The people of Shiraz welcomed Hadi Choopan at the airport

“I hope this championship will reduce some of the sorrows of the people of Iran and that I have been able to be a good representative and soldier for the people of my country," he said, referring the brutal state crackdown on an ongoing wave of protests demanding more freedoms and women’s rights.

Choopan also dedicated his title “to the honorable women of Iran and the people of Iran living anywhere in the world.”