1. Career
    My Stealthy Freedom   Voice of America Television Show  

2. Contoversies
    Women's chess games controversy   Meeting with Trump administration officials  

3. Views

4. Bibliography

5. References

6. External links

Masoumeh "Masih" Alinejad-Ghomi ({{lang-fa|مسیح علی‌نژاد}}, born 11 September 1976 in Ghomikola, Babol) is an Iranian American journalist, author, and political activist. Alinejad currently works as a presenter/producer at VOA Persian Service, a correspondent for Radio Farda, a frequent contributor to Manoto television, and a contributing editor to IranWire.

Alinejad is well known for her criticism of Iranian authorities.^[1] She now lives in self-exile in New York City, and has won several awards, including a human rights award from UN Watch's 2015 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, the Omid Journalism Award from the Mehdi Semsar Foundation, and a "Highly Commended" AIB Media Excellence Award.^[2]

Career

Alinejad was born as Masoumeh Alinejad, but uses the first name "Masih" (Persian word anointed or Messiah), which is the title of Jesus of Nazareth in Islam and Christianity. Alinejad was politically active from a young age, and was arrested in 1994 for producing leaflets critical of the Government. Alinejad began her career in journalism in 2001 with Hambastegi daily, and then worked for Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA). Papers, including Shargh, Bahar, Vaghaye, Ettefaghiye, Ham-Mihan, and Etemad Melli, have also published her articles. During the sixth and seventh parliament, Alinejad was the parliamentary reporter. In 2005, she wrote an article suggesting that government ministers had claimed they received pay cuts, they were actually receiving considerable sums of money as "bonuses" for everything from serving religious duties to ringing in the New Year. The article generated lots of controversy, and led to her dismissal from the parliament.^[3][4]

In 2008, she wrote a highly controversial article in Etemad-e Melli daily, called "Song of the Dolphins", where she compared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's followers to hungry dolphins that make sounds and perform entertaining acts to grab a morsel of food from their trainer. Some people regarded the article as very offensive towards the president and the people, and eventually, Mehdi Karroubi, the director of the paper, had to apologise for the article.^[5]

In the summer of 2009, during her stay in the United States, Alinejad tried very hard to have an interview with Barack Obama; however, she was refused the interview, although she had been granted a visa based on having an interview with Obama. Her visa expired, and she had to return to England. While in the United States, she participated in some Iranian protests, and delivered a speech in one on in San Francisco, where she said, addressing the government authorities of Iran, "We have trembled for thirty years, now it is your turn to tremble." Her interview with Voice of America was shown together with parts of the videos she had made, called "A Storm of Fresh Air". In 2010, she and a group of Iranian writers and intellectuals established "IranNeda" foundation. After the presidential election in Iran in 2009, she published a novel called "A Green Date".^[6]

Alinejad attended an undergraduate programme Communication, Media, and Culture from Oxford Brookes University.^[7]

My Stealthy Freedom

In 2014, Alinejad launched My Stealthy Freedom (also known as Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women), a Facebook page that invites Iranian women to post pictures of themselves without a hijab. The page quickly attracted international attention, and has garnered hundreds of thousands of likes.^[8]

In 2015, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, which is run by UN Watch, gave her its women's rights award for "giving a voice to the voiceless and stirring the conscience of humanity to support the struggle of Iranian women for basic human rights, freedom, and equality".^[9]

Alinejad has said she is not opposed to the hijab, but believes it should be a matter of personal choice. In Iran, women who appear in public without a hijab risk being arrested.^[8]

Voice of America Television Show

Since 2015, as a contractor for the Voice of America (Persian Service), Alinejad hosted a weekly 15-minute primetime show, called "Tablet", produced by Saman Arbabi. "With original video from inside Iran, Tablet profiles ordinary citizens and connects them with Americans through short interviews on common themes illustrating both similar and different experiences. The program also has a weekly "timeline report" tracing the development of issues such as the international women’s rights movement and relations between Washington and Tehran", the press release states.^[10]

Contoversies

Women's chess games controversy

In 2016, Alinejad launched a boycott campaign against the 2016 women's chess world championship, held in February 2017 in Tehran, Iran.^[11] The campaign was incited by Nazí Paikidze, a Georgian American chess player. Paikidze refused to attend world championships in Tehran because according to the Iranian law, the players had to wear hijabs. Alinejad supported the act, and co-wrote an op-ed with Asra Nomani in Washington Post.^[12]

