Fact Check: Iranian Broadcast Censored Female Olympic Bodies?

Claim:

A video broadcasted by an Iranian sports channel authentically showed the bodies of female athletes competing in the Olympic Games being censored.

Rating:

Originated as Satire ( About this rating? )

During the summer of the Paris Olympics in 2024, an X user on July 28 shared what appeared to be a highlight of the censorship in Iranian broadcasts of the Olympics.

The user posted a video alleging it was an "Iranian broadcast" of the Games heavily censoring female athletes' bodies as they competed, accompanied by the caption, "The Islamic Republic in Iran censors female athletes on state-run national TV. This is how they want women in society: non-existent beings."

Other users on X posted the video , positing that it originated from Iranian national television. The item also circulated on Facebook , TikTok and Reddit .

We've reported on these clips in the past, including in 2016 . In our original reporting, we found that these clips were created as satire.

The video features inept censorship blocking that doesn't reflect that of a national professional broadcast. The broadcaster would simply choose to not show the sporting events that didn't follow conservative national standards. Slate magazine reported on how Iran broadcasts the Olympic games in a 2008 article :

Government-owned television networks in Saudi Arabia and Iran will show women who are not wearing the hijab as long as they are not too scantily clad. In Iran, shorts seem to be OK, but swimsuits and leotards are out. (That means no swimming, gymnastics, or beach volleyball.) Events in which the athletes' bodies are mostly covered—such as horseback riding and judo—are always acceptable. (The networks are also likely to be covering the three events in which Iranian women are competing: rowing, tae kwan do, and archery.) In Saudi Arabia, most people watch Olympics coverage on satellite TV, which is fully legal and carries no government restrictions.

Although the origins of the censorship claim are unclear, our original reporting suggested the video came from Parazit, a satirical TV channel that spoofs Iranian politics. AFP Fact Check, meanwhile, reported that the video originated from another satirical television channel, OnTen. AFP featured the original video broadcasted twice by OnTen in 2013 at the 10:22 minute mark:

Contacted via Twitter on October 3, 2019, OnTen TV producer Saman Arbabi told AFP, "My show was a comedy show and the segment I made was to make fun of the Iranian government for not broadcasting women's sports. This segment was a 'suggestion' for those who censor TV shows including women's sports. It was a joke."

Arbabi told AFP that the track and field video currently circulating which features the 2013 athletics race is not his.

"They obviously copied our video," he said.

Sources:

Censorship of Women's Sports by Iranian TV? This Is Likely a Satirical Video. 4 Oct. 2019, https://factcheck.afp.com/censorship-womens-sports-iranian-tv-likely-satirical-video. Evon, Dan. "Did Iranian Olympic Coverage Censor Images of Female Athletes?" Snopes, 20 Aug. 2016, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/iran-censored-female-athletes/. Hadge, Kara. "Beach Volleyball in Iran?" Slate, 20 Aug. 2008. slate.com, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/08/how-do-conservative-countries-handle-scantily-clad-olympic-athletes.html. TheONTENTV. آنتن هفتهٔ ۵۷ - مروری به گذشته ... 2013. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu7gVF5Dxg0.