Elnaz Rekabi greeted by cheering crowd upon landing in Tehran

The Guardian reports that Elnaz Rekabi was "met by jubilant crowds" when she returned to Tehran this morning. Entering the airport terminal, she was filmed by state television cameras wearing a black baseball cap and a black hoodie covering her hair. She received flowers and repeated what had been posted on Instagram. (c) Iran State Media

"Because I was busy putting on my shoes and my gear, it caused me to forget to put on my hijab and then I went to compete. I came back to Iran with peace of mind although I had a lot of tension and stress. But so far, thank God, nothing has happened."

Upon exiting the airport Rekabi was escorted into a van and her current whereabouts are no longer known. BBC Persia's correspondent, Rana Rahimpour was also quoted today as saying that, "to many people the language used looked like it had been written under duress." There are accounts of other Iranian sports women who have competed abroad without wearing a headscarf in the past coming under pressure from Iranian authorities and being pressed into issuing similar statements. There's also a history of former detainees that have said that they were forced by security forces to make false statements and accounts that were then aired by Iranian state TV.