09/14/2024
Well played, Ms. Derakhshani.
After Dorsa Derakhshani was banned from playing for Iran's national chess team because she didn't wear a hijab at an international tournament, she left Iran at the age of 19 to attend St. Louis University on a full chess scholarship. Before starting college, Dorsa had already won the Asian Youth Chess Championship three times and had been awarded the prestigious titles of woman grandmaster and international master.
Dorsa, who believes that it should be a woman's choice whether she wants to cover her hair, resisted wearing the hijab from a young age. She recalls how once when she was in fifth grade, she was walking home from school with her long hair sticking out of her hijab when a stranger cut off her hair on the street. “You can’t do anything about it because if you go to the police and complain, they’re like, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t have been able to see your hair. It’s your fault,’” she reflects. “The blame is always on the woman.”
Today, the 26-year-old is a medical student at the University of Missouri and, while she continues to play for their chess team, her ambition now is to become a surgeon. And, while she misses her country, she doesn't expect to return anytime soon: “I have love for the country, but I’m not going to go back until the regime has changed...” she observed. “[If] I go back, they’re going to jail me somewhere, and nobody’s going hear from me again.”
For a selection of powerful books for tweens and teens about girls and women living under repressive authoritarian regimes, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
For an easy way to introduce kids (or adults) to chess, we highly recommend No Stress Chess for ages 7 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/no-stress-chess
For a high quality wooden chess set for all ages, we recommend the Amerous Magnetic Folding Board Set at https://www.amightygirl.com/magnetic-wooden-chess-set
For an inspiring story about the power of chess to change a girl’s life, we highly recommend “The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming A Grandmaster,” about Phiona Mutesi, the Ugandan chess phenom for ages 15 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/the-queen-of-katwe
For adult readers, we also recommend the gripping novel about a female chess prodigy "The Queen's Gambit" at https://amzn.to/4dbBwfD