The boycott drew strong criticism from some Iranian feminists and female chess players toward Alinejad. Most critics argued that the boycott was counter-productive and harmed the very Iranian women who had fought to get permission from the Iranian government to do professional sports. Others found aspects of "White Saviorism" in the campaign's language and framing.^[13][14]

Meeting with Trump administration officials

In February 2019, Masih Alinejad met with top Donald Trump administration official Mike Pompeo.^[15] US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said Secretary of State Pompeo "thanked Ms. Alinejad for her bravery and continued dedication".^[16] Alinejad said they met for 35 minutes, and said "Many Iranians want an end to the Islamic Republic".^[15]

Journalist Azadeh Moaveni has argued that the Trump administration has exploited Iran's feminist movement, and specifically named Alinejad as a prominent leader.^[17]

The meeting raised strong criticism from many Iranians. A petition, signed by hundreds, including Hamid Dabashi, Mohsen Namjoo, Narges Bajoghli, and Golrokh Nafisi, warned "all activists, inside and outside of Iran, against the fundamental damages that opportunist activism of this sort can bring upon our struggles. They declared "the struggles of Iranian women for freedom and justice are not to be appropriated as a pawn for justifying the interventionist policies of the U.S. While we are adamant in the pursuit of justice for Iranian women, we condemn any women's rights or human rights activism that is funded by foreign governments and corporations with the goal of manipulating public opinion for foreign-backed "regime change" policies at all costs. No claims about human rights violations in Iran justifies the means of widespread economic, political, and psychological suffering due to sanctions, and life under a constant threat of violence and war."^[18]

Views

In a debate with American feminist, Linda Sarsour, on CNN, Alienejad said: "It's important if you care about human rights, women's rights, you cannot use the same tool which is the most visible symbol of oppression in the Middle East and say that this is a sign of resistance [in the United States]."^[20]

Alinejad has been accused by some Iranians to be feeding Islamophobia by focusing on the Hijab^[21], calling it the symbol of oppression^[22], and occasionally identifying herself as anti-Hijab activist within right-wing circles.^[23] She rejects being Islamophobic, but insists that it is the Sharia of Islam which scares her^[24] and it is the Sharia laws which cause Islamophobia.^[25]

She's called European female diplomats as "hypocrites" and has repeatedly attacked them for wearing a scarf during missions to Iran.^[26]

Alinejad told The ocasionally Baytown Sun's columnist, Emma Mcguire, while she was a reporter in Iran, Alinejad "was forced to marry a form of wedding in Iran known as 'temporary marriage' in order to get close enough to sources of news." She said it was a practice common among Iranian hot-headed female journalists.^[27]

After the Christchurch mosque shooting in March 2019 in New Zealand, Alinejad criticised the county's prime minister Jacinda Ardern for wearing a scarf in sympathy and respect to the Muslim victims. She said she "felt that you are using one of the most visible symbols of oppression for Muslim women in many countries for solidarity, and it also broke my heart,” said Alinejad.^[28] The UK tabloid Daily Mail praised the remarks and published a story titled "Muslim campaigners condemn New Zealand women for donning headscarves in solidarity with mosque shooting victims, saying: 'The hijab is NOT empowering for us'".

Bibliography

Alinejad's memoir, The Wind in my Hair, dealing with her journey from a tiny village in northern Iran to becoming a journalist and creating an online movement that sparked the nationwide protests against compulsory hijab was published by Little Brown in 2018.^[29]

She has published four books in Persian:

• Tahasson - which describes the political turmoil/challenges created when the "Sixth Iranian Parliament" went on strike.
• Taj-e-Khar (The Crown of Thorn) - a Novel that is now being translated into English. It refers to the passion of the Christ and the crown of thorns placed on his head by the Romans.
• I am Free - which deals with women's issues in Iran, published in Germany because of the banning by the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry in Iran.
• Gharar Sabz (Green Rendezvous) - which deals with post-2009 Presidential election fraud violence. Book was published in Germany because of the banning by the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry in Iran.

References

External links

• [https://www.amazon.com/Wind-My-Hair-Freedom-Modern/dp/031654891X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523831431&sr=1-1&keywords=masih+alinejad The Wind in my Hair]
• [https://www.masihalinejadmedia.com/ Official Website]
• Meet the Iconoclast Inspiring Iranian Women to Remove Their Headscarves Magazine Vogue
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/books/review/masih-alinejad-wind-in-my-hair.html The Woman Whose Hair Frightens Iran] New York Times

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