Wrestling, or “koshti,” is Iran’s national sport, rooted in its pre-Islamic Persian identity and cultural heritage. Its honor code of kindness, chivalry and humility has animated Iran’s epic poetry and prose, merging Iranian nationalism and heroism to emerge as one of Iran’s most enduring cultural treasures.
On March 19, just a day before the arrival of spring and the celebration of the ancient Iranian New Year Nowruz, the Islamic regime executed one of Iran’s most gifted wrestlers, along with two other young men — effectively punishing Iranians for honoring their pre-Islamic past.
The timing could not have been a coincidence. While smoke was still billowing from the barrels of military-style guns used to carry out the worst massacre in Iran’s modern history this past January, and while wary and wounded Iranians were preparing to welcome Nowruz in a show of resilience, the regime decided to remind Iranians of exactly who is in charge.
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The three young men, 19-year-old champion wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, 21-year-old Saeed Davudi, and Mehdi Ghassemi, were convicted of killing two police officers, inciting violence by joining protesters, and waging war against God.
They were hanged in public in the city of Qom, the Vatican of Iran, the hub of Shi’a doctrines of morality and piety.
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The death toll following the massacres of this past January is still rising: soccer player Mohammad Hossein Hosseini, water polo goalkeeper Ali Pishevarzadeh, marathon runner Niloufar Pas, kickboxing champion Benjamin Naghdi, teenage soccer player Abolfazl Dokht, boxer Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani and at least 20 others are reportedly detained in solitary confinement and are at risk of being executed.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has warned the international community that “Iran is facing the risk of a catastrophic human rights crisis,” and has denounced the swift trials as “sham trials based on torture and forced confessions.”
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This is not the first time the Islamic regime has killed its own athletes. Perhaps the most widely known case is Navid Afkari, a star wrestler who, despite a global campaign led by athletes and human rights organizations, was hanged in September 2020 for the alleged murder of a security guard.
Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad has pointed to the broader regime strategy of eliminating Iran’s heroes so that it could crush Iranians’ spirit. “This is not just about sports,” she pleaded on X, “this is about human dignity. They hanged him without giving him a chance to say goodbye to his family.”
The revolution that toppled the Shah and ushered in “the age of extreme” of Ayatollah Khomeini was, at its core, according to Professor Ali Ansari, the director of Iranian studies at the University of St. Andrews, a battle to “redefine the Iranian identity.” Ayatollah Khomeini saw Iranian nationalism as a negation of Islam and sought to surrender Iran’s history and culture to the life of the prophet Muhammad and the rise of Shi’ism.
His sermons often ridiculed Iran’s pre-Islamic history. “Cyrus the Great was not that great if he allowed Jews to rebuild their temple,” he is quoted as saying in his compilation Sahifeh-ye Imam. Taking a direct jab at the beloved pre-Islamic king, Anushirvan the Just, he said, “He was Anushirvan the unjust because he didn’t know Islam yet. In fact, he was worse than Satan.”
Iranians have cleverly pushed back against the regime’s deliberate encroachment into their cherished history. At the outset of the revolution, they formed human roadblocks to stop bulldozers from reaching the ancient ruins of Persepolis, which dates back to the Achaemenid Empire. More recently, they gathered around the tomb of Cyrus the Great and other historical sites during Nowruz to chant pro-Iranian slogans.
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Perhaps the most telling sign that the Iranian people are winning the battle of nationalism vs. Islamism is in their choice of baby names. Shahan, the plural form of Shah, has replaced Mohammad as the most popular boys’ name in Iran.
It is sad but unsurprising that Iran’s wrestlers — the symbols of Iran’s ancient history of kings and paladins and the guardians of its “heroic sport” — have also become regime targets. Tehran sees more value in setting them as examples for the rest of Iranians than it does in them bringing Olympic medals back to their country.
Considering that wrestling has become the country’s most successful Olympic sport, accounting for 43 of its 69 total medals, according to United World Wrestling, the regime’s strategy of erasing one of the ancient pillars of Iranian identity is borderline comical — if it were not so tragic.
The clerics and their henchmen are not after their wrestlers only. They are after making the absurd normal. As one former senior American diplomat told me in a phone call to wish me a happy Nowruz, the execution of Saleh Mohammadi and his two young friends is akin to the U.S. government sending its best Marine and his puppies to the electric chair on July 4th for the crime of complaining about the rising price of hot dogs. “It is absurd.”
Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Absurdity.
