Iranian women break records and barriers at Asian Games
Iranian women have delivered a record-breaking performance at the 2026 Asian Games, winning medals across an unusually broad range of sports and achieving a series of firsts for the country.
Iranian women have delivered a record-breaking performance at the 2026 Asian Games, winning medals across an unusually broad range of sports and achieving a series of firsts for the country.
From first women’s gold medals in rowing and taekwondo to first female medalists in weightlifting and first women’s medal in a running event, the Games in Japan have produced breakthroughs across disciplines in which Iranian women have historically had little presence on the continental podium.
The results are particularly striking given the restrictions Iranian women face under the Islamic Republic over what they wear, which sports they can compete in and the resources available to them.
Perhaps the most striking came on the water.
Within about 20 minutes on September 24, Iranian women won their country’s first two Asian Games rowing golds. Fatemeh Mojallal won the lightweight single sculls before Kimia Zarei and Zeinab Norouzi took gold in the lightweight double sculls.
Mojallal also won bronze in the single sculls, while Zarei and Norouzi added silver in the double sculls. Mahsa Javer, Soha Fakhri, Saghi Maleki and Hengameh Kamyab took silver in the quadruple sculls.
Iranian women finished the rowing competition with two golds, two silvers and a bronze.
The achievement came after preparations were severely disrupted by the war.
Zarei told the Olympic Council of Asia that the rowers spent around 50 days training at home after their camp was cancelled, using rowing machines rather than getting on the water.
They eventually returned to camp despite the continuing conflict.
“We risked our lives because we wanted this moment,” Zarei said, adding that Iranian women and athletes in particular face “very unique challenges.”
Women were excluded from many disciplines after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and remain required to compete under state-mandated dress rules. Their access to facilities, funding and international competition has also frequently lagged behind that of male athletes.
Four years ago, the death of Mahsa Amini in morality-police custody sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, which grew into a broader challenge to state restrictions on women.
Since then, young Iranian women have increasingly defied compulsory hijab and other limits on their public lives, driving a social transformation that has continued despite the state’s efforts to reassert control.
Women’s participation in sport has also steadily expanded, sometimes producing success in disciplines where an Iranian female presence at elite international level is relatively recent.
Twenty-year-old Hengameh Hadiyani made history simply by competing, becoming the first Iranian woman to take part in artistic gymnastics at the Asian Games since the 1979 revolution.
She competed in the vault qualification, placing 13th.
Iranian women had effectively been excluded from international gymnastics for decades, with officials citing mandatory dress requirements as an obstacle to participation.
As recently as 2023, a senior Iranian sports official said standard gymnastics attire was incompatible with the Islamic Republic’s “cultural standards.”
But Hadiyani’s full-body competition outfit, designed to comply with Iran’s dress rules while allowing her to compete, drew widespread attention and praise.
In athletics, Zahra Zarei ran the 400 metres in 52.38 seconds to win silver, becoming the first Iranian woman to win an Asian Games medal in a running event.
There was another first in weightlifting.
Reihaneh Karimi, 20, lifted a combined 243kg in the 77kg category to take bronze, becoming Iran’s first female Asian Games medalist in weightlifting.
Two days later, 17-year-old Mahsa Beheshti added bronze in the 86kg category.
Iran only began fielding women internationally in weightlifting in recent years. In Nagoya, it produced two medalists, one just 17.
Another landmark came on Friday, when 19-year-old Saghar Moradi Sheikhlari won the women’s under-67kg taekwondo title, becoming the first Iranian woman to win an Asian Games gold in the sport.
A day later, Fatemeh Ahmadi won bronze in women’s taekwondo +67 kg.
Iranian women also took silver in kabaddi after losing a closely fought final 37-34 to India. It continued an unusual run of consistency for the team, which has now won a medal at five consecutive Asian Games, including gold in 2018.
In karate, Fatemeh-Zahra Saeidabadi won silver in the women’s under-55kg competition, while Fatemeh Sadeghi, Sepideh Amini and Zeinab Hosseini took another silver in team kata. Fatemeh Barmaki added bronze in kurash.
Iran also won bronze in mixed team shooting through Hanieh Rostamian and Vahid Golkhandan.
Not every breakthrough came with a medal. Meshkatolzahra Safi and Mandegar Farzami became the first Iranian women to win singles matches in tennis at an Asian Games, both advancing from the opening round in Nagoya.
Female athletes also competed in mixed events in tennis, table tennis, archery and the mixed 4x400-metre relay.
Their presence across those events further reflected the breadth of the women’s contribution to Iran’s Games.
Across rowing, athletics, weightlifting and taekwondo, Iranian women rewrote several parts of the country’s Asian Games record within the space of a few days.
Zarei has said she hopes the visibility of athletes like her can encourage another generation of Iranian girls.
