Iran has barred members of its women’s pool team from participating in billiard sports competitions for one year for violating Islamic codes of conduct, its Disciplinary Committee of Bowling, Billiard and Boxing Federation announced Thursday.

“Women sent to China Open (billiard) competitions will be banned from all domestic and foreign competitions for one year for violating the Islamic code,” the statement read. It did not specify how the code was violated.

Dorsa Derakhshani, an 18-year-old chess grandmaster, was kicked off Iran’s national team last month after she failed to wear the Islamic hair covering known as the hijab at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2017. Her 15-year-old brother, Borna, was also booted from the national team after playing against an Israeli opponent at the same competition.

Iran not only enforces the hijab on its own nationals but also requires that non-Iranian women wear the hijab when competing in the country. Nazí Paikidze-Barnes, the reigning American female chess champion, withdrew from the 2017 Women’s World Chess Championship after it was announced that it will be held in Iran and that participants would be forced to cover their hair.

All women in Iran are required to wear headscarves, a law that is enforced with an iron grip. About 40,000 cars were confiscated in the first half of 2015 because drivers or passengers were not wearing their headscarves properly. Many women were pulled over and beaten on the ground, and then arrested afterwards.

Last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that feminism was a “Zionist plot” to destroy humanity.

[Photo: Fernando Maciel / Flickr ]