TEHRAN – Busts of four Iranian women Paralympic medal winners were unveiled on Wednesday at the Sports Federation for the Disabled headquarters in Tehran.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of establishment of Iran’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC), the busts of Nayereh Akef, Azam Khodayari, Zahra Nemati, and Sareh Javanmardi were unveiled.

Also, the memory of Para archer Razieh Shirmohammadi, who passed away in June 2019 due to heart attack at the age of 41, was cherished.

Mahmoud Khosravi vafa, head of Iran’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC), President of Iran’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) Reza Salehi Amiri and head of Iran Sports Federation for the Disabled Mohammad Shervin Asbaghian attended the ceremony.

Akef is the first Iranian woman to win a medal in Paralympic. She claimed a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia in shooting.

Khodayari represented Iran in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece and won a bronze medal in the women's F56/58 discus throw event.

Nemati has won two gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games in archery. She became the first Iranian woman to win a gold at either the Olympic or Paralympic Games.   

Javanmardi also won two gold medals in Rio Paralympic Games. She seized two gold medals at the 10 m air pistol SH1 and Mixed 50 m pistol SH1. Javanmardi is the first ever female gold medalist from Iran to win in the shooting category of the Paralympics Games.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein