http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/sports/american-chess-player-boycotts-championship-that-would-require-her-to-wear-a-hijab.html 2016-10-07 23:48:23 American Chess Player Boycotts Championship in Iran Over Hijab Rule Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, a women’s chess champion, said she would not attend next year’s women’s world competition because religious law would require her to wear a hijab. === Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, a United States women’s chess champion, has said that she will boycott next year’s world championship in In a series of posts on social media, Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, a Russian-born Georgian-American, has said that requiring women to wear a hijab is a human rights issue. “I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,” she Ms. Paikidze-Barnes, 22, also According to a statement from the federation’s spokeswoman, Anastasiya Karlovich, “There were no complaints from the players or officials, and everybody respected the laws of the country, including the dress requirements,” Ms. Karlovich wrote. Both Ms. Paikidze-Barnes and FIDE did not immediately return an email request for further comment on Friday. At least one other player has vocally criticized Ms. Paikidze-Barnes’s decision to boycott. Ms. Paikidze-Barnes’s comments have also alienated Iranian women, including Mitra Hejazipour, an Iranian chess player and fellow grandmaster. “This is going to be the biggest sporting event women in Iran have ever seen; we haven’t been able to host any world championship in other sporting fields for women in the past,” Ms. Hejazipour, 23, On Wednesday, Ms. Paikidze-Barnes appeared to respond to the criticism on her Instagram page. “I am not anti-Islam or any other religion,” she