Iranian Olympic skier Atefeh Ahmadi, who applied for asylum in Germany in 2023 after leaving Iran during a training trip to Europe, has returned to the country and publicly expressed gratitude to the Supreme Leader for facilitating her homecoming.
The sudden reversal and the stilted language of the announcement of her return in an Instagram post led to concerns by some about her wellbeing.
“I must tell you that I am present in my country, Iran. Undoubtedly, my country, my homeland, and my soil are the safest place in the world for me. As an Iranian, Iran is always my safe home,” the post said. “With the support and help of the Supreme Leader, I will return to the warm family hearth.”
A Quranic verse follows the message in Arabic: “When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.”
Ahmadi, 23, was the only Iranian woman to compete at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and had been seen as one of the country’s top alpine skiing prospects.
Ahmadi remained in Europe after a training and competition trip in early 2023 and applied for asylum in Germany, later appearing in media and campaign material that highlighted her story as a refugee athlete.
The announcement sparked mixed reactions among Iranians on social media. Some users accused authorities of pressuring Ahmadi or using her case for propaganda.
Iranian intelligence agents and police have routinely compelled dissidents to recant their views and disavow past activism in social media posts, sometimes even mandating a set number of favorable posts in exchange for restored internet access.
“It’s unclear how they made that place unsafe for the poor girl and how much pressure they put on the family in Iran for her to write ‘My homeland is the safest place in the world for me.’ As long as the Islamic Republic exists, no person in the world will have security,” one user posted on X.
Others framed her decision as a personal choice driven by homesickness, economic insecurity abroad or family ties. Accounts close to the government praised the move.
“Atefeh Ahmadi, the former national athlete of Iran’s skiing team who had sought refuge in Germany, has returned to the country with the support of His Holiness the Supreme Leader,” one account said. “Praise be to God, we have a compassionate leader who, like a father, keeps an eye on all his children and supports them.”
“I feel distressed,” Rosen told Iran International. “It seems as if I’m living the situation that I had as a hostage. My due process and the loss of my human rights now seem to be equal to those ... who are now being sent back to Iran."
Iranian officials say the United States has deported a second group of Iranians with a chartered plane carrying more than 50 nationals departing Mesa, Arizona on Sunday.
The first US deportation flight to Iran departed in late September with 120 deportees, representing a rare moment of cooperation between Washington and Tehran.
Many say they fled Iran fearing persecution including Christian converts, LGBTQ Iranians and dissidents. The Trump administration has defended its immigration crackdown as a measure to make America safer and remove what it deems “illegal alien criminals.”
Millions of immigrants entered the United States illegally under President Joe Biden and Trump's pledge to seal US borders and conduct mass deportations helped deliver him re-election last year.
Iran is on a growing list of countries from which Trump has banned entry to the United States. In the wake of a deadly attack by an Afghan immigrant on national guard troops last month, the administration said even green card holders from the flagged countries might face expulsion.
Some Iranians had already been deported to third countries earlier in the Trump administration.
Among them is 27-year-old Christian convert Artemis Ghasemzadeh who crossed the southern border seeking asylum but was instead handcuffed, shackled and flown by US authorities to a remote camp in Panama.
Iran International spoke to her in March. “We are not criminals,” she said in a voice message, explaining that she fears execution if returned to Iran.
Rosen, the co-founder of the research and information non-profit Hostage Aid Worldwide, said he was disturbed, alarmed and angry to learn about Iranians at risk of persecution being deported - not only religious minorities, but anyone who could be targeted by the state.
“I just read a story about two Christian Iranians who would be sent back and there seems to be no regard by the government that there would be persecution for them,” he said. “It really gets me. I'm very angry in in many ways because I feel there’s a sense of hopelessness."
Faith leaders in Virginia have also raised alarms after US Customs and Border Protection arrested two Iranian Christian sisters — Mahan and Mozhan Motahari — in the US Virgin Islands despite the women having documents allowing them to remain in the country while their asylum cases proceed, according to Religion News Service (RNS).
Their attorney told RNS that CBP publicly posting photos of the sisters without
They remain detained in Florida while their lawyer seeks to expedite their case.
For Rosen the deportations conflict with values he believes the United States has long claimed to uphold.
“What’s happening right now is all these people who thought of America as the shining light on the hill, they’re losing their human rights in the United States, something that I could never conceive of in my entire life.”
Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai, an Elected Director of the Board of Governors for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) told Iran International that the United States is contravening its founding principles.
"The Constitution doesn’t apply sometimes to some people — it applies to all people, all of the time," said Khanbabai, "It’s hypocritical for the US to criticize Iran for human rights violations while unfairly targeting Iranians here by weaponizing immigration laws to get around due process rights."
Khanbabai underscore the broader systemic issue Rosen has been warning about.
Rosen served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1967 to 1969, returned as press attaché in 1978 and was taken hostage during the upheaval of the revolution.
He says he never imagined he would one day defend Iranian refugees in the United States but feels compelled because of his connection to the country he once called his “second home.”
“I feel that we’re living in the dark ages in the United States right now,” he said. “It’s absolutely ugly.”
Iranian officials have provided no details about the conditions of Ahmadi’s return, including whether she will rejoin the national team or what guarantees she has received.
