The narrative of one of Iran’s top athletes’ dismal lives was just released by the country’s state-run media. The narrative of a deaf judoka from the country’s national team who earned a bronze medal at the 2017 Paralympics in Turkey.
Masoud Rastegar, a national hero
Masoud Rastegar, a national hero, currently works as a street seller in Kermanshah. He has done everything he can to support himself and his family, from a daily wage job to garbage collection. When he saw this condition and was irritated that he couldn’t help the people around him, he quit his athletic career and became a street seller.
He bemoans the government’s lack of interest in assisting athletes, claiming that “when we go to the sports office and say give us a handful of training clothes, they keep telling us we don’t have any.”
The regime’s officials misusing the name and fame
“The same officials, at the time of the championship, greet me and put up a banner and take a photo under it,” he says, explaining the impertinence of the regime’s officials misusing the name and fame of the country’s athletes after they have won a gold.
“In these few days, some people who came to buy something looked at me and said, ‘Hero, peace be upon you for working and making halal bread, we are ashamed that we cannot give you some money right now or buy you a car,” he added of the people’s support and moralities. This is the people’s grace, but the officials should be humiliated for not looking after the athletes.”
The regime’s officials’ shamelessness
This athlete articulated all of the facts in a single remark, demonstrating the people’s gratitude on one hand and the regime’s officials’ shamelessness on the other.
The exodus of Iranian elites is not a new phenomenon. Exile and emigration are forced upon everyone from doctors and nurses to artists and athletes. With a broken heart and tears in their eyes, they are forced to leave home and their family. They had ambitions and aspirations, but a corrupt administration not only crushed their hopes and aspirations but also burned them and sentenced them to a slow death.
Iran has a plethora of national heroes
Iran has a plethora of national heroes. The heroes who upheld the Iranian people’s name and reputation. Heroes who, according to them, have been inspired to compete in sports by their love for their homeland and people.
However, they are either migrating or declining under the hard realities of life as a result of the limits and pressures imposed on them by the anti-people regime.
The medal winners in the student Olympiads
’37 percent of the medal winners in the student Olympiads, 25% of the Elite Foundation members, and 15% of the ranks below 1,000 in the national entrance tests reside in other countries,’ according to statistics published by the state media. This is in addition to the stories of prominent Iranian athletes that have already been published.
The Olympic medalists are now competing under the flag of a different country. The fact is that, as a result of the government’s actions, the Iranian people will surely see more elite athletes migrate from the country.
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