TEHRAN – After the Islamic Revolution, remarkable growth has been seen in the field of women's sports and they made history in the sporting events despite the limitations they faced.

These years, the importance of women's sports has increased so much that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the slogan of gender equality in the Olympics Games in France. 

Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics in history to achieve numerical gender parity on the field of play, with the same number of female and male athletes participating in the largest sporting event in the world.

Iran has participated in 18 Olympics so far. Iran took part in 9 Summer Olympics and gained 4 gold medals during the Pahlavi era (1925-1979), also attended 9 Summer Olympics and won 20 gold medals after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in February 1979 [by the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty].

Despite the reality that the level of competition, the participating countries, and the progress of sports these years are not comparable to the past, Iranian athletes have been able to shine better in international contests after the Revolution. 

After the Revolution, women have made significant progress in sports and the number of women athletes qualified for the Olympics games is increasing.

Kimia Alizadeh was an Iranian Taekwondo athlete who won a bronze medal in the taekwondo 57 kg weight class at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by defeating a Swedish athlete. This made her the first Iranian woman to win a medal at the Summer Olympics.

Addressing Iranian Olympic and Paralympic medalists at the 2020 Tokyo Games on September 18, 2021, Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iranian female athletes have proven in these competitions that the Islamic hijab is not an obstacle preventing one from shining in sports fields. Similarly, women have previously proven this in the fields of politics, science, and management.

“The hijab of women athletes, which our dear lady mentioned, is really a great value. Raising the flag of the country by a gold-winning lady wearing hijab, displaying Iranian women’s clothing before the eyes of the whole world, and seeing the scenes of expressing love and affection for the beloved flag of Iran, and shedding tears of joy, tears of passion while the flag is being raised as well as the scenes of praying, of hugging the defeated opponent …”

Zahra Nemati is an Iranian archer who was selected to compete for Iran at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, held in London, United Kingdom, where she won two medals, becoming the first Iranian woman to win a gold medal at either the Olympics or Paralympics Games. 

She won her third individual recurve gold medal at her third consecutive Games, with a 6-5 victory over Italian rival at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, in Japan.

Nemati also won colorful medals in various Paralympics Games, Asian Para Games, and World Para-archery Championships. She won the 2013 Sport Accord's Spirit of Sport Individual Award.

“We should appreciate the value of disabled athletes, too. What they do is astonishing. When people look at these athletes, they see that not only does their disability not prevent them from living a normal life, but they are also so unwavering that they become athletes and stand on the medal platform,” said Ayatollah Khamenei. (March 11, 2013)

Sareh Javanmardi an Iranian Paralympic shooter is the first ever-female gold medalist from Iran to win in the shooting category of the Paralympics Games. In the 2012 Paralympic Games held in London, she won a bronze medal in P2 (10m air pistol SH1).

Later in 2014, the Asian Paralympic Committee chose her as the best Asian female athlete with impairments. It was due to the two gold medals she won at the 2014 Asian Para Games held in Incheon, South Korea.

At the 2016 Summer Paralympics on 9 September, she scored 193.4 points to win the gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro in the P2 10m air pistol competition.

Javanmardi claimed her third gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Hashemiyeh Motaghian a Paralympic athlete represented Iran at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo and won the gold medal in the Women's javelin throw F56 event.

Iran's female Para-athletes have also had remarkable participation in the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon, South Korea, and the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

They won 8 gold, 14 silver, and 19 bronze medals at those Asian competitions.

"I express my deep gratitude to athletes who mention the name of our infallible Imams (a.s.) in international arenas, prostrate themselves, pray, and say adhan after conquering the peak of success. I also express my gratitude to woman athletes who wear hijab,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted. (March 11, 2013)

Despite many challenges the Iranian women athletes face, their success in world and international competitions continues, and these are only a small part of the successes they have achieved in international contests. The Iranian female athletes have proven that the Islamic hijab has not created any restrictions for them to shine in various sports disciplines. Success for Iran's female athletes is not limited to individual sports disciplines; the Iranian women in recent years have shined in futsal, football, and Asian Cup as well. 

The 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, Turkey was one of the competitions where Iran’s female athletes made history with remarkable achievements, proving that the hijab is not a restriction on the path to success.

Elham Hosseini gained the first women’s weightlifting gold medal in Iran's sports history in snatch and two bronze medals in clean and jerk and total. Aazam Bakhti won the first medal in the history of Iranian women's epee fencing in the tournament.

Farzaneh Fasihi gained the silver medal in track and field competitions in 100-meter running, breaking the national record for the second time in a single day. Fasihi also claimed a gold medal in the 10th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Iranian female taekwondo practitioner Nahid Kiani also claimed a gold medal in the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games. Kiani has also made history by clinching the coveted gold medal at the 2023 Taekwondo World Championships. With her groundbreaking victory, Kiani has not only cemented Iran's position on the global taekwondo stage but has also etched her name in history as a trailblazer for Iranian women in sports.

The Leader in a meeting with officials of the second National Congress of Sports Martyrs, on September 11, 2022, said, “That courageous, devoted woman who stood on the medal podium, pulled her hand back, and refused to shake the hand of a foreign man [while she stood] there wearing an Islamic hijab before the eyes of millions of people. Many of those people had been trained to take action and speak against the hijab and chastity of women.”