The Iranian-American journalist and activist says the ongoing anti-hijab protests in Iran are the first steps towards removing the Islamic republic’s Sharia-based system
From her home in exile in the U.S., journalist-activist Masih Alinejad, 46, has been at the forefront of the movement against Iran’s restrictive hijab laws, supporting and encouraging women who demand the right to dress as they please. As protests spread over the custodial death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, brutally assaulted and arrested by Iran’s ‘morality police’ for not covering her hair ‘properly’, Alinejad, with her distinctive corkscrew curls, is helping to ignite international outrage with her hashtags #WhiteWednesdays, #MyCameraIsMyWeapon and #MyStealthyFreedom.
A woman cuts her hair in solidarity with Iranian women, in Santiago, Chile, October 7, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
In July, the Iranian government, which has described the protests as “scattered riots” that have been “designed by enemies” of the country, passed a rule that made the sharing of photos and videos of hijab removal with Alinejad a punishable offence carrying up to 10 years in prison.
In an email interview, the author of The Wind in my Hair says the defiance of Iran’s Islamic regime has reached a point of no return. Edited excerpts:
You have said that the current protests against the hijab sound the “death knell for the Islamic Republic” and likened the compulsory practice to the Berlin wall. Why do you think these protests will succeed, unlike the other large protests over the decades (including in 2009 and 2019)?
The current protests in Iran are widespread and not dying down after nearly two months of the custodial killing of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic has painted itself into a corner — it can brutally crack down on its youth and women and kill more people and create even more anger among the population. Or it can allow the hijab to be a choice. This would be an ideological defeat for the regime and it will be seen as the first step to removing the Sharia-law-based system.
Last week, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi returned to Tehran after participating in a competition in Seoul, and apologised for competing without her hijab after it “inadvertently” fell off. What do you think happened to her?
Elnaz was forced to come back. Her brother was arrested and threatened with jail, torture and worse. But when she returned, she was received by thousands of well-wishers. And the next day, she refused to wear the hijab when she met the sports minister — she wore a baseball cap and a hoodie instead. Her family’s life is in danger. Three years ago at Stanford University, I predicted that the next revolution in Iran would be led by women. And what we are seeing now is women breaking the law, engaging in civil disobedience. And if you can bring down the compulsory hijab, you can bring down all of the Islamic Republic.
Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi (third from left) meets with Iran’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Hamid Sajjadi (third from right), in Tehran on October 19, 2022. | Photo Credit: via Reuters
Many in India now follow your work as an Iranian exile protesting against the regime. When did your activism begin?
I became an activist at 18 when I ended up in jail for spraying slogans on walls and publishing a high school newsletter. But once I had my son, I gave that up. Eventually, I made it as a journalist, and although I was always critical [of the Iranian government], I thought I could help reform the system. We made incremental gains but even that became impossible by 2009.
As a journalist, you lost your press credentials, ostensibly over showing “two strands of hair”… How difficult was it to report on the regime, and what finally made you decide to leave Iran, and possibly be separated from your son?
I was expelled from the parliament for revealing how much Members of Parliament were receiving as extra payments. But that made me an even bigger name in Iranian journalism circles and I became a very popular political columnist. In 2009, during the controversial presidential election [where President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner], I was forced to leave the country. I thought I would return soon because I was sure the reformists were going to win. I was divorced at that time and had only partial custody of my son. I never thought I was leaving him behind for a long time. The election result was disputed, Opposition members were jailed and I watched from New York as the crackdown destroyed that early attempt at democracy. I was stuck in the U.S., my son was in Iran. I had to smuggle him out during the crackdown on Green Movement activists and we moved to the city of Oxford.
In exile too, you have faced threats…
The attacks have been magnified many, many times after I started my campaign against compulsory hijab in 2014. The FBI stopped a gunman armed with an AK-47 outside my home this past July. A year earlier, the FBI foiled a kidnapping plot on American soil by the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry. I am now living in a safe house. I have a great deal of sympathy for Salman Rushdie [who was attacked in New York in August by a man who claimed to be influenced by the Iranian fatwa on Rushdie].
Have you at any point reconsidered your work, given the cost paid by your family and friends in Iran?
That is a great question. Every time one of my campaigners gets arrested, I get overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. My husband says that’s wrong. These women chose to become activists, to take their hijabs off. And I have to agree with him. The blame and guilt for the crimes of the state lie with their goons who kill innocent people, and not with me.
The European Union and the United States have announced more sanctions against Iran for its crackdown on the protesters. What is your stand on the sanctions, given that their impact is normally felt by the most vulnerable citizens and not by the rulers?
