Flag bearer at the Winter Games: Iranian Olympian applies for asylum in Germany

Atefeh Ahmadi will fly the Iranian flag at the 2022 Winter Olympics - now she has fled her home country to find refuge in Germany.

Flag bearer at the Winter Games: Iranian Olympian applies for asylum in Germany

Atefeh Ahmadi will fly the Iranian flag at the 2022 Winter Olympics - now she has fled her home country to find refuge in Germany. The 22-year-old is not the first athlete to flee the revolutionary protests and the regime's violence.

The Iranian skier Atefeh Ahmadi fled her home country and applied for asylum in Germany. The 22-year-old, who last year was the only woman in her country to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Beijing and carried the country's flag into the stadium at the opening ceremony, said in an emotional interview with the Persian-language news channel Iran International in London.

"I left Iran to achieve my goal, but my heart is with Iran," Ahmadi said. "If I could, I would stand by the people so that we can achieve freedom together." She actually traveled to Europe to prepare for the World Ski Championships in France in February, but participation is no longer an option. Ahmadi finished 57th in the Olympic giant slalom in Beijing.

Protests erupted in Iran last September after 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini died in custody. She had previously been arrested for alleged violations of the Islamic Republic's dress code. According to the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, hundreds of people have since been killed by state repression described as "security measures". More than 19,000 demonstrators are said to have been arrested.

There is now talk of revolutionary unrest, against which the state leadership and its security apparatus are using the most brutal means. For example, death sentences were carried out against several demonstrators, and there are repeated reports of torture to force alleged confessions. Steffen Hebestreit, spokesman for the German government, recently described the death penalty as a "means of oppression" by the Iranian regime.

Ahmadi is not the first female athlete to leave Iran in recent years. Chess player Sara Khadem fled to Spain after playing an international tournament in December without wearing the hijab required in Iran. Taekwondoin Kimia Alisadeh, Iran's first ever Olympic medalist, left her homeland for the Netherlands in 2020.