Regimes, rebels and social change: Interview with Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad
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After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini began a harsh assault on women's rights.
Today, Iranian women are subject to strict dress codes, including the mandatory hijab, and face legal and political discrimination.
Violations of the rules are frequently met with intense and sometimes fatal brutality.
Speaking exclusively to Euronews, Iranian women's rights activist Masih Alinejad has called on Western leaders to unite in favour of democracy and challenge dictatorships across the world.
Persecuted by Iran's government herself, the journalist-author recently launched a campaign United Against Gender Apartheid, which aims to share the stories of women living under the shadow of oppressive regimes.
Here is what she said.
Euronews: Let's start by speaking about your latest initiative, United Against Gender Apartheid. What inspired you to start the campaign, and what is the aim?
Masih Alinejad: I launched this campaign because I believe in the power of storytelling. If every single woman takes her camera and talks about how it feels to be a second-class citizen in Afghanistan, how it feels to get kicked out of schools, how it feels to get lashes, to get beaten up in the streets in Iran for the crime of showing their hair – they can bring all women together.
It’s not just women in Iran and Afghanistan. Their stories have encouraged the women of Africa to join us. I think this campaign gives a picture of all women from all authoritarian regimes.
You see women from Nicaragua, women from Venezuela, women from Sudan, from Africa, joining women from Iran and Afghanistan and calling for an end to the gender apartheid regime. And this unity is the key.
Euronews: What assistance have you received from the international community?
Alinejad: So far, some Western countries are trying to understand how the women of Iran and Afghanistan are suffering under gender apartheid, and how they can help to have gender apartheid classified in all international laws.
There are meetings with groups of women from Iran and Afghanistan, member states, and politicians and policymakers everywhere in European countries. But I think this is not sufficient.
We need a global rally, a global movement to unite all women across the globe, to call on their leaders, to get united to end gender apartheid.
Euronews: Dictators are uniting and seeking assistance to avoid sanctions and punishment from Western countries. At the same time, we see how Western leaders are scared to fully punish these regimes. How do you see regimes being held accountable by the new initiative?
Alinejad: This initiative is just one of the tools in our hands, the hands of dissidents, to bring the democratic countries together. Our struggle is important, but it’s not sufficient. The international community must hear the call from the World Liberty Congress.
We had our first general assembly where we united dissidents from 60 authoritarian regimes, the leaders of the movement in every authoritarian country from Africa to Latin America, to many regions in the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, to Asia, and people from Hong Kong. There are pro-democracy movements in each region. But at the same time, all the dictators from these regions are helping each other.
Two-thirds of the global population is living under authoritarian regimes. It is shocking, but it is true. It is a fact that 70% of the global population is living under autocrats. Democracy is in recession. I believe that only sanctions are not sufficient. It is a tool, but it’s not sufficient. We need to see all the democratic countries as united as authoritarian regimes to isolate dictatorships and terrorists.
Euronews: You’re asking women across the world who are under authoritarian regimes to record a video of themselves, exposing the atrocities that they’re facing every day. Yet, we’ve also seen how many of these regimes have condemned and arrested people for speaking out. Have you seen a change in the mentality of people in their willingness to speak up against these regimes?
Alinejad: In my country, the regime created a new law saying that if anyone sent videos to Masih Alinejad would be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. I remember I felt guilty. I felt the burden on my shoulders. I wanted to shut down my campaign. But guess what happened? I was bombarded by women sending videos.
Now mothers who lost their beloved ones in the protests, in the uprising, are sending videos to me in the same street where their children got killed, saying: “Masih, you should be our voice because we don't have anything to lose. They killed our children, and now are telling us to stop being our storytellers? They want us to stop even crying for justice?”
Women in my country, women in authoritarian regimes, are fearless. They have nothing to lose. They had enough. But at the same time, they have agency. I'm not putting their lives in danger. These are the authoritarian regimes putting their lives in danger. And that’s why they believe they are like the women of suffrage. They have to risk their lives because they believe freedom is not free.
In my country, you see that the clerics are attacking women in the streets. Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, asked the police to put cameras everywhere to identify unveiled women. What happened? You see women showing their middle fingers to the cameras. You see women using their cameras as weapons to expose the violence of those who carry weapons, to expose the Islamic Republic, expose the Taliban, and African dictators.
Euronews: During the recent parliamentary elections in Iran, we saw the lowest voter turnout since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. We are also witnessing government top officials voicing their discomfort with some of the conservatives’ policies. People in the streets are rebelling against the establishment. Do you think that a possibility of change might be looming in Iran?
Alinejad: I think the main change that the Iranian people want is regime change. They want to have a secular democracy. And they deserve to have it. There’s a huge gap between the young generation and the rulers. All the criminals, they’re ruling my country. So for that, I have to say that the Islamic Republic is not reformable.
Even those moderate boys who now boycotted the election concluded that they must get rid of the Islamic Republic and have a secular democracy. And believe me, a secular democracy not only benefits the people of Iran, but also the people in the region and the people in the West. So an Iran without an Islamic Republic will benefit the rest of the world.
We, the people of Iran, we’re not risking our lives to just save ourselves. We want to save the rest of the world from one of the most dangerous viruses, which is called the Islamic Republic. They are infecting the rest of the world.
There's a famous saying in America: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” – but I believe what happened in the Middle East is not going to stay in the Middle East. They will expand their ideology in Europe. Extremism everywhere.
I believe that change will come in my country sooner or later, but history will judge those who could be a voice for the women of Iran, but they decided to ignore them, instead shaking the hands of the killers of my women.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
