October 7, 2016
By Katie Rogers
Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, (click here) a United States women’s chess champion, has said that she will boycott next year’s world championship in Iran because religious law would require her to wear a hijab.
In
a series of posts on social media, Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, a Russian-born
Georgian-American, has said that requiring women to wear a hijab is a
human rights issue.
“I
think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place
where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as
second-class citizens,” she wrote in a post on Instagram.
Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, 22, also organized a petition
calling for the competition’s governing body, the Fédération
Internationale des Échecs, or World Chess Federation, to either move the
competition from Iran or persuade Iranian officials to make wearing a
hijab an option instead of a requirement....
