Masih Alinejad

Opinion
My Sister Disowned Me on State TV

Stalin would have been proud of Iran’s latest attempt to break my spirit.

By Masih Alinejad

Ms. Alinejad is the author of “The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran.”

July 31, 2018

On Friday, my sister publicly disowned me on prime-time Iranian television.

I can’t say this comes out of nowhere. Over the past two decades — as a journalist critical of the regime, as an outspoken feminist and ultimately a dissident living in exile in America — the Islamic Republic has tried to intimidate me and my family, which still lives in the poor village where I was raised in northern Iran.

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“I am prepared to give up my life for hijab,” my beloved sister says.

I, too, would give up my life. I’d give it up for women like her to live in freedom.

Masih Alinejad (@alinejadmasih) is the founder of My Stealthy Freedom and the author of “The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran.”