“I always try to show the good part of an athlete’s life and motivate the girls at home,” she told the Olympic Council of Asia.
“I always try to show them that you can do this, you can do that, and you can be successful.”
"We have reached a point where we hope people don't get sick, because if they do, the end of that illness is not treatment. It is death," Salman Es'haghi, spokesman for parliament's Health and Treatment Committee, told the labor-affiliated news agency ILNA.
The pressure cannot simply be blamed on war and sanctions, Es'haghi said, accusing the authorities of failing to tackle corruption and poor decision-making as households struggle to pay for medicines, equipment and diagnostic tests.
A separate ILNA report from clinics in Tehran found the same thing from the other side: insured patients waiting weeks or months for diagnostic services, or paying privately for tests they could not get through the Social Security Organization, the state insurer that covers most of Iran's workers and retirees.
A couple sells their sheep and their car
Es'haghi described a rural couple who had sold their livestock and their Pride, the cheap Iranian-built car that was for decades the country's most common, after being told the wife needed a heart valve.
"A man and a woman from one of the villages came to see me," he said. "They said they had several sheep and a Pride, and they had sold them because they were told they needed to buy a heart valve for his wife."
The couple paid 13 billion rials for the valve, about $5,000 at Saturday's open-market rate, or six and a half years of the minimum wage, Eshaghi said. They were then told it was unsuitable and that they would need another.
"A suitable, high-quality valve costs close to 42 billion rials," he said, about $16,000, or 21 years of the minimum wage. "Which patient can pay 42 billion rials?"
Many farming families were selling animals, vehicles and other assets to cover both the equipment and the surgery, he said.
"We have unfortunately closed our eyes to our people dying because of a lack of medicine and the high cost of treatment," Es'haghi said.
Insurance leaves patients exposed
Iran's health insurance funds have stopped protecting patients from the cost of care, Es'haghi said.
"Our insurance funds have effectively declared bankruptcy, but they don't say it out loud," he said. "Because they don't acknowledge their own bankruptcy, they have shifted that bankruptcy onto the people."
More than 80 percent of treatment costs are now paid directly by patients, he said, without giving a source for the figure.
ILNA's reporting on the Social Security Organization points the same way. Nearly 9.9 million people insured by the organization in Tehran province have access to just 36 medical facilities it owns, including 16 polyclinics, according to official figures the agency cited. That is roughly one polyclinic for every 620,000 insured people.
Seeing a doctor is only the beginning
For many patients, getting an appointment does not mean they can complete the treatment prescribed.
At the Abureihan Social Security clinic in Tehran, one woman told ILNA that the ultrasound service the clinic once offered had disappeared.
"This place used to have ultrasound, but it hasn't had it for some time, and now I have to pay a huge amount outside," she said.
Another patient said the clinic had no mammography.
A middle-aged woman in severe abdominal pain said she could not afford the imaging and examinations she had been prescribed.
"I am in severe pain, but further imaging, tests and doctors are beyond what I can afford," she said.
She was the household's breadwinner, she said, earning money from weaving carpets while her husband was out of work. When she was referred to another hospital, she learned the care there would not be free either.
"I have to wait until the carpet is sold and I get the money," she said.
Weeks or months of waiting
Patients who stay inside the Social Security system face long queues instead.
Those referred to larger centers such as Milad Hospital, the organization's flagship hospital in Tehran, must often start over, ILNA reported, because diagnostic departments may accept orders only from the hospital's own doctors. That means another appointment, another consultation, and another wait for imaging or tests.
"These appointments are really useful for someone with a chronic illness who needs constant monitoring, not for someone who has an acute problem right now, today," one patient said.
The squeeze is hardest on retirees and lower-income households who cannot turn to private care.
An elderly woman said she kept making the long trip to a Social Security clinic because private doctors were too expensive, even though she still had to get some medicines and tests elsewhere.
"It's crowded, it's far away and getting here is difficult for me, but because the doctors here are good and my treatment costs less, I still come," she said.
'Why don't we import medicine?'
Es'haghi rejected the argument that Iran's medicine shortages can be explained by sanctions and the war.
"Whenever something happens, we say there is a war, there is no medicine, there are sanctions," he said.
Iran should be able to use its relationships with Russia and China to obtain medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients, he said.
"We can import medicine and pharmaceutical raw materials from Russia and China. Why don't we?" he said. "If we are vigilant, if there is the will and if we fight corruption, I can tell you seriously that supplying medicine and pharmaceutical raw materials has nothing to do with the war."
Figures presented at official meetings showed some pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies had sharply increased their profits during the war, he said.
"Why don't they tell these companies that during wartime they should at least accept a minimum profit margin so that people don't face such hardship?"
Inflation deepens the squeeze
The health crisis is unfolding as household purchasing power collapses.
Consumer prices in September were 89.8 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, and average inflation over the preceding twelve months reached 73.6 percent. Food and drink prices had already risen 127.5 percent year on year in August.
