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Women’s Ski Coach Grounded By Husband Vows Campaign To Change Law

With her team competing at the world skiing championships in Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo, head coach Samira Zargari is trying to overcome a legal hurdle before heading for the Alpine slopes. Her husband won’t let her go.

“I just need the support of the authorities,” Zargari wrote on her Instagram page on Friday. “I have worked hard for years for the flag of my country [to be raised at international competitions] and love my country.”

The team left for Italy on Wednesday without their coach because Zargari’s husband refused to allow her to leave Iran. He wants her to agree to an easy divorce because he is in a relationship with her best friend. “I didn’t [consent] and he blocked me,” Zargari told Associated Press on Wednesday.

It appears from Zargari’s account that her husband, born and bred in the United States, has prevented her from leaving the country by exercising a right given by Iranian law. “Despite not having lived in Iran for long, he is well aware of the laws of the country,” she has explained in social media posts.

A husband can legally prevent his wife travelling abroad unless he has signed an official declaration allowing her to travel as and when, and where, she wants. This permission can be included in pre-nuptial arrangement or as a later notarized declaration.

Zargari is among many women either unaware of the issue when marrying or who simply do not exercise it. While prenuptial arrangements are entirely legal, eyebrows are often raised. Two women were recently sentenced to long prison terms for organizing workshops to teach women such legal rights.

The Skiing Federation tried for weeks to reason with Zargari’s husband, but others are unsympathetic. In a Twitter post on February 17, Zargari said the police had called her to warn against undue protests. “They said I might get arrested for propaganda against the system and insulting sanctities,” she wrote.

The federation has kept a lid on things, perhaps not wishing to become involved in a matter some consider ‘private.’ Iranian news agencies and websites have reported the story cautiously.

But Zargari is not shy. “Being barred from leaving the country by my husband is not merely a private and family matter,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “My pain is the pain of all Iranian women.”

The coach was on Thursday in touch with her four racers by phone between runs on the women’s giant slalom. “Always I (am) proud of all Iranian girls,” she told the Associated Press by text. “I love them.”

But the next step, Zargari said, when the championships were over, would be a “campaign” to change the law.

A British-Iranian journalist, political analyst and former correspondent of The National and journalist at Iran International
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