IT ALL began on the side of a road on the outskirts of Rasht, the most populous city of northern Iran. Iman Zahmatkesh, his sister, and his friend were walking towards the city centre when a police van pulled up alongside them.
Zahmatkesh, then 20, was known to the authorities. As well as being a kickboxing champion, he was an activist for women’s rights at the university where he studied and consequently lost his place in his final year. His opinions and presence at the university were no longer tolerated.
“They call them ‘morality police’ – they dress normally like us, [but] they are police,” Zahmatkesh explains to Boxing News. The now 29-year-old chuckles intermittently as he retells a hellish tale. It’s presumed he’s trying to keep the ghosts at bay.
“My sister went pale, and I said to her, ‘don’t worry, I will speak to them,
