Beyond ‘Defecting’ and ‘Swapping’ Nationality Emigrant Women Athletes and the Iranian Gendered Bio-Politics

The voluntary abandonment of allegiance to a country by a professional athlete to play for another country is often referred to as ‘defection’ or ‘nationality swapping’. After providing a brief background on migration and nationality switching of athletes, this chapter critically analyses the role of Iranian gendered bio-politics and the state’s systematic body control regime in affecting women’s sports, focusing on the case of two emigrant athletes Kimia Alizadeh and Shohreh Bayat. The chapter aims to contextualise women athletes’ migration and nationality switching in Iran by showing that gendered biopolitical and structural constraints make arguments of ‘defection’ and ‘nationality swapping’ inaccurate, if not problematic. It further argues against the generalised usage of ‘defection’ and ‘nationality swapping’ discourses, specifically for Iranian migrant women athletes.