Alinejad is the international face and voice of angry women in Iran who are being beaten, jailed and even killed for throwing away their mandatory headscarves and showing their hair. Today in Paris, he has a very clear message for the French president and other Western leaders: stop shaking hands with Iranian clerics, stop dealing with Iran. “I want to ask President Macron if he wants to stand with those who are actually killing people, taking hostages, oppressing people and trying to suppress a peaceful revolution or does he want to stand on the right side of history?” she says. “I want him to stop negotiations with the Islamic Republic, until the day the regime stops killing people. I want him to recall his ambassadors, call his allies and ask them to all downgrade their diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, expel all their diplomats and put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorist list. “I am not asking the leaders of democratic countries to come to our rescue. I don’t want them to save us, I want them to stop saving the Islamic Republic. “This ongoing insurgency is only the beginning of the end for the Islamic Republic. This is the 21st century and it is acceptable for that government to kill children or teenagers or schoolgirls for dancing, for showing their hair, for singing or for wanting to have a normal life.” There are more than 42 million women in Iran who have been forced to cover their heads in public since the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah. The current wave of protests against Tehran’s regime erupted in September after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died at the hands of Iran’s morality police, which are notorious for brutally enforcing the mandatory hijab law. Since then, Iranian girls and women have taken to the streets with the slogan “women, life, freedom”, in open defiance of the mullahs who rule Iran. They have burned headscarves, cut their hair – forbidden by some Islamic authorities – challenged the armed security forces and posted videos on social media. Masih Alinejad addresses protesters at a rally in Los Angeles in October in support of Iranian women and against the death of Mahsa Amini. Photo: Bing Guan/Reuters Now in its eighth week, despite the bloody crackdown, the “women’s revolution” shows no signs of fading. About 14,000 protesters have been arrested, of whom 1,000 have been charged with crimes, some punishable by death. Javaid Rehman, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the UN Security Council last month that security forces had killed at least 277 people. Alinejad, 45, a journalist and activist, is a thorn in the side of the Iranian regime, who she calls “ignorant clerics” who accuse her of being a foreign agent and have warned that anyone who sends her protest videos – which she broadcasts on social media – will be jailed. In Iran, her 70-year-old mother has been threatened, her brother arrested and her sister paraded on television to denounce her. In New York, where Alinejad has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009, the FBI has charged four people with allegedly plotting her kidnapping. In August, police arrested a man loitering around her Brooklyn home and found a loaded AK-47 in his car. She and her husband, Kambiz Foroohar, a former Bloomberg reporter, are now in their eighth safe house. “It’s at least eight,” says Foroohar. “We lost count. It’s mind-blowing.” At the luxurious five-star hotel in Paris where the couple is staying – at the invitation of the Elysees – a security guard is not-so-discreetly watching Alinejad. French police protection is slightly less annoying. “When the Islamic Republic is in power, no one is safe,” he says. “When the FBI came to my house a year ago and said your life is in danger, I couldn’t take it seriously. Iranians receive death threats every day. But they showed me some pictures of my life, my stepson, my husband, me inside my house, in my garden when I was watering my sunflowers… Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “I’m not afraid. I feel guilty when I talk about my personal life because people [in Iran] are killed in the streets. Mine is just a tiny example of the brutality of this murderous regime and that is none of my business. I am simply giving voice to brave Iranian women and men who are saying no to the Islamic Republic. “It is not scary for me to be shot or killed, what is scary is to see leaders of democratic countries shaking the hand of those who kill my people or those who want to kill me.” He says Iran’s leader, Ali Khamenei, should be treated like Vladimir Putin. “Khamenei is helping Putin… all dictators are united, so the leaders of democratic countries must be united. Alinejad’s frail, bird-like appearance hides a raw fury. He can maintain an almost seamless frenzy that turns from rage to near-tears. It holds a cap at both ends. the triangular frown on her forehead and her faltering voice are immediately disguised by a smile. She is particularly outraged that while turning against the West, members of the Iranian regime often seek hospital care in Europe and some of their children study and live in luxury in the US. However, Alinejad has particular disdain for Western women who bow to Iran’s hijab requirements. He will not forgive Karen Pearce, the UK ambassador to the UN, for covering her head during a visit to Tehran in 2017. “It was such an insult to Iranian women who are murdered for refusing the hijab. Do you know what an Iranian would do in this position? Say, “Fuck you, it’s none of your business,” but these Western women say, “Sure I’ll cover up, that’s your culture.” “The oppression of women is not part of our culture, coercion is not part of our culture, a barbaric law is not part of our culture. When Western female politicians say that compulsory hijab is the culture of Iranian women or Afghan women, it is an insult to our nations.” Alinejad says she is not campaigning for Iran to ban the hijab, but for women and girls to have the choice to wear it or not. “When I started campaigning, people asked why I was making such a fuss about a small piece of cloth. The obligatory hijab is not about a small piece of cloth. He can whip you, he can put you in jail, he can rape you and kill you.” He adds: “The mandatory hijab is like the Berlin Wall: once it falls, the whole Islamic Republic will be. That is why the mullahs are afraid. Millions of girls and women in Iran are now standing shoulder to shoulder and saying no. we are ready to die, but we will not live with this humiliation.”
