Sun reporter told to wear hijab to interview Iran’s football team… in Austria
A SUNSPORT reporter was compelled to wear a hijab headscarf to interview 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 on Friday from the squad’s security team just hours before Iran played Uruguay in a friendly, winning 1-0.
Public protests have been taking place in Iran after police allegedly beat a woman to death for wearing a headscarf wrong.
Isabelle, who spoke to the team yesterday, said she tried to buy a hijab but the shops had shut so she made one from a T-shirt after watching a YouTube video.
READ MORE SUN SPORT
She said of the ultimatum: “I couldn’t believe what was being asked of me and I even thought about staging my own protest outside the team’s Vienna hotel.
“But I had a job to do so my only real option was to comply. It was a condition of getting the interview.”
Isabelle stressed that the order had not come from the team’s press officer, former Manchester 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 last-minute U-turn.
Most read in The Sun
Tensions ignited when two fans were ejected from the NV Arena after unveiling an anti-Iran sign.
Protestors in Iran have been burning hijabs in solidarity with Mahsa Amini, 22, who died after allegedly being beaten by the country’s morality officers on September 16.