Chess player banned by Iran for not wearing a hijab switches to US

A chess player banned from the Iranian national women's team for attending an international competition without wearing an Islamic headscarf has joined the US team.

Dorsa Derakhshani refused to wear the headscarf, known as the hijab, during the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess tournament in February, and joined the U.S. national team.

Dorsa's registration has been altered on the world governing body Fide's website and the switch to the United States Chess Federation confirmed by the president of Iran's chess federation, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.

Pahlevanzadeh added that she was not a member of Iran's national chess team. "She played for Iran only one time in 2014," he clarified.

Dorsa left Tehran and moved to Barcelona in 2015 after she received an invitation by a chess club that also supported her studies, according to ISNA. She was awarded the titles Woman Grandmaster and International Master by the World Chess Federation in 2016.

At the February competition in Gibraltar, her brother Borna Derakhshani, also a chess player, was paired up by a computer against Israeli grandmaster Alexander Huzman. Pahlevanzadeh later announced that Borna was banned from playing for Iran for competing against Israeli athletes.

UCJ, UNILORIN.