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BY TARA JAMALI | For Iranian women in sports, overcoming social stigma is as much a part of the game as any technique to be mastered.
 
“She who lifts weights is no woman,” said veteran Iranian actor Dariush Arjmand in a televised interview in May. To Arjmand, female weightlifters are unworthy of motherhood and can not be considered real women as their weightlifting puts their femininity in danger. Weeks following the interview, 16-year-old Yekta Jamali won Iran’s first medal in women’s weightlifting championships.

BY STEPHANE DUNN | Basketball analyst Rachel Nichols’s lack of solidarity with Maria Taylor as two women marginalized at male-centric ESPN and her dismissal of Taylor’s unique experiences as a Black woman suggest how timely that famous refrain attributed to Sojourner Truth remains: “Ain’t I a woman?”

Women are just now becoming more visible playing notable roles on national sports platforms. But the recent furor over unearthed comments by Nichols demonstrates how the inclusion of an elite few women will not dismantle ESPN’s or sports media’s patriarchal culture. It’s easy to tag Nichols’s outed comments about Maria Taylor, her Black female colleague, as “racist” but they exemplify racist sexism.

BY SOPHIE DORF-KAMIENNY | This week: Olympic athletes push for gender equality and inclusivity; Biden condemns state lawmakers’ attack on voting rights; ICE prohibits arrest of pregnant women, and federal judge rules DACA is unlawful; Rep. Joyce Beatty is arrested during demonstration; Zaila Avant-garde is first African American winner of the National Spelling Bee; and more.