Chess champion Dorsa Derakhshani, 19, of Iran studies chemistry in the Grand Hall dining area at Saint Louis University on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2015. She was banned from playing for Iran after ...

I don’t want to live there.” After turning 18, Derakhshani moved to Barcelona, Spain, where she was recruited by a chess club and lived alone without her family, although her mother visited often.

LOUIS --Dorsa Derakhshani has had played many roles: child prodigy, television performer, one of the top young female chess players in the world and, most recently, a St. Louis University freshman.

Here’s an example of what is happening in today’s Iran: Dorsa Derakhshani, a 19-year-old female member of the Iranian national chess team, was removed from the team for performing an ...

Chess grandmaster Dorsa Derakhshani led her team at Saint Louis University to the collegiate national championship after taking on the Iranian government. Today, she took on another new challenge.

Courtesy Dorsa Derakhshani Dorsa Derakhshani with her family in 2003. Courtesy Dorsa Derakhshani “Having that freedom to wear what I want, and just be who I want, was a big thing,” Derakhshani ...

The semi-official ISNA reported that Dorsa Derakhshani refused to wear the headscarf, known as the hijab, during a February competition in Gibraltar, and joined the U.S. national team.

Dorsa Derakhshani is moving on to a team where she’ll be welcomed no matter her choice of headwear. Over seven months after the 19-year-old Tehran native was kicked off the Iranian national c… ...

Dorsa Derakhshani may be today’s bravest feminist. As the 18-year-old Iranian chess grandmaster competed at a January tournament in Gibraltar, she refused to don a hijab, in defiance of her ...

Chess grandmaster Dorsa Derakhshani led her team at Saint Louis University to the collegiate national championship after taking on the Iranian government. Today, she took on another new challenge.