We have had almost eight weeks of protests and there has not been one chant in favour of the nuclear deal or any slogans against America. Iranians know their real enemy is inside the country — it is the ruling clerical regime. The money that the regime earns goes into promoting Islamist ideology, funding the Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other terrorist organisations.
A mural depicting women cutting their hair to show support for Iranian protesters, in a tunnel in Paris, October 5, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP
On the one hand, elections in Iran bring in more and more conservative governments (an issue that we see worldwide, of elected populists and authoritarians strengthening their hold). On the other hand, external interventions never work, and destroy countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc). What according to you is the way ahead for Iran, and what can the rest of the world do, if anything?
In Chile and Colombia, elections brought in leftists. In the U.K., the Labour Party could win an election if there were any chance of a vote. Popular sentiment moves in cycles and the right wing shift will shift again. As for foreign intervention, the American Revolution would not have succeeded without French help; in Russia, Lenin was aided by Kaiser’s Germany; even in Iran, the Islamists had help from Libya and other radical groups in West Asia. What we need is a free and fair referendum on the future of Iran, under the supervision of the U.N. Security Council. After that, we must have fair elections. It doesn’t matter who wins as long as we end up with a secular government that respects human rights.
We are in a marathon, not a sprint. And there are many discussions taking place that may result in a more cohesive political leadership emerging. But from your own experience you must know this is not something that can happen overnight. We need to practice democracy even in opposition.
‘If you can bring down the compulsory hijab, you can bring down all of Iran’: activist Masih Alinejad
The Iranian-American journalist and activist says the ongoing anti-hijab protests in Iran are the first steps towards removing the Islamic republic’s Sharia-based system
From her home in exile in the U.S., journalist-activist Masih Alinejad, 46, has been at the forefront of the movement against Iran’s restrictive hijab laws, supporting and encouraging women who demand the right to dress as they please. As protests spread over the custodial death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, brutally assaulted and arrested by Iran’s ‘morality police’ for not covering her hair ‘properly’, Alinejad, with her distinctive corkscrew curls, is helping to ignite international outrage with her hashtags #WhiteWednesdays, #MyCameraIsMyWeapon and #MyStealthyFreedom.
A woman cuts her hair in solidarity with Iranian women, in Santiago, Chile, October 7, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
In July, the Iranian government, which has described the protests as “scattered riots” that have been “designed by enemies” of the country, passed a rule that made the sharing of photos and videos of hijab removal with Alinejad a punishable offence carrying up to 10 years in prison.
In an email interview, the author of The Wind in my Hair says the defiance of Iran’s Islamic regime has reached a point of no return. Edited excerpts:
You have said that the current protests against the hijab sound the “death knell for the Islamic Republic” and likened the compulsory practice to the Berlin wall. Why do you think these protests will succeed, unlike the other large protests over the decades (including in 2009 and 2019)?
The current protests in Iran are widespread and not dying down after nearly two months of the custodial killing of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic has painted itself into a corner — it can brutally crack down on its youth and women and kill more people and create even more anger among the population. Or it can allow the hijab to be a choice. This would be an ideological defeat for the regime and it will be seen as the first step to removing the Sharia-law-based system.
Last week, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi returned to Tehran after participating in a competition in Seoul, and apologised for competing without her hijab after it “inadvertently” fell off. What do you think happened to her?
Elnaz was forced to come back. Her brother was arrested and threatened with jail, torture and worse. But when she returned, she was received by thousands of well-wishers. And the next day, she refused to wear the hijab when she met the sports minister — she wore a baseball cap and a hoodie instead. Her family’s life is in danger. Three years ago at Stanford University, I predicted that the next revolution in Iran would be led by women. And what we are seeing now is women breaking the law, engaging in civil disobedience. And if you can bring down the compulsory hijab, you can bring down all of the Islamic Republic.
Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi (third from left) meets with Iran’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Hamid Sajjadi (third from right), in Tehran on October 19, 2022. | Photo Credit: via Reuters
Many in India now follow your work as an Iranian exile protesting against the regime. When did your activism begin?
I became an activist at 18 when I ended up in jail for spraying slogans on walls and publishing a high school newsletter. But once I had my son, I gave that up. Eventually, I made it as a journalist, and although I was always critical [of the Iranian government], I thought I could help reform the system. We made incremental gains but even that became impossible by 2009.
As a journalist, you lost your press credentials, ostensibly over showing “two strands of hair”… How difficult was it to report on the regime, and what finally made you decide to leave Iran, and possibly be separated from your son?
