Iranian tennis player Hana Shabanpour withdrew from the final of a junior doubles tournament in Istanbul, refusing to play against an Israeli opponent. The decision was made as a protest against the military operations of Israel and the United States in Iran.
Hana Shabanpour, an Iranian tennis player, did not appear for the final match of the junior doubles tournament in Istanbul against a representative of Israel, as reported on the website of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The decisive doubles match was scheduled for Sunday, May 10. Shabanpour and her partner, Turkish player Samiye Idil Ozkerestedji, withdrew from the final after learning that their opponents would be Margarita Aktuganova (Israel) and Russian Eva Sultanova.
According to the Iranian agency IRNA, the decision was made “to protest against the recent crimes of the Israeli regime and the mass martyrdom of innocent women and children.”
The tennis player’s action received official support from Tehran. “At the very moment when your efforts bore fruit, when everyone was waiting for your new triumph, you showed with your bold choice that sometimes heroism is standing for your homeland and your people!” read a statement posted on the page of the Iranian Consulate General in Kazan on social media platform X.
On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran, targeting major cities including Tehran. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck targets in Israel, as well as American assets in several Middle Eastern countries.