"It’s ironic that a child who once chanted 'death to America' has, as an adult, been given a second life in the same country she was taught to hate," writes Iranian activist Masih Alinejad.
She has written a very personal op-ed in The Free Press about her fight for freedom in Iran and the U.S. because today, the men the Iranian government sent to kill her are going to be sentenced in a New York City courtroom.
She called the government of Iran a "frat house of horny ayatollahs" and "a fetish club with nukes" after Iranian censors blurred out the exposed legs of Finland and Sweden’s foreign ministers on state TV.
Surreal: Iran’s regime covered the legs of Finland & Sweden’s foreign ministers on State TV, afraid their men would be “tempted.” Can we all agree: when a regime needs to hide women’s ankles to keep men from ‘sinning,’ they’re not a government, they’re a frat house of horny… pic.twitter.com/bzP4boqmIH
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 26, 2025
"They kill prisoners, but they panic at our ankle."
Ladies, let’s raise your voices, raise your skirts, raise hell! Apparently Iran’s regime can launch missiles, but they tremble at women’s legs. That’s why they blur us on TV. And they put female singers in jail.
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 27, 2025
They kill prisoners, but they panic at our ankle.
💃🏻 https://t.co/JgCxVeRNTI pic.twitter.com/p4Ph9xAZ4S
Last March, two men charged in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Alinejad were convicted of attempted murder. The two men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were members of the Russian mafia with long arrest records. Another Russian mobster, Khalid Mehdiyev, was hired by Omarov to kill Alinejad and ended up on her back porch peering into her window, trying to ascertain if she was home. Police arrested him a few hours later and found a loaded AK-47 in his trunk.
"In addition to Mr. Amirov and Mr. Omarov, several other men were indicted in the 2022 plot but have not been taken into U.S. custody," according to the New York Times.
Among them are four Iranian men, including the Revolutionary Guards general, Ruhollah Bazghandi. They are still safe and sound in Iran.
In 2021, the FBI informed Alinejad of a plot to kidnap her and spirit her away to Venezuela. Then, in 2022, the Iranians got very serious about eliminating her as a "threat."
In 2022, a hitman named Khalid Mehdiyev lurked outside my Brooklyn home, watching me as I watered my garden—a small patch of green I had created. Each plant carried a memory: basil and mint for the kitchen of my childhood home, a cherry blossom for my mother, a peach tree for my father. I found out during Mehdiyev’s court testimony that he saw his opportunity with me on the porch that day—but by sheer chance, his gun was still in his car. By the time he had retrieved it, I was back inside, unaware of the danger on the street.
When he returned the following day, the FBI arrested him.
In March 2025, I sat in a Manhattan courtroom facing the men accused of orchestrating these plots. My hands shook as I looked them in the eyes, but I was determined to give my testimony. I wanted to send a message to the clerics in Iran: In the United States, law enforcement is protecting me, not harassing me, for being a journalist.
Alinejad joined the Iranian reform movement in 2005, at the tail end of Mohammad Khatami's presidency. Dubbed a "reformist" politician by Western journalists, Khatami inspired hope among Iran's youth, who were chafing at the regime's restrictions on them.
She became a journalist and immediately ran into trouble.
At the height of Iran’s reform movement in 2005, I became a journalist covering parliament. But before anyone had even read my writing, my appearance caused controversy: A lawmaker threatened to punch me senseless because a few strands of my unruly curls had escaped from under my headscarf. He would have carried out his threat had he not been stopped by other officials and journalists.
Later on, when I wrote about corruption among the elected members, I was expelled from my post. It was 2009, and I was hopeful that change for the better could come through the ballot box, but I felt a sense of hope and danger unlike anything before. A few days before the election, the regime’s intelligence officers called me in, threatened me, and forced me to sign a pledge promising not to report on the election. When I ignored the warnings, my car was vandalized. The perpetrators left a calling card: a single handcuff hanging from the driver’s side door handle.
"Today, those hitmen will be sentenced in a Manhattan court. This is more than a personal victory. It’s a reminder of why I came to America: how the United States has given me a place to call home, freedom to express myself, and protection from those who wish to harm me," writes Alinejad.
Masih Alinejad reminds us that there are truly courageous people in this world who fight for what they believe, even though they're under threat of death. That's the definition of courage. Ms. Alinejad exemplifies the kind of spirit that will one day bring Iran back from the dead and into the light of freedom.
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