When the West amplifies the wrong voice, Iranians bleed twice
I was born in Iran months before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. I grew up under the ayatollahs. I converted to Christianity, distributed bibles, shared the Gospel, was arrested, interrogated repeatedly, and sentenced to death by hanging for the “crime” they call apostasy: becoming a Christian. I spent 259 days in Evin Prison. I know what this regime does to human bodies and to truth. I also know my people.
That is why it is so painful to watch respected voices in the West - commentators, newsrooms, human-rights platforms, and international organizations - keep presenting Masih Alinejad as if she were a legitimate representative of Iranians. She is not. Millions of Iranians have been saying so, loudly and with growing desperation. They are being ignored.
I respect Mark Levin (@marklevinshow) tremendously. But after he amplified her recently, Iranians flooded his post with comments in anger, bewilderment, and grief. They said – pleaded - what so many others have been saying for years. Let me share just a few excerpts in their voices, with which it’s hard not to agree with every word.
“The person you are promoting on your page does not have the support of the Iranian people. Be careful not to lose your credibility and support among the people of Iran. Talk about Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. He is the true voice of the Iranian people. The people of Iran love him... Be his voice. He is the voice of the Iranian people.”
That is not a fringe comment. That is the consistent cry of a nation that has already rejected both the hardliners and the so-called reformists. Iranians have a slogan for this: “Reformists, hardliners, the game is over.” They do not want a prettier version of the same Islamic Republic. They want it gone.
Alinejad is widely seen among Iranians as part of the second camp - the exported “opposition” that keeps the system alive by selling the West a story of gradual change. Her real name is Masoumeh. Her brand “Masih” is a Western stage name. Iranians who know her record do not treat her as a heroine of “Woman, Life, Freedom.” They treat her as a professional mouthpiece for the regime that has oppressed them for half a century.
“Please dont promote this s***! #MasihAlinezad_Blood_Dealer”
That hashtag exists because families of the dead believe she has built a career, her platform, and a lifestyle on their blood. Another Iranian, writing as a family member of victims of the January massacre, put it succinctly:
“Speaking as family of the victims of the January massacre, I implore you for the sake of God and out of respect for the blood shed for Iran’s freedom to stop promoting this woman. She has done absolutely nothing for Iran or the Iranian people other than profiting from “blood money” funding. She is a pawn of the Reformists and the Left; she has secured tens of millions of dollars in funding through false claims, spending the money on herself and on purchasing villas in California. Her ultimate wish is for the Iranian regime to remain in power so she can continue to secure funding by exploiting the deaths of our loved ones under the guise of human rights.”
Whether every financial allegation or real estate holding can be independently audited from the outside is not the point Iranians are making. The point is moral. They watch a woman the regime once allowed to operate as a journalist inside its system become the West’s favorite “dissident,” while the names shouted in the streets of Iran are ignored. They watch her describe a government-managed prop - young women briefly allowed to run without hijab for the cameras and their global propaganda machine - as “we won.” That is not victory. That is the regime teaching the world to applaud for crumbs.
“Dear Mark, Masih Alinejad is a reformist within the regime. Just a few days ago, she described a government-organized event in which several young women were allowed to compete in a running event without hijabs as a success, saying, “We won.” She is essentially promoting propaganda coming from within the regime to create the impression that the Iranian people are satisfied with the current situation. She is a complete charlatan.”
This is why so many Iranians call her an IRGC “agent.” They do not mean she wears a uniform. They mean she performs a function the regime needs: keep the opposition within their reformist box, keep Western cameras pointed at a single celebrity, and keep Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi off the stage. One writer said it bluntly:
“Your head might explode when you find out she’s one of those IRGC members operating in the US.”
And another:
“Dear Mark, she is not representing people of Iran. she is same as IRGC. Please don’t support her. The people of Iran called out one name and that name was Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.”
I have written this before, and I will write it again: Prince Pahlavi is the only opposition figure whose name Iranians have called nationwide. Any figure who claims to oppose the Islamic Republic while denying that fact is not authentic. That person is protecting a different outcome - a managed transition that leaves the Islamist regime standing in a new costume. Masih Alinejad’s costume in this tragedy includes her bushy mane of hair free of the mandatory hijab that she shouts is the Islamic Republic’s Berlin Wall.
Not only does Alinejad not have skin in the game, she is accused of supporting the oppressive regime from which millions believe she has profiting personally, to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s an obscene way to make a living when tens of millions of Iranian women are truly suffering.
Westerners think they are being sophisticated when they platform “many voices.” Iranians hear something else. They hear that their dead are a content category, and that the person who photographs well in New York will be treated as the nation.
We do not expect Americans to know every detail and our sensitivities, but we do expect humility, and that you listen to our authentic voices, the voices of the people who flooded Mark Levin’s post: support our crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.
“First of all Masih is a regime paid grifter, a fake opposition yet you keep sharing her. Second of all sir, the Iranian people have an opposition leader and his name is REZA PAHLAVI.”
This is the part international organizations and news outlets refuse to absorb. They prefer someone who fits the mold of the story they want to tell: the supposed secular feminist who speaks fluent Western moral language, who can sit at the UN, who can be scheduled next to other approved dissidents. They treat Iranian public opinion as an inconvenience, or a side show at best. They feature Alinejad as if the streets of Iran had elected her. They did not.
“Masoumeh Alinejad is a puppet of reformist like Khatamie who has been exported to US to control the narrative of the opposition to a reform rather than complete revolution. She has no support and legitimacy among Iranian, please do not promote her.”
That is their strategy. Export a puppet. Create a brand. Let the West believe the opposition has been found. Meanwhile the real demand inside Iran is not a softer hijab policy. It is the end of the Islamic Republic itself.
I do not write this to attack every person who has ever shared her posts in good faith. Mark Levin has been a friend to the Iranian cause when many others were silent. That is exactly why the betrayal cuts so deep.
“Dear Mark, respectfully, it’s deeply frustrating and hurtful to see someone who has been such an important and respected supporter of the Iranian community continue to promote IRGC propaganda. We’ve raised this concern repeatedly, yet it feels like our voices still aren’t being heard. Please listen to the Iranian community and reconsider what you’re promoting.”
“@marklevinshow Are you okay???!!! Are you seriously promoting an IRGC member, or are you promoting an Islamic Republic project?”
Iranians are not confused. They have lived this horror movie. The regime survives by pitting its enemies against each other, by manufacturing “acceptable” critics, and by convincing foreigners that the only alternative to the ayatollahs is chaos. Fake opposition as a weapon.
“If you love the Iranian people... Listen to the names they chant when the bullets fly. Listen to the families who say this woman profits from their dead. Listen when they tell you that Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has carried this fight for 47 years while much of the media pretended he did not exist.”
The blood of Iran’s martyrs is not a fundraising ploy. It is a debt. Those of us who walked out of Evin Prison alive and still resist the regime with our every breath owe the ones who were murdered the one thing the regime fears most: the truth, spoken without a handler, and a future that does not propel the Islamic Republic under a new name.
Mark, please dump Masih Alinejad in the trash bin of history where she belongs, and use your voice to join our chorus and bring real change.