I was expelled from the parliament for revealing how much Members of Parliament were receiving as extra payments. But that made me an even bigger name in Iranian journalism circles and I became a very popular political columnist. In 2009, during the controversial presidential election [where President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner], I was forced to leave the country. I thought I would return soon because I was sure the reformists were going to win. I was divorced at that time and had only partial custody of my son. I never thought I was leaving him behind for a long time. The election result was disputed, Opposition members were jailed and I watched from New York as the crackdown destroyed that early attempt at democracy. I was stuck in the U.S., my son was in Iran. I had to smuggle him out during the crackdown on Green Movement activists and we moved to the city of Oxford.
In exile too, you have faced threats…
The attacks have been magnified many, many times after I started my campaign against compulsory hijab in 2014. The FBI stopped a gunman armed with an AK-47 outside my home this past July. A year earlier, the FBI foiled a kidnapping plot on American soil by the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry. I am now living in a safe house. I have a great deal of sympathy for Salman Rushdie [who was attacked in New York in August by a man who claimed to be influenced by the Iranian fatwa on Rushdie].
Have you at any point reconsidered your work, given the cost paid by your family and friends in Iran?
That is a great question. Every time one of my campaigners gets arrested, I get overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. My husband says that’s wrong. These women chose to become activists, to take their hijabs off. And I have to agree with him. The blame and guilt for the crimes of the state lie with their goons who kill innocent people, and not with me.
The European Union and the United States have announced more sanctions against Iran for its crackdown on the protesters. What is your stand on the sanctions, given that their impact is normally felt by the most vulnerable citizens and not by the rulers?
We have had almost eight weeks of protests and there has not been one chant in favour of the nuclear deal or any slogans against America. Iranians know their real enemy is inside the country — it is the ruling clerical regime. The money that the regime earns goes into promoting Islamist ideology, funding the Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other terrorist organisations.
A mural depicting women cutting their hair to show support for Iranian protesters, in a tunnel in Paris, October 5, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP
On the one hand, elections in Iran bring in more and more conservative governments (an issue that we see worldwide, of elected populists and authoritarians strengthening their hold). On the other hand, external interventions never work, and destroy countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc). What according to you is the way ahead for Iran, and what can the rest of the world do, if anything?
In Chile and Colombia, elections brought in leftists. In the U.K., the Labour Party could win an election if there were any chance of a vote. Popular sentiment moves in cycles and the right wing shift will shift again. As for foreign intervention, the American Revolution would not have succeeded without French help; in Russia, Lenin was aided by Kaiser’s Germany; even in Iran, the Islamists had help from Libya and other radical groups in West Asia. What we need is a free and fair referendum on the future of Iran, under the supervision of the U.N. Security Council. After that, we must have fair elections. It doesn’t matter who wins as long as we end up with a secular government that respects human rights.
We are in a marathon, not a sprint. And there are many discussions taking place that may result in a more cohesive political leadership emerging. But from your own experience you must know this is not something that can happen overnight. We need to practice democracy even in opposition.
‘If you can bring down the compulsory hijab, you can bring down all of Iran’: activist Masih Alinejad
The Iranian-American journalist and activist says the ongoing anti-hijab protests in Iran are the first steps towards removing the Islamic republic’s Sharia-based system
From her home in exile in the U.S., journalist-activist Masih Alinejad, 46, has been at the forefront of the movement against Iran’s restrictive hijab laws, supporting and encouraging women who demand the right to dress as they please. As protests spread over the custodial death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, brutally assaulted and arrested by Iran’s ‘morality police’ for not covering her hair ‘properly’, Alinejad, with her distinctive corkscrew curls, is helping to ignite international outrage with her hashtags #WhiteWednesdays, #MyCameraIsMyWeapon and #MyStealthyFreedom.
A woman cuts her hair in solidarity with Iranian women, in Santiago, Chile, October 7, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
In July, the Iranian government, which has described the protests as “scattered riots” that have been “designed by enemies” of the country, passed a rule that made the sharing of photos and videos of hijab removal with Alinejad a punishable offence carrying up to 10 years in prison.
In an email interview, the author of The Wind in my Hair says the defiance of Iran’s Islamic regime has reached a point of no return. Edited excerpts:
You have said that the current protests against the hijab sound the “death knell for the Islamic Republic” and likened the compulsory practice to the Berlin wall. Why do you think these protests will succeed, unlike the other large protests over the decades (including in 2009 and 2019)?
The current protests in Iran are widespread and not dying down after nearly two months of the custodial killing of Mahsa Amini. The Islamic Republic has painted itself into a corner — it can brutally crack down on its youth and women and kill more people and create even more anger among the population. Or it can allow the hijab to be a choice. This would be an ideological defeat for the regime and it will be seen as the first step to removing the Sharia-law-based system.
