship on Tuesday “taking into account the special circumstances” of her case.

  • Oliver Lowe
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    11011 months ago

    A very gifted programmer I met from Iran had to do the same. Originally from Iran, he wanted to marry a girl from Myanmar. This was forbidden for some reason so they said “fuck it, let’s go to where there is loads of tech jobs”. I was working in the Netherlands at the time when I met them. He’s now flourishing in the open source software space over there. Brain drain 100%.

    • Flying SquidM
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      2111 months ago

      Someone from Iran marrying someone from Myanmar in the Netherlands sounds like a movie musical… “Two oppressed people from different parts of the world find love in beautiful Amsterdam!”

    • GrO2Bl
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      911 months ago

      Actually there is no problem to marry someone from a different country. The problem is you cannot marry with a non-muslim person, so he/she should accept Islam first. 😟😄 weird like many other rules! I don’t know if other religions have such restrictions or not, I would be happy to hear if someone knows.

      • @kanzalibrary@lemmy.world
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        111 months ago

        The problem is you cannot marry with a non-muslim person, so he/she should accept Islam first.

        I’m a muslim and as far as I know, there’s no law that forbid you to marry non-muslim. There’s many muslim clerics or saints who are marry a non-muslim in history of Islam.

        But to do that, first you need to have a really strong faith so your partner in future will slowly understand and accept Islam by her/his own will. The common understanding that seems to not marry a non-muslim by many muslims because is not an easy path to have a relationship with different faith. Especially family and tradition on both side.

        The most common cases about this are men muslim married a woman non-muslim. On the opposite, is very rare cases that happen in history of Islam. Some (fiqh) law by clerics forbids woman muslim to married a men non-muslim, and some allowed that with requirement the woman need to have a strong faith first.

        I have many friends who’s their parents married with different religion (islam and christian, islam and shinto, islam and confucius). I admit is not an easy path than married with same religion as far I can see in my own cases, but I respect their choice…

        • GrO2Bl
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          011 months ago

          I was talking about how it works in Iran

          • @kanzalibrary@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Iran has more freedom than you think. Yes, the law about how to dress is very restricted there. But as far as I know for marriage law, Iran (Shia islam) surprisingly very flexible on that compared to other Islam sects. There’s no problem on marriage in Iran to married a non-muslim partner, even without any requirement (of course an agreement from both side men and woman is needed, even parents agreement are not needed for some Shia sects and its legal). But for sure exclusively, any muslim woman in Iran who’s not obey on how to dress properly according to Shia Islam (even she’s married with non-muslim), the punishment will severe.

            • GrO2Bl
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              11 months ago

              Do you live in Iran?!! If not then I should say I was living there and I know the law well. So I invite you to read more about the marriage law in Iran. Sorry, but freedom doesn’t make any sense in Iran.