Iran is trying to violate the sovereignty of the US, and testing the administration to see how its responds, Iranian-born journalist Masih Alinejad tells Israel Hayom in a special interview.
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Alinejad talks about her life under the shadow of the ayatollah regime and the events of last week, in which the FBI thwarted an attempt by Iranian agents to abduct Alinejad and bring her back to Iran.
Alinejad calls the Biden administration's policies on Iran "bad" – "not bad for me, bad for America's security."
The journalist said that the plot to kidnap her showed that Iran wanted to violate US sovereignty to see how Washington would respond. She said that the day the FBI informed her about the abduction plot, the US lifted sanctions against Iran.
"My government in the US is trying to reach a deal with that same regime. I'm a journalist and a woman's rights advocate. I'm not a criminal – and I left [Iran] to live in peace," Alinejad said.
Alinejad said she was surprised not by the plan to force her to return to Iran – 12 years after she fled – but by its daring. She noted that unlike the case of Ruholla Zam, who was brought from France to Iraq, where he was executed, in her case, the Iranians intended to "do the work themselves."
The Iranians tried to bribe Alinejad's family to trick her into traveling to Turkey, and looked into the possibility of buying speedboats and plotting getaway routes. Once the FBI exposed the plot, the agency decided to put her in a safe house.
As part of the Tehran regime's attempts to put pressure on Alinejad, her brother Ali was sentenced to eight years in prison
"The regime arrested him because he was my brother," she says. "They had my sister appear on television to talk against me on prime time, for 17 minutes."
Her brother, she says, called her in the middle of the night to warn her that if the family called to invite her to meet in Turkey, she was not to go.
"The regime did all that to silence me," she says.
Q: Aren't you afraid for the well-being of your family in the US and Iran?
"They [the Iranians] took pictures of my children … When I think about my family in Iran, I feel my heart being wrung. However, I need to make a very serious decision. When I think about the family, I must think about my nation. I can't say, 'Sorry, I can't be your voice.' I chose my nation. I'm subject to serious threats, and always need to look over my shoulder to see if anyone wants to murder me."
When asked if that prospect frightens her, Alinejad says she is willing to pay the price of being abducted and murdered rather than betray her nation and give the regime the "wrong message."
Alinejad became known through the "White Wednesday" initiative in which women living in Iran remove their headcoverings. She says she launched a campaign against the hijab mandate, and the regime used national television to propagandize against her.
The journalist says the mothers of the people murdered by the regime "give her strength."
"They explain that I'm their voice. 'Masih, we're with you,' they say. If citizens are willing to pay the price, then I should pay the price, too," she says.
Q: What is your opinion of the regime's anti-Israel incitement?
"The Iranian government has liked to brainwash us since we were kids. When I was a teenager it was like that about Israel, too. I was taught to shout 'Death to Israel, death to America' and today, people are shouting 'Death to the regime.' Now the Iranian people are refusing to trample Israeli and American flags. The citizens of Iran are so brave. Our enemies aren't America and Israel, but the regime."
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