A courtroom in lower Manhattan last week delivered more than a verdict — it delivered a message.
My Russian would-be assassins, sent by the Iranian regime, have been sentenced to prison. It was a beautiful day — a day of joy and freedom for me and my family.
I have always accepted the price of standing up to the mullahs, but moving from safe house to safe house 21 times hasn’t been easy.
Yet just as I will never forget the moment when I knew a man standing on my front porch was there to execute me, I will also never forget this day, when justice was served and these two men were given 25-year federal prison sentences.
America is my home — a land of freedom and opportunity I could never have imagined as a girl growing up in rural Iran.
As a child, I chanted “Death to America” because that’s what the mullahs and the regime told us to say and do. I didn’t know any better. But I learned.
I learned about bravery and strength from so many Iranians who didn’t bow to pressure from the regime.
I understood that being forced to wear compulsory hijab was a form of repression to force women into silence.
I understood that women marching for “woman, life, freedom,” putting themselves and their families at risk, was a righteous cause for justice.
After hearing him talk about his aunt, I invited Zohran Mamdani to come to the sentencing of my aspiring killers so he could see firsthand how a one-time peasant girl who stood up against the prison of compulsory veiling threatened the regime to the point of trying to murder me.
The veil is a weapon the Iranian authorities wield to oppress the millions who want to wear the clothes they want, listen to the music they want, have the basic freedoms every New Yorker has every day.
While there may be thousands of miles that separate Tehran and New York, that distance hasn’t stopped the assassination and kidnapping attempts.
I want him to understand that dictators know no borders, and, as I can attest, no one is safe — not even in Manhattan.
As I sat in that courtroom, I also understood I was not just witnessing justice for myself but for every dissident who dares to speak truth to power — who dares to challenge or speak out against dictators who want to silence, imprison or kill us for our beliefs.
And I walked out of that courtroom with wind in my hair and love in my heart for all those who’ve stood with me around the world.
I thought of Nilofar Ayoubi and Roya Mahboob, both exiled from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a place where a dog has more rights than women and girls.
I thought of Carine Kanimba, who helped free her father, Paul Rusesabagina of “Hotel Rwanda” fame, from prison there.
I thought of Félix Maradiaga, who was tortured by the Ortega government but won’t stop fighting the Nicaraguan regime.
Just as they stood with me, I stand with them.
That’s why I am the proud president and co-founder of the World Liberty Congress, the largest action-oriented alliance of pro-democracy activists in the world, representing movements in more than 60 countries.
Its members are united by a commitment to nonviolent resistance and the lived reality of confronting some of the world’s most repressive governments.
Many have been jailed, exiled or sentenced. Others continue to speak out, knowing what the cost might be.
It is with hope and fire in our hearts that we go to “Freedom City” this week to convene the WLC’s second General Assembly in Berlin for the city’s first annual Freedom Week.
A city reborn from war, dictatorship, repression and holocaust into a beacon for freedom and freedom fighters like my WLC colleagues and family.
But Berlin isn’t just a city of its brutal past; it is a living testament to fighting for freedom today.
Evoking Berlin and Ronald Reagan, I called on the women of Iran to “tear down the wall” of compulsory hijab — and that scared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to try to silence me in faraway America.
And that’s the point — dictators spread their hatred and murder across borders and boundaries including in Germany where Russian and Hamas operatives continue to target those they deem a threat.
That is why the WLC’s work is so important — because we don’t let borders deter us.
We fight to get political prisoners released, to keep politicians focused on the living cause of freedom and to combat dictators from Beijing, Moscow, Caracas to Tehran who share a playbook of transnational repression.
My would-be killers may be behind bars, but I know the dictators aren’t done trying to silence us.
But we aren’t done either. Onward to Berlin.
Masih Alinejad is the founder of the #WhiteWednesdays, #MyCameraIsMyWeapon and #MyStealthyFreedom campaigns.
