THEthe hat barely contains the cloud of black curls. Sunglasses hide dark circles of tiredness and the indomitable gaze of someone who has embarked on life as if it were a mission. It is impossible to recognize the woman who orders a latte macchiato in this café in the heart of Manhattan Masih Alinejad46 years as intense as her battles, Iranian by Ghomi Kola, former parliamentary journalist in Teheran, now a political activist in exile in the USA, the land of the free where they tried to kidnap and assassinate herthe last time in July last year.
Masih Alinejad also in New York they tried to kill her
The US Justice Department has indicted three people, the command of a criminal organization from Eastern Europe in charge of eliminating the dissident who encourages Middle Eastern women to remove the veil to emancipate themselves from harassment. You have no doubts: “They acted on behalf of Iran”.
So it’s not hard to see why Masih has to go around New York in disguise, her curly hair (her copyright) carefully hidden. Since the attack, the FBI has moved her home, forcing her to give up her beautiful flower garden, with the tree dedicated to her mother in the center who lives in Iran and hasn’t seen for 13 years. It is not excluded that the plainclothes agents are observing the conversation from the park outside, but a coffee with Masih is always worth every necessary precaution. It is a hallucinatory journey through the abuses imposed on women in the part of the world she comes from, dominated by the laws of men.
Journalist and activist Masih Alinejad at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland (EPA/GIAN EHRENZELLER)
Being born female in Iran, the greatest challenge
«Of course I believe in destiny – she says -, but I also believe in sisterhood, in the power of the word and of example. Iranian women are doing their part at the cost of their own lives, the precious possession that the courageous Mahsa Amini, beaten to death for failing to observe the obligation of the hijab, had to give up. But as long as Western governments recognize, talk to and do business with the Islamic Republic, as long as European public opinion accepts this complicity, we won’t get out of it”.
Masih Alinejad a beacon for women in the Middle East
The priorities of the battle for empowerment are detailed in Alinejad’s daily posts, 8.7 million followers on Instagram and over 700,000 on Twitter, with her social networks a point of reference for the entire Middle East and, thanks to the documentary film Be my Voice by director Nahid Persson, a beacon in the night. Masih gets excited: «Anyone who sends me a video risks imprisonment. Iranian women started filming the back of their heads, then their faces. I quickly became the voice of those who have none. An honor, but also a responsibility. Iran put a bounty on my head, they made up a picture of my hanging to show on TV. They’re threatening to pour acid on my face.’
The courage to walk bareheaded in the streets of Tehran or Kabul, exposing oneself to the retaliation of the regime of Ali Khamenei or the Taliban, is also an infusion from afar of this force of nature forced to leave the country for leafleting and critical articles in against the regime (“If I returned to my homeland, they would kill me”), candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the women of 2022 for Timewilling to pay the price of an isolation that hasn’t reduced her to silence, quite the contrary.
Freedom is not free
«Each of us is a little Rosa Parks who fights against gender apartheid – she smiles -. No, freedom is not free, it has never been free for Iranian women deprived of their rights”. The white flower in her hair is the symbol of Masih’s gentle revolution: “I’ll tell you a story. My husband Kambiz lost his engagement ring and gave me a flower to make up for it. Since that day, for me it is the emblem of love and the peaceful rebellion that I carry on. The regime has weapons, violence, executions and prison. We women have ourselves, our creative energy and the iron will to change things».
Not being safe in the US, a trauma
He confesses that the attack on Salman Rushdie, ten stab wounds on August 12, 2022 at the Chautauqua (New York) literary festival a few days after foiling the commando raid on his home, risked changing everything. “Something broke inside me. I’m used to difficulties, but discovering that you are not even safe in the United States was a shock. For a moment I lost momentum, I thought about giving up everything. Then I forced myself to put the pieces of my broken heart back together: go to hell, I’m going on my way “.
He gave an interview to CNN that went around the world (“Fuck you! Rushdie is stronger than the fatwa issued by Khomeini: I dream, one day, of being on the same stage to look our killers in the eye”), not was silent (“My voice is my megaphone”), left for a European tour, in Germany and France, which led her to meet President Macron (“Magnificent”, defined her by the philosopher BernardHenry Levi) and while in Iran the street riots were raging over the barbaric killing of Mahsa Amini, she gave an applauded speech to the United Nations. Our time is up. Masih takes off his hat for a moment, strokes his curls, puts it back on before leaving.
«Don’t think that all this concerns only the Iranians. If the prevarication of the regimes is not curbed, you Italians too, in the not too distant future, may have to wear the veil…». A hug, full of concern. Inshallah, Masih.
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