Iranian tennis great has not been to home nation since 2020 as he ‘could be arrested’
Iranian former tennis player Mansour Bahrami has opened up about the devastating impact of his nation’s regime after the start of renewed conflict in the Middle East.
US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday led to the emergence of a new conflict in the region, with further strikes on the country in recent days — while Iran has itself targeted several nations in the region with strikes.
The strikes on Iran have killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader who has been the nation’s Head of State since 1989.
The regime in the nation has been widely criticised ever since the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s, with freedom of speech and expression widely suppressed within the country, with repeated crackdowns on democracy movements.
Few in tennis know as much about the nation as Bahrami, now a widely-loved figure on the exhibition circuit and a two-time former champion on the ATP Tour as a doubles player.
Bahrami was born in Iran in 1959, though he left the country for France shortly after the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s, and became a joint Iranian-French national in 1989.
The 66-year-old has remained an advocate for Iran and has publicly supported movements for democracy and freedom in the country, including the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ protests in 2022, connected to the death of Mahsa Amini that September.
And, in a new interview with L’Equipe following the start of the conflict this past weekend, Bahrami revealed that he has been unable to return to the country since his last visit six years ago.
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He said (translated from French): “It was February 7, 2020, and I returned to France the day before Covid.
“Since then, I haven’t gone back, unfortunately. Because at some point, if I went back there, I could have been in trouble. During the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, I spoke out in the media and on social networks.
“I was told I had to keep quiet, otherwise there would be consequences. I kept quiet, for a while, but I miss my family, I miss Iran.
“I used to go every two years, just 3–4 days each time to see my family, and now it’s been six years since I last went back. Because if I go back, I could be arrested.”
Protests in Iran earlier this year brought the regime in the country back into the spotlight, and may have played a factor in the decision for the US and Israel to strike and force regime change.
Speaking further, Bahrami revealed shocking details about how the families of those killed in the protests earlier this year were forced to pay money to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
He added: “In the past, I paid six tomans to get one dollar; now I have to pay 200,000 tomans to get one dollar.
“How can people live in these conditions? I can’t understand it; I don’t know how it’s possible. It’s horrible because people earn 150 euros a month.
“After the massacres six weeks ago, Iranians who went to retrieve their children’s bodies were told they had to pay 200 or 300 euros for each bullet that entered their child’s body. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get the body.
“But how can they demand that? How can they pay up to 2,000 euros to get their children’s bodies so they can bury them with dignity? It’s impossible.”
Though it is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, the tennis world has been directly impacted by the outbreak of the conflict.
Several ATP Tour players and staff members are reportedly still stranded in Dubai, where the ATP 500 Dubai Tennis Championships were held last week.
Tournament champion Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are among those players affected, with flights from the city still suspended after the United Arab Emirates was targeted by Iran’s strikes.
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