Iranian-born journalist Masih Alinejad, who prosecutors say was targeted by her former homeland’s government for assassination said Tuesday that Tehran calling her a prostitute and an agent of the U.S. president left her feeling broken but resilient — and with a magnificent garden.
Testifying at the trial of two men charged in the plot, Masih Alinejad said she responded to every threat by planting a flower.
“That’s why I have a beautiful, massive garden … because I face a lot of curses and threats,” the naturalized U.S. citizen told jurors in Manhattan federal court.
For over two hours, she responded to gentle questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard, who guided her through a recounting of her childhood in Iran and her years as a young journalist trying to cover politics in a country where she frequently clashed with authorities who sought to control the news she produced.
“We don’t have free media in Iran,” she said, her curly black hair so thick and wild that it seemed her narrow face strained to poke through.
She left Iran in 2009 following the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election and moved to the United States, where she launched online campaigns to encourage women in Iran to pose for pictures and videos showing their hair.
Alinejad’s testimony came a week after a former member of the Russian mob testified that he took photographs and videos outside her Brooklyn home in July 2022 after he was hired to assassinate her. Before he could, he was stopped by police for running a stop sign and was arrested after a loaded AK-47 assault rifle was found in his backseat.
In Iran, she said, she was tormented by the extreme punishment women faced if hair was not covered at all times in public.
Once, she said, a cleric told her, “I’m going to punch on your face if you don’t cover your hair proper.”
Alinejad, an author and contributor to Voice of America, became a U.S. citizen in October 2019. She has traveled the world speaking to women and encouraging others to join her movement for freedom of expression by women, particularly those in Iran.
She said authorities in Iran have consistently tried to derail her messages by calling her a prostitute, a CIA agent or even “an agent” of President Donald Trump.
In 2022, shortly before the FBI moved her out of her home after the assassination plot was discovered, she said the threats and insults had become so severe that she felt “broken a little bit.”
It was then that she carried a list of threats and insults to her garden “and said every single threat I hear, I plant a flower.”
Her testimony was presented at the trial of Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, natives of Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran. The men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including murder-for-hire.
Defense lawyers for Amirov and Omarov have told jurors that prosecutors’ evidence was merely circumstantial.
At the trial’s start, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said Alinejad became a target of Iran after encouraging women to share messages and videos protesting the regime by refusing to wear head coverings, or hijabs. Many were subjected to arrest or beatings by Iran’s morality police.
“She shared them with millions. She shined a light on the government of Iran’s oppression of women, and that enraged the regime,” Gutwillig said.
The trial’s judge told jurors Monday that they may be deliberating by the end of this week.