³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

When one of the world's most promising chess players, 25-year-old Sara Khadem, decided to play an international tournament without her headscarf, in solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, she thought a warning would be the worst that would happen to her.

Instead, she can't return to Iran - there are arrest papers waiting for her, and she now lives in exile in southern Spain, with her husband and one-year-old son.

She explains there was a slow evolution of her decision to play in the tournament in Kazakhstan in December last year without her headscarf. The contestants only wore them in front of the cameras, and she felt that was hypocritical.

Speaking to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Razia Iqbal, she says: "Leaving my family was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done."

Picture: Iranian chess player Sara Khadem competes, without wearing a hijab Credit:Reuters