Masih Alinejad Does Not Speak For Me–Anymore
By Shahrzad (Fatemeh) Shams
Fighting against compulsory hijab has deeply changed my personal and political life over the past ten years. It was the main reason for the end of an eight-year long marriage. It was the main reason to distance myself from the so-called religious reformists in Iran and criticize their hypocritical stance about women’s rights and the hijab. And of course as a result I faced isolation, insults and pressure from all sides. I paid a heavy cost for this fight, the least of which has been the pressure on my family members and a decade-long ban to return to my country.
It was in this vein that when Masih Alinejad invited me to take part in a short documentary for the anti-compulsory veil campaign, I accepted her invitation. I still defend what I said in that documentary. I’ve written a lot in support of her in the past. I gave her hope to not give up on the fight. And I still believed we should separate her efforts to defend the rights of women and political prisoners as long as she was standing with people and not with the oppressive power.
But today, after having seen her picture along with one of the biggest warmongering American politicians around, this is the first time I am openly criticizing Masih Alinejad. I write this because as one of thousands of women who one time trusted her and stood in front of her camera, I think it is my right to say that she is not my representative and I have long lost my trust in her as someone who has made a career and accumulated fame for herself, and profiteering off women’s suffering and the oppressive regime in Iran. I have lost my trust in her as someone who has stood alongside one of the most aggressive and warmongering governments in the world. How is it possible that she is so incapable of understanding the Trump administration’s ultimate ambitions and horizons, what this administration is about? How can she think that just by verbalizing her disagreement with war, she could justify her position as an advocate of ‘peace’?
How is it possible to stand next to the Secretary of State which implements the most anti-humanitarian and policies of economic warfare against various nations and has no shame in hiding them? How is it possible to repeat ‘No to war, yes to overthrow’ in front of Pompeo, who has taken the most aggressive stands against Iran and in the same administration as John Bolton who not only helped launch a catastrophic war in Iraq, but has repeatedly called for war and bombing Iran? How does this sit with her pro-women rights position? It is always women who bear the brunt of these violence schemes. When does she want to understand that standing in alongside Pompeo will not progress the cause of women’s right inside Iran? What is the difference between what she did today and those who meet with Khamenei? What is the difference between warmongers at home and warmongers in the United states? One is perceived as a pro-human rights move and the other against it while both follow the same logic and won’t help the situation of human rights inside Iran.
Using this pretext to overthrow the Islamic Republic on the 40th anniversary of Iran’s revolution — and with the support of the same imperial power who previously toppled Iran’s popular government in 1953 and supported the Pahlavi dictatorship thereafter — is just a pipedream and the result of deep ignorance about Iranian history. The only outcome will be more pressure on women. No one has any doubt about the authoritarian politics of the Islamic Republic. But the question remains: Did the overthrow of the Shah following this logic help the progress of human rights in Iran? If so, why are we where we are today? Have we really not learned and so mired in misery to think that Trump and his racist, violent and imperial politicies can help the people in Iran?
I, too am a dissident voice. I am also stateless. But people like Pompeo would never want to hear the voice of these kinds of dissidents for obvious reasons.
Shahrzad (Fatemeh) Shams is an Assistant Professor of Persian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center.
