When agents from the FBI came to her house in Brooklyn, New York, last December to warn her of a kidnapping plot orchestrated by the Iranian government, journalist and activist Masih Alinejad did not at first take them seriously.
In a first-hand account given to The National, the 44-year-old journalist described a sense of shock over the indictment, unsealed by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, which charges four Iranian regime operatives with attempted kidnapping.
“When the FBI came to my house, I couldn’t believe it at first. I was laughing initially, but when they showed me photos that Iran’s intelligence gathered of me, of my husband, my son and our own house, I realised that this is not funny — it is serious,” Alinejad said in a phone interview on Wednesday night, hours after the plot was made public.
Her day-to-day life changed as the FBI carried out its investigation.
“I went to three safe houses,” she said, describing law enforcement efforts to protect her.
The Department of Justice indictment charges the four intelligence officials and one Iranian national residing in California with conspiracy to kidnap the journalist and forcibly take her to Tehran. This is the first known plot attributed to Iran that has involved kidnapping a US citizen on American soil.
Alinejad is still processing the details of the case and adjusting to having a police car outside her home.
She said the information she was shown by the FBI included an Iranian agent capturing photos of her while gardening, leading to her abandonment of the hobby she loves, and that US law enforcement had prohibited her from travelling overseas.
“They said, 'We are not going to allow you to travel abroad. We are here to protect you,'” she said of her conversation with authorities. “I wish the FBI was in France and didn’t let Ruhollah Zam travel to Iraq.”
Zam was a journalist living in Paris who was critical of the Iranian regime. He was lured to Iraq where he was kidnapped, taken to Iran and executed last December.
The indictment said Iranian operatives Omid Noori, Mahmoud Khazein, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani and Kiya Sadeghi, as well as Niloufar Bahadorifar, an Iranian living in the US, were looking to transport Alinejad via speedboat to Venezuela and from there to Iran.
Ms Bahadorifar is due to be arraigned in a US court in the coming days.
Asked if she knew any of the people named in the indictment, Alinejad said that she cried when the FBI showed them to her. “[Two of the names] mean 'hope' and 'flower' in [Farsi] — that’s all I was able to think of.”
The journalist, who was born, raised and worked in Iran covering corruption and human rights abuses by the regime, left the country in 2009. She said she has faced multiple threats from authorities in Tehran because of her work.
Her younger brother, Alireza, has been in regime custody since 2019, and her 70-year-old mother has been interrogated.
“They brought my sister on TV to disown me publicly,” she says.
Part of her struggle is understanding how “a tiny, 45-kilogram woman can scare such a regime. So, they intimidate my family, they try to make me go to Turkey [through her parents], but I don’t fear them.”
With a social media following of over seven million, Alinejad said the plot was not about her but about the voices of Iranians she is empowering.
In the last two months, videos she has shared of Iranian women rejecting the veil and morality police beating a dog-owner have gone viral.
“[Iranian authorities] are scared because my videos get more viewers than the Supreme Leader of Iran when he speaks.
“I have only one life and I will continue giving voice to those people,” she defiantly added.
Asked if anyone from President Joe Biden's administration had reached out to her after the indictment, Alinejad said there has not been any contact yet, but she hoped for the administration’s support even as it tries to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran.
“I have hope that the Biden administration gets US hostages in Iran out, but I am here … support me and do not bury human rights under the nuclear deal,” she said.
Contacted by The National about the case, the State Department said it supports human rights in Iran.
“The Biden administration will continue to call out and stand up to Iran’s human rights abuses and will support others who do so both here and in Iran.”
But as to this particular situation, the US spokesman said, “this is a law enforcement matter and we refer you to the Department of Justice for any further inquiries.”
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
The specs: 2018 Renault Megane
Price, base / as tested Dh52,900 / Dh59,200
Engine 1.6L in-line four-cylinder
Transmission Continuously variable transmission
Power 115hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 156Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.6L / 100km
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group H
Juventus v Valencia, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Mobile phone packages comparison
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
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Company%20profile
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A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
CREW
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What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
Company%20Profile
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Squads
Sri Lanka Tharanga (c), Mathews, Dickwella (wk), Gunathilaka, Mendis, Kapugedera, Siriwardana, Pushpakumara, Dananjaya, Sandakan, Perera, Hasaranga, Malinga, Chameera, Fernando.
India Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Pandey, Rahane, Jadhav, Dhoni (wk), Pandya, Axar, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Thakur.
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas
Three stars
Al Jazira's foreign quartet for 2017/18
Romarinho, Brazil
Lassana Diarra, France
Sardor Rashidov, Uzbekistan
Mbark Boussoufa, Morocco
RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
Company%20Profile
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
TEAMS
US Team
Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth
Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger
Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler
Kevin Kisner, Patrick Reed
Matt Kuchar, Kevin Chappell
Charley Hoffman*, Phil Mickelson*
International Team
Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day
Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen
Marc Leishman, Charl Schwartzel
Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim
Jhonattan Vegas, Adam Hadwin
Emiliano Grillo*, Anirban Lahiri*
* denotes captain's picks