The rial's fall to record lows has raised the local cost of imported medicines, equipment and pharmaceutical ingredients.
The strain is visible in the volume of demand on a system that cannot meet it. Social Security facilities in Tehran recorded more than 18.1 million outpatient visits in the Iranian year that ended in March, including about 8.5 million doctor consultations and 9.6 million visits for diagnostic and other services.
For poorer patients, each extra appointment means transport costs, lost wages and another delay. The result, ILNA said, is that some workers and retirees are forced to choose between paying privately, waiting, or abandoning part of their treatment.
The Amir Kabir industrial area in Isfahan is home to mechanics, machinists, body shops, battery specialists and parts dealers serving trucks, construction equipment and mining machinery. Labor news agency ILNA said activity across the district had fallen sharply as transport demand weakened and the cost of keeping vehicles on the road climbed.
“When freight activity slows and less cargo is being moved, drivers face serious problems,” a person working in the district told ILNA. “Most drivers bought their vehicles on installment, so besides making loan payments, they also have to cover the high cost of supporting their families.”
Inflation eats into household budgets
The slowdown comes as Iranian households face some of the steepest price increases in years. Official data for September showed consumer prices were 89.8% higher than a year earlier, while average inflation over the preceding 12 months reached 73.6%. Food and drink prices had already risen 127.5% year on year in August.
Reuters reported in September that food prices had more than doubled while the wider economy was being squeezed by sanctions, restrictions on oil exports and the costs of the seven-month conflict with the United States.
Iran’s currency has added another layer of pressure. The rial fell beyond 2.5 million to the US dollar on the free market earlier this week, a record low, compared with roughly 1.1 million a year earlier.
For businesses dependent on imported equipment, that fall feeds quickly into prices.
“Parts dealers buy according to the day’s dollar rate,” an Amir Kabir business operator said, adding that prices often fail to come back down even when the rial temporarily strengthens.
“The consumer and the worker end up carrying the greatest burden,” he said.
Fewer loads hit an entire chain of jobs
The industrial district illustrates how weakness in one part of Iran’s economy spreads quickly into others.
A single truck can generate work for engine mechanics, gearbox specialists, machinists, painters, welders, upholsterers and parts sellers before it gets back on the road. When freight volumes fall, drivers delay repairs and workshops lose business.
“There’s a deep slowdown across the industrial area,” the tradesperson said. “It’s not that the vehicles don’t need work. Purchasing power and liquidity have fallen sharply.”
Some vehicles are repaired but then sit idle because there is no cargo to move, he said. Even when transport work is available, delayed payments from cargo owners leave drivers and workshops short of cash.
That weakness is also reflected in accounts shared with Iran International, with Iranians describing cuts to spending on food, housing and medicine as savings run down and private-sector job losses spread.
Cheap parts bring expensive problems
Workshop owners are also grappling with replacement parts that they say are either prohibitively expensive or of poorer quality.
A local tradesperson told ILNA that original components for older European and American heavy vehicles had become difficult to obtain, leaving operators increasingly dependent on Chinese-made replacements.
“In the past, if you rebuilt a Volvo or Mack with original parts, it could run for years without another major repair,” he said. “Now poor-quality parts mean repeated breakdowns.”
Original parts can still sometimes be found, he added, but at prices that often make them uneconomical for truck owners already dealing with loans, insurance and weaker freight income.
The result is a cycle in which operators choose cheaper parts, suffer more frequent failures and return to workshops while having less money available to pay for the repairs.
Skilled jobs come under pressure
The downturn is beginning to affect hiring and job security.
A machining workshop may employ 10 to 12 people repairing engine blocks, crankshafts and other heavy components. With business down and insurance, municipal charges and other expenses still rising, workshop owners may stop taking on workers or begin cutting staff, according to ILNA.
“A workshop with 10 or 12 workers may no longer want to expand its workforce and may even reduce the number of employees because its income cannot cover its costs,” a local business owner said.
The impact could outlast the immediate downturn. Training an experienced technician can take about a decade, he said, but workshops have less incentive to bring in apprentices when they are unsure whether they can retain existing staff.
Pressure reaches beyond Isfahan
The problems in Amir Kabir mirror a broader contraction in everyday economic activity as the government struggles with reduced oil revenues, sanctions and restrictions on trade.
US pressure has sharply reduced Iran’s access to foreign currency from oil exports, while sanctions evasion has become more costly. That has made imported equipment and raw materials harder to finance just as the rial’s fall raises their local-currency price.
For the workers and drivers in Isfahan, however, the crisis comes down to a simpler calculation: there is less work, while virtually everything needed to do that work costs more.
“If prices are going to remain high, then at the very least the volume of work has to increase,” a local tradesperson told ILNA. “Businesses need enough cash flow to keep operating.”