Last month, Reuters came out with a report on Iran’s famed female ninjas, who are fighting for sexual equality under the Ayatollah by studying ancient martial arts. There are nearly 3,500 of them. Though the women toss shurikens and deliver crushing roundhouses, it’s all for practice and show — they don’t actually stalk and kill political targets under the cover of night.
Unfortunately, the Reuters story called the ladies “assassins” and alleged that they would be deployed to kill foreign invaders. Other British news outlets repeated the false claim. Realizing its mistake, Reuters quickly corrected the report, but the peaceful martial artists claim that the damage to their reputation has already been done. They’re now suing for defamation of character. As one of them put it:
>We are taking legal action because the ladies that train in Ninjutsu first and foremost enjoy it as a sport. It’s about working out and staying fit. Reuters has blatantly lied about us.
The women fear that the report, which survives online only in slideshow form, could damage their chances to attend international tournaments.
The Telegraph — which also inaccurately said the women were being trained by the regime to fight Westerners — has footage of the ninjas in action, running up walls, somersaulting across rooms, and swinging swords.
