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Iran’s Only Female Olympic Medalist Defects to Europe

Kimia Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in Taekwondo in the 2016 Rio Olympics, said she is defecting because she is “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran.”

Iran’s only female Olympic medalist Kimia Alizadeh announced on Instagram Sunday that she has permanently defected from Iran and will stay in Europe. The 21-year-old started her post with “condolences” before explaining her reasons for defecting while on a vacation. “I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they have been playing with for years.” Alizadeh, who became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal winning a bronze in Taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Alizadeh, who is known as “The Tsunami” in Iran, condemned the regime. “They took me wherever they wanted. I wore whatever they said. Every sentence they ordered me to say, I repeated. Whenever they saw fit, they exploited me,” she wrote. “I wasn’t important to them. None of us mattered to them, we were tools. The virtue of a woman is not to stretch her legs!”