THE SQUIZ
Protesters in Iran have given a hero’s welcome to climber Elnaz Rekabi who arrived home after competing with her hair uncovered at the Asian Championships in South Korea on Sunday. Fears for her safety grew when reports surfaced on Tuesday that she was uncontactable after her passport and phone had been confiscated by Iranian officials. It was also confirmed that she’d left her hotel in Seoul 2 days before her scheduled departure date. Concerns were not allayed when a post on her Instagram account appeared where she apologised for “getting everybody worried” and said her head covering “inadvertently came off”. But there was some relief when she flew into Tehran yesterday to a large crowd clapping and chanting “Elnaz is a heroine”. Reports say it’s unclear where she is now.

I FEEL LIKE THERE’S A BACKSTORY COMING ON…
There sure is, and our Squiz Shortcut out today will take you through it in more detail. But to cover it quickly, women in Iran must cover their hair with a hijab and dress modestly. Female athletes must also follow the dress code when representing their country abroad. This is a red hot topic right now because last month 22yo Mahsa Amini was arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely, and she died in custody. Police say she died from a heart attack, but reports say authorities beat her. That has sparked big protests across the country that are still going 5 weeks later and include demands from overhauling the regime’s strict social and political rules to the overthrow of the state.

THAT’S FULL-ON…
And more than 200 people have died, including more than 20 children, and 1,000-plus have been detained in the crackdown on the dissent. On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office said it was deeply worried by the “unabated violent response by security forces against protesters”. Despite the risks, the scale of the defiance – women setting their headscarves on fire and cutting their hair in public – has not been seen before, according to human rights groups. These protests involve people from all sections of society and age groups and have spread across the country. And observers say there has been an unprecedented show of support from men and teenage boys participating in large numbers in support of the women’s demands. But will it result in change? That’s still a big and unanswered question.