Iranian chess referee who ditched her country over hijab reveals Jewish roots

Disir

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A world-class Iranian chess referee who made headlines after announcing she would not return home following an international championship as she no longer wanted to keep her hair covered with a hijab, has revealed that she has Jewish roots.

Shoreh Bayat, 33, told the Telegraph newspaper that she kept her heritage hidden all her life while in Iran, but this year, as she waits for asylum in Britain, was able to celebrate her first Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year.


“All my life was about showing a fake image of myself to society because they wanted me to be an image of a religious Muslim woman, which I wasn’t,” she told the paper from her temporary home outside London at the family of a chess player friend.

I couldn't do it. I would be dead within 10 minutes. I just wouldn't make it. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a theocracy.
 
A world-class Iranian chess referee who made headlines after announcing she would not return home following an international championship as she no longer wanted to keep her hair covered with a hijab, has revealed that she has Jewish roots.

Shoreh Bayat, 33, told the Telegraph newspaper that she kept her heritage hidden all her life while in Iran, but this year, as she waits for asylum in Britain, was able to celebrate her first Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year.


“All my life was about showing a fake image of myself to society because they wanted me to be an image of a religious Muslim woman, which I wasn’t,” she told the paper from her temporary home outside London at the family of a chess player friend.

I couldn't do it. I would be dead within 10 minutes. I just wouldn't make it. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in a theocracy.

Amazing story.. Used to be a LARGER Jewish community in Iran prior to the Ayatollahs.. Seems like she got "left behind" when most left.
 
I don't understand why the woman felt the need to hide her jewish identity?
There is a vibrant jewish community in Iran, and they have the same rights as a muslim citizen and are protected by Iranian law. .. :cool:
 
"The Muslim majority in Iran has accepted us," said Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, 53, who holds the role once held by Elghanian, chairman of the Tehran Jewish Committee.

"We are respected and trusted for our expertise and fair dealings in business, and we never feel threatened," he said. "Many years ago, before the royal regime of Pahlavi, by contrast, if it was raining in Iran, Jews were not allowed to go outside of their houses because it was believed that if a non-Muslim got wet and touched a Muslim it would make them dirty."

Najafabadi said it may be difficult for Jews and others outside the country suspicious of Iran’s treatment of religious minorities or its views on Israel to accept. Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s first supreme leader, deliberately sought to improve relations between Jews and Muslims in the country for the nation’s long-term stability.

He added that Jews, who have been in Iran since about the eighth century B.C., used to be scattered all over the country but are now largely concentrated in Tehran and other big cities such as Isfahan and Shiraz. In all, he said, Iran is home to about 35 synagogues.

Najafabadi said most Jews in Iran are shopkeepers, although he said others work as doctors, engineers and in other highly skilled professions.

Sedgh, 53, said one of the reasons Jews in Iran are able to live peacefully is that they consider themselves Iranians first – and Jews second.

"We’re not an entity outside of the Iranian nation. We are part of it. Our past and our future. I may pray in Hebrew, but I can only think in Persian (Farsi, Iran’s language)," said Sedgh, who is also a surgeon at a hospital in central Tehran, where USA TODAY spoke with him.

Crucially, that affinity extends to the question of Israel.

"I don’t think Israel is a Jewish state because not everyone in Israel lives according to the teachings of the Torah. This is what Jews in Iran believe," Sedgh insisted.

 
The Muslim women that are flying from the ME to the US and Europe are changing clothes in the bathroom on the plane. If that is all you know in Iran then that is one thing. If you are out in the rest of the world doing your thing and as a female then Iran is not anywhere close to freedom as a female or freedom as a Jewish woman.

Jewish people in Germany were Germans first. That's why they went back to Germany. They thought because they viewed themselves as Germans first that the rest of Germany did as well.

So, they lose everything financially if they leave. Noted in the following link.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/01/12/the-jews-of-iran-are-in-grave-peril/

This link will be irritating as all get out for some people. There is a tiny bit of information that is useful in here. Smidgen. Then some BS.


One would think that with the series Tehran out that there would be a lot more reading material. That may be coming in book form later.
 

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