Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday known as on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bar Iran from this summer time’s Paris Olympics, citing allegations of human rights abuses in opposition to the nation.
Mr Blackburn stated Iran’s “evil regime” shouldn’t be allowed to compete on the world stage.
Iran “systematically victimizes its personal folks, particularly girls and women. Violence pervades each facet of Iranian girls’s lives,” she wrote in a letter to IOC President Thomas Bach. talked about in.
“Athletes are usually not resistant to persecution in Iran. In truth, there is just one feminine Olympic medalist in Iran, Kimia Alizadeh,” she continued. “This disparity is just not attributable to a scarcity of expertise. Rather, it’s a direct results of the oppression and abuse confronted by feminine athletes in Iran, the very oppression and abuse that later drove Alizadeh into exile.”
The IOC has beforehand banned nations from taking part within the Olympics, most not too long ago banning Russia and Belarus from the Paris Olympics in October attributable to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia had beforehand been banned from the competitors attributable to an athlete doping scandal.
The IOC stated athletes from Russia and Belarus can be allowed to compete as “impartial particular person athletes.” Mr Blackburn known as for Iranian gamers to be handled equally.
“The Iranian regime won’t enable any withdrawal from the Games until they meet the requirements and beliefs of Olympism by permitting all Iranian athletes, no matter gender or political persuasion, to compete freely and with out persecution. Nor ought to he take the glory,” Blackburn wrote.
The group has beforehand allowed different impartial teams of athletes to compete, together with a refugee staff primarily from South Sudan in 2016. The bigger staff for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics included a number of Iranian-born athletes.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.