Last week, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi returned to Tehran after participating in a competition in Seoul, and apologised for competing without her hijab after it “inadvertently” fell off. What do you think happened to her?
Elnaz was forced to come back. Her brother was arrested and threatened with jail, torture and worse. But when she returned, she was received by thousands of well-wishers. And the next day, she refused to wear the hijab when she met the sports minister — she wore a baseball cap and a hoodie instead. Her family’s life is in danger. Three years ago at Stanford University, I predicted that the next revolution in Iran would be led by women. And what we are seeing now is women breaking the law, engaging in civil disobedience. And if you can bring down the compulsory hijab, you can bring down all of the Islamic Republic.
Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi (third from left) meets with Iran’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Hamid Sajjadi (third from right), in Tehran on October 19, 2022. | Photo Credit: via Reuters
Many in India now follow your work as an Iranian exile protesting against the regime. When did your activism begin?
I became an activist at 18 when I ended up in jail for spraying slogans on walls and publishing a high school newsletter. But once I had my son, I gave that up. Eventually, I made it as a journalist, and although I was always critical [of the Iranian government], I thought I could help reform the system. We made incremental gains but even that became impossible by 2009.
As a journalist, you lost your press credentials, ostensibly over showing “two strands of hair”… How difficult was it to report on the regime, and what finally made you decide to leave Iran, and possibly be separated from your son?
I was expelled from the parliament for revealing how much Members of Parliament were receiving as extra payments. But that made me an even bigger name in Iranian journalism circles and I became a very popular political columnist. In 2009, during the controversial presidential election [where President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner], I was forced to leave the country. I thought I would return soon because I was sure the reformists were going to win. I was divorced at that time and had only partial custody of my son. I never thought I was leaving him behind for a long time. The election result was disputed, Opposition members were jailed and I watched from New York as the crackdown destroyed that early attempt at democracy. I was stuck in the U.S., my son was in Iran. I had to smuggle him out during the crackdown on Green Movement activists and we moved to the city of Oxford.
In exile too, you have faced threats…
The attacks have been magnified many, many times after I started my campaign against compulsory hijab in 2014. The FBI stopped a gunman armed with an AK-47 outside my home this past July. A year earlier, the FBI foiled a kidnapping plot on American soil by the Islamic Republic intelligence ministry. I am now living in a safe house. I have a great deal of sympathy for Salman Rushdie [who was attacked in New York in August by a man who claimed to be influenced by the Iranian fatwa on Rushdie].
Have you at any point reconsidered your work, given the cost paid by your family and friends in Iran?
That is a great question. Every time one of my campaigners gets arrested, I get overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. My husband says that’s wrong. These women chose to become activists, to take their hijabs off. And I have to agree with him. The blame and guilt for the crimes of the state lie with their goons who kill innocent people, and not with me.
The European Union and the United States have announced more sanctions against Iran for its crackdown on the protesters. What is your stand on the sanctions, given that their impact is normally felt by the most vulnerable citizens and not by the rulers?
We have had almost eight weeks of protests and there has not been one chant in favour of the nuclear deal or any slogans against America. Iranians know their real enemy is inside the country — it is the ruling clerical regime. The money that the regime earns goes into promoting Islamist ideology, funding the Hezbollah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other terrorist organisations.
A mural depicting women cutting their hair to show support for Iranian protesters, in a tunnel in Paris, October 5, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP
On the one hand, elections in Iran bring in more and more conservative governments (an issue that we see worldwide, of elected populists and authoritarians strengthening their hold). On the other hand, external interventions never work, and destroy countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc). What according to you is the way ahead for Iran, and what can the rest of the world do, if anything?
In Chile and Colombia, elections brought in leftists. In the U.K., the Labour Party could win an election if there were any chance of a vote. Popular sentiment moves in cycles and the right wing shift will shift again. As for foreign intervention, the American Revolution would not have succeeded without French help; in Russia, Lenin was aided by Kaiser’s Germany; even in Iran, the Islamists had help from Libya and other radical groups in West Asia. What we need is a free and fair referendum on the future of Iran, under the supervision of the U.N. Security Council. After that, we must have fair elections. It doesn’t matter who wins as long as we end up with a secular government that respects human rights.
We are in a marathon, not a sprint. And there are many discussions taking place that may result in a more cohesive political leadership emerging. But from your own experience you must know this is not something that can happen overnight. We need to practice democracy even in opposition.
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