Women’s rights in Iran: Exiled activist reveals how her fight for equality is attracting male support

Heretic, whore, CIA operative – Masih Alinejad has been called all these things, and worse, by the Iranian authorities. What is her crime? Campaigning for equal rights for women in her home country.

Now Ms Alinejad, 39, who was born in the small village of Ghomikola in the north of Iran but was forced into exile and lives in New York, has launched a campaign to get Iranian men to take up the fight in solidarity with their wives.

Growing up, Ms Alinejad would quietly question why she didn’t enjoy the same rights as her brother; but when she began to speak out and criticise her country’s MPs, she was thrown into prison, aged 19 and pregnant.

Upon her release she continued to aggravate the authorities through her work as an investigative journalist before moving to the UK in 2009, and then to the US where she lives with her son, 18, and husband. There, she presents a weekly programme, Tablet, on Voice of America’s Persian language channel which examines issues affecting young Iranians.

Affectionately referred to by her supporters as “Ghomikola Eagle” – a nickname supplied by her husband – the activist has inspired thousands of women to remove their hijabs, thanks to her “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign which she launched last year. The project encourages women to take “stealthy” photographs of themselves without their head covering and send them to Ms Alinejad to post on her Facebook page, which has almost a million followers.

Now her new initiative, “It’s Men’s Turn”, urges men to join in the campaign against oppressive laws. She had the idea after it emerged last month that the captain of Iran’s indoor women’s football team, Niloufar Ardalan, had been unable to attend a match in Malaysia as her husband had not permitted her to leave the country.

Under Iranian law a wife must obtain her husband’s permission to get a passport, work or file for divorce. Ms Alinejad was horrified by media coverage of Ms Ardalan’s plight which, she felt, portrayed all Iranian men as oppressive tyrants. Instead, she argues, the outrage should have been directed at legislators.

“There are a lot of open-minded men in Iran supporting women’s rights,” Ms Alinejad told The Independent. “They never have chance to speak out.”

Since Iranian husbands can waive the provisions of the marriage contract, Ms Alinejad invited men to take photos of themselves holding statements affirming their commitment to gender equality and handing their wives’ rights back to them.

Many men of all ages and backgrounds have already pledged their support. “It shows the difference between the government and ordinary people,” she said. “A lot of men don’t want this shameful law. They are standing with us saying ‘We don’t want to be the owners of women’.”

But Ms Alinejad has received abusive messages demanding she cease her campaigning and has been accused of “ruining Iranian women’s modesty” .

In 2014, Iranian state TV reported that Ms Alinejad had been raped at a London Tube station after she took drugs and removed her clothes. “It is disgusting they made this lie up to ruin my reputation,” Ms Alinejad said. “They can rape me in their minds and write it in the news. I’m not saying I’m scared… No, actually, I’m scared.” But, she added: “They are scared of me.”

“The government wants to keep the fight between men and women going to keep control. Speaking out [will] stop the government that wants only one voice.”

The time has come for President Hassan Rouhani to correct “discriminatory” laws, Ms Alinejad believes. “He talked about nuclear weapons – now its the time to put women’s rights on the table. For more than 30 years Iran called America the ‘Great Satan’. They talked to their biggest enemy but they don’t talk to women like me.”

But the sheer volume of people embracing “It’s Men’s Turn” shows ordinary Iranians are willing to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the women of their country.