Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,610
- 910
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.
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.
Iranian chess referee who ditched her country over hijab reveals Jewish roots
Shohreh Bayat, seeking asylum in the UK, tells Telegraph that for many years she hid the fact that her paternal grandmother was a Jew who arrived in Iran from Azerbaijan
www.timesofisrael.com
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.