After playing without a hijab in a world championship, Iranian chess star defects to Spain Sarasadat Khademalsharieh will not return to Iran, which has harshly repressed other athletes who supported protests by competing with their heads uncovered Iran is the perfect example of how political and religious extremism can ruin sporting success.Three years ago, Alireza Firouzja (16 at the time), currently ranked 4th in the world, defected to France, upset at being forced to lose by default against Israeli rivals.Khademalsharieh had already had problems with her country’s government after she publicly supported Firouzja’s decision in a video and declared that, if the government did not retract its order to refuse to play with Israelis, there would be more cases like his.According to the so-called residence visa for investors and entrepreneurs, also known as the Golden Visa, a non-EU citizen who purchases a real estate property whose value exceeds €500,000 can automatically obtain legal residence in Spain.Something even more serious happened recently with Elnaz Rekabi, one of the best climbers in the world: in October she competed without a hijab at the IFSC Climbing Asian Championship in South Korea, shortly after the September 16 death – in police custody – of Mahsa Amini, arrested three days earlier for not wearing the hijab correctly."