Masih Alinejad Is Fighting for the Freedom of Iranian Women
When thousands of Iranians, a majority of them women, took to the streets following the September death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the morality police for “improperly” wearing her hijab and severely beaten, they achieved something Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad had long wished to see: crowds boldly standing up to the notoriously restrictive regime. She was a world away, in Brooklyn, but felt no distance. “My body is here, but my thoughts, my soul, my dreams, everything is in Iran. I go to bed with the news of Iran, I wake up with the news of Iran. In between I live and breathe with the news of Iran,” she says. “Clearly, the government managed to kick me out from Iran, but they couldn’t manage to kick Iran out of me.”
The massive protests against Iran’s Islamic Republic that exploded throughout the country last fall saw crowds of thousands and reportedly over 18,000 arrests (some protesters have been executed and many more face the death penalty). Their demands echoed Alinejad’s long calls for an end to the country’s government compulsory hijab policy, which jails women who don’t comply. Nearly a decade ago, she put out a social media call that urged women to shed their hijabs and send videos as proof. They’ve flooded in. She called the campaign My Stealthy Freedom and has reposted thousands of videos submitted by women, which have gone viral. Amid the current protests, Alinejad has been critical in helping amplify the voices of Iranian women, who, silenced by government restricted internet access, have very few opportunities to be heard. In July, Alienjad shared a submitted video showing a hijab-less woman, who was later arrested, being threatened on a bus. It was seen 2.5 million times on Instagram.
Her advocacy has made Alinejad, who began her career as a newspaper reporter and now works as a reporter for the US government-run radio network Voice of America, a target for the Iranian government. In 2009, she left Iran amidst political pressure. Her family members who remain there have been threatened and arrested, and she has faced assassination and kidnapping attempts. In 2022, a man, allegedly sent by the Iranian government, with a rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition was arrested outside her New York home. Still, she remains resolute in her opposition. “My goal is to overthrow the regime. That’s the goal,” she says. “We are fighting for women, because being a woman is a crime in Iran, for life, because having a normal life is a crime in Iran, for freedom, because being free is a crime in Iran.”
On what the past year has been like
“It was painful. You experience pain, pain, pain, but at the same time you feel empowered. You feel impressed, you feel proud. It’s a combination of pain and power. Painful because you see how easily teenagers, children, young generation getting killed, raped, face guns and bullets, but at the same time, you see that the more that the Iranian regime kills people, the more people get determined to overthrow this regime. My heart is broken, but at the same time I’m hopeful that this is just the beginning of the end.”
On what the protests say about the future Iran
“It was my dream to see not only women, but men shoulder to shoulder with their sisters, mothers, daughters fighting against the gender apartheid regime. Eight years ago, when I launched a campaign against compulsory hijab, women were lonely soldiers in the streets, removing their hijabs. Practicing their civil disobedience, which is a punishable crime in Iran. Now, when I see that women are not alone, it’s like, yeah, change is happening.”
Hundreds of protesters gather in Manhattan to show their opposition to the Iranian regime following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran after allegedly violating the country’s hijab rules.
On her mentor
“My mother, she’s not even able to read and write. She’s a tiny woman in a tiny village, and she told me, ‘Never look for a hero, never look for a mentor, never look for someone to come and save you. You have to be your own savior. You have to be your own mentor. You have to be your own hero in your life.’ Otherwise, you’re going to get lost by sitting down and waiting for someone to be your mentor.”
On the role that journalism can play in social change
“It’s the war between two narratives. It’s very clear that one narrative is the narrative of the oppressive regime who kills women for just showing their hair, who kill young men just for supporting their sisters. The other narrative belongs to people who say, ‘We want separation from politics and religion.’ That’s so simple. Journalists in the 21st century cannot say that, ‘We just report about what’s going on in Iran.’. You can give voice to voiceless people who are getting killed for expressing themselves.
The dictators, when they are weakened, they are shaken, they are in crisis, they know how to use international media for their own propaganda. They’re really good at spreading misinformation. Journalism can play an important role by not providing the platform and allowing them to spread their misinformation and fake news. It’s a very challenging and crucial moments for media to be allies of women who do not have any voice.”
On a moment from her career that amazed her
“I remember in 2018, when the Iranian regime made a law saying that, ‘Anyone who sends videos to Masih Alinejad will be charged with up to 10 years prison.’ I was challenged. I felt guilty that if I published the videos of Iranian people, I would put their lives in danger. In this guilty moment I was invited to be on the BBC. The journalist was challenging me, saying, ‘Don’t you feel guilty that because of your work, people go to prison?’ I was furious. I was like, ‘Why should I feel guilty? The government who put people in prison for making a video should feel guilty, not me.’
What amazed me, I got back home and I was bombarded by videos from mothers inside Iran. Mothers whose children got killed were holding photos of their beloved ones. They went to the same streets where the government killed their children, and were like, ‘Hi, Masih, we want you to be our voice.’”
On what she wishes she knew before becoming an activist
“I knew that there was going to be a revolution by women. I wish I knew how to convince the left years and years before Mahsa Amini got killed, before 16-year-old Nika Shahkarami got killed, before Sarina Esmailzadeh got killed. I wish I knew how to get the attention of President Obama, Oprah, and all the leaders of free world. When I had a meeting with [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron, and I made him recognize the uprising as a revolution. He did, and I’m very thankful. But I wish I knew how to get his attention before all these massacres happened in Iran.”
A version of this article appears in the April 2023 issue of ELLE.
Editor
Adrienne Gaffney is an editor at ELLE who previously worked at WSJ Magazine and Vanity Fair.
