Melika Balali
Iranian-Scottish wrestler (born 1999)
Melika Balali (Persian:ملیکا بلالی; born 27 December 1999) is an Iranian-born Scottish judoka and wrestler, who won the British championship gold medals. Besides her wrestling career, she is a poet and painter who talks about women's rights in her work.
In July 2022, she became a British champion in freestyle wrestling and protested the compulsory hijab on the first platform, by raising a sign that read, "stop forcing hijab, I have the right to be a wrestler".
She later transitioned to judo after stating that United World Wrestling did not support her participation in international competitions. She currently competes as a judoka with the International Judo Federation (IJF) Refugee Team and is a recipient of the Olympic Refugee Scholarship.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q113454262 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.