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PARIS: The first Iranian woman to compete in an official boxing bout has canceled her plan to return home after the issuance of a arrest warrant in Tehran, said her representative Wednesday to the Iranian authorities.
Sadaf Khadem beat a French boxer, Anne Chauvin, during the fight that took place in western France on Saturday.
His representative, Clara Dallay, told Reuters that the authorities had issued arrest warrants against him and were fighting organizer Mahyar Monshipour.
Monshipour, a former boxing world champion born in Iran and now a French citizen, organized the fight after Iran opened the door to the possibility for women to box.
Hossein Soori, chairman of the Iranian Boxing Federation, denied Khadem's arrest, attributing this information to "media related to Saudi Arabia".
"Ms. Khadem is not a member of the athletes organized by Iran for boxing and, from the point of view of the boxing federation, all her activities are personal," he said in a statement. Semi-official ISNA news agency.
The participation of Iranian women in sporting events is severely limited, even though the authorities are starting to give ground in some areas after years of lobbying.
The federation now allows women to sign up for boxing, provided they are coached by a woman and wear the Islamic hijab during the competition. To date, no combat between fighters has taken place in Iran.
Monshipour planned to return to Iran with Khadem this week.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not immediately comment on the case.
Franco-Iranian relations are in a tense phase after statements by the French ambassador to the United States last week about the Iranian nuclear program provoked Tehran's angry reaction.
(Report by Julien Pretot, additional report by John Irish in Paris and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, written by John Stonestreet, edited by Toby Chopra)
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