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Voice-over: It's been one month since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained by Iran's morality police for improperly wearing her hijab. Since her death in police custody three days later, Iranians have been taken to the streets.
Melissa Harris-Perry: These are the protests that initially responded to Iran's compulsory hijab, but have grown now to include a diverse array of Iranians calling for an end to the Islamic regime.
[protesters chanting]
The government has responded with massive violence. According to the humanitarian group, Iran Human Rights, at least 200 people have been killed while protesting, including at least 23 children. I'm joined now by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian American journalist and author. Thank you for being here.
Masih Alinejad: Thank you so much for having me.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, in 2014, you started calling on women inside Iran to record themselves defying the law of hijab. Can you talk about your reaction in this moment to seeing these extraordinary but violently repressed protests?
Masih Alinejad: To be honest, at the same time, I have different feelings, like my heart is broken, because it didn't need for Mahsa to be killed than the whole world pay attention to Iranian women, because I have been warning about the danger of morality police, hijab police, and compulsory hijab laws. For eight years, I have been publishing videos of women being beaten up, being harassed and arrested in the streets for wearing inappropriate hijab. The world ignored that.
Now, the brutal death of Mahsa Amini by hijab police created huge anger among Iranians across the country and created a huge unity among Iranians inside, outside, and across the globe. This brutal death now becoming a turning point for Iranians to say no to Islamic Republic, to a gender-apartheid regime.
Melissa Harris-Perry: When you talk about the effect of this moment and the way that it has unified so many, part of that is because of the access to the internet, to the images, to the information, to the videos, and in addition to the violence, one of the things the government has done is to block access to the internet. Is that right?
Masih Alinejad: It is. It is very difficult. The reason they cut off the internet is they want to prevent the rest of the world to see the crackdown, the brutality of police, which actually killing teenagers right now that I'm talking to you. What actually breaks my heart is that to see the democratic countries, the free world is watching this, that the tech companies, the US tech companies allowing the same murderers to enjoy social media, like Iranian leaders having verified account or multiple account on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. At the same time, they are banning 18 million people from using the same platform.
I remember that here, left-liberal global activist, media, human rights organization, they were celebrating when President Trump was banned from using Twitter. Now, they're not supporting us to kick Khamenei out from Twitter. By his order, Nika Shahkarami, only a 16-year-old teenager got killed. Sorry, now, it was only 17-year-old girl got killed. The supreme leader actually recently threatened me as well by calling his army and saying that this agent of America compared hijab to Berlin Wall, take action against her.
What kind of action? I'm an American Iranian citizen here. I was a target of kidnapping plot, and I call on tech companies and US government to encourage tech companies to kick out these murderers because we don't have enough information about the level of brutality which is going on in Iran right now.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Are you afraid?
Masih Alinejad: No. To be honest, I have only one life. I'm not saying that I'm not scared of being killed, but my people are getting killed every day. Every day my heart is broken because there's no difference between me and these young people. We all have a dream to have a better life, freedom. We just want to have dignity. I'm not scared of being killed, but what scares me that to see the Western democratic countries are not getting united to support Iranians. They have to recognize this revolution.
This is a revolution led by women. The main slogan is "Woman, Life, Freedom" (Jin, Jiyan, Azadî), one of the most peaceful slogan. We keep hearing just today I learned that an Afghan woman, a 17-year-old escaped from Taliban, and she was protesting the brutal death of Mahsa Amini in Iran. The security forces beaten up her to death and she got killed. This is the true face of Iranian regime. If the democratic countries do not get united to recognize our fight against Islamic terror, Islamic states, believe me, then you have to face these terrorists on US soil.
Melissa Harris-Perry: I hear you calling on the tech companies. I hear you calling on a united West. What would the actions of that united West be?
Masih Alinejad: Clearly, we need International Women's March for Iranian women right now. I, myself, joined Women's March in New York because the main slogan was "my body, my choice", but when it comes to Iranian women, it's suddenly, our body is not our choice, and the western female politicians even obey compulsory hijab laws. For years and years, the western female politicians were to my country, even here in the west, the US envoy from Afghanistan wore hijab in front of Taliban.
Believe me, hijab is not just a small piece of cloth when it's in the hands of Taliban and Islamic Republic. For millions of us, hijab is the main tool of oppressive regime like Iranian and Taliban. That is why don't be scared of being labeled of Islamophobic or something. Believe me, supporting your sisters means that you are protecting the whole world from Islamism, from Islamic ideology.
That's why this is the simple thing. I want to see my sisters, my fellow families, taking to the streets in New York, in the West, and support our fight against Islamic regime. Another thing that I want the US government to help, not us, to help democracy. I don't want the US government to come and save us. I want them to stop saving the Iranian regime. Do not negotiate with these murderers. Ask your allies, the European countries to downgrade their diplomatic relation, to recall their ambassadors and give internet access to Iranians who are risking their lives in the streets right now.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Masih Alinejad, Iranian American journalist, author of The Wind in My Hair. Thank you for your passion, your work, and your time today. Thank you for joining The Takeaway.
Masih Alinejad: Thank you so much for having me.
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