A SUNSPORT reporter was compelled to wear a hijab headscarf to quiz Iran’s football team after a match — in Austria.
Stunned Isabelle Barker was told she could only speak to the international squad players and manager Carlos Queiroz if her hair was covered.
Furious Isabelle considered staging a one-woman protest outside the team’s hotel in Vienna but, like a true professional, got on with her job.
The hijab demand came from the squad’s security staff ahead of a press conference at the hotel yesterday, the day after Iran beat Uruguay 1-0 in a friendly.
Public protests have been taking place in Iran after police allegedly beat a woman to death for wearing a headscarf the wrong way.
Isabelle said she tried to buy a hijab after the order but the shops had shut so she made one from a T-shirt.
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She said of the ultimatum: “I couldn’t believe what was being asked of me and I even thought about staging my own protest. But I had a job to do so my only real option was to comply.”
England play Iran in their World Cup opener in Qatar on November 21.
Isabelle stressed that the hijab order had not come from the team’s press officer, former Man United coach Queiroz or any of the players, who include Omid Ebrahimi, “all of whom were friendly and co-operative”.
The Iranian Football Federation had earlier barred all media from reporting on Friday’s game before making a U-turn.
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Tensions ignited during the match when two fans were ejected from the NV Arena for unveiling an anti-Iran sign.
Protesters in Iran have been burning hijabs in solidarity with Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after allegedly being beaten by the nation’s morality police on September 16.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
