One of the world’s top female chess referees who fled Iran after being photographed without a hijab has spoken of her Jewish roots for the first time – while awaiting asylum in the UK.

Shohreh Bayat was pictured at the 2020 Women’s World Chess Championship in Shanghai, which took place in January, standing by a chess board with her headscarf around her neck.

Iranian hardliners reacted to the images by immediately declaring her a public enemy.

But Ms Bayat has now flown to London where she is living with the family of a chess playing friend – and is now awaiting for an asylum claim to be processed by the Home Office.

Speaking to the Telegraph, she also revealed her Jewish roots for the first time.

“All my life was about showing a fake image of myself to society because they wanted me to be an image of a religious Muslim woman, which I wasn’t,” Ms Bayat said.

She said that her paternal grandmother Mary, who moved to Iran from Azeraijan’s capital Baku during the Second World War, was Jewish.

“If they knew that I had Jewish background, I would never ever be general secretary of the Iranian chess federation,” said Ms Bayat.

Last week she was cheered by confirmation from the International Chess Federation that allowed  her to referee under the British flag.

Ms Bayat started playing chess at the age of nine under her father’s influence and became Iran’s national champion at 12.

She embarked on a successful career as an International Chess Federation referee at the age of 25.

Ms Bayat told the Telegraph how she enjoyed an “amazing” Rosh Hashanah just outside London. “It was amazing - a thing I never had a chance to do,” she said.