“Soon we’ll find out
Who is the real revolutionary. . .”
Bob Marley, Zimbabwe
This year I plan to publish several articles on the ideology that has captured much of local government over the last 10 years or so. Those articles are in progress. But, there is a national, and international, story involving ideology that I want to comment on right now. At the Austin Independent I concentrate on local Austin issues. In fact Austin government and politics has been the focus of almost all my writing. Nonetheless, I follow national and world events very closely. And sometimes I feel the need to speak out. This is one of those times.
So here we go, beginning with a question for consideration: How did so much of the American Left get to the point that they are not backing — or speaking out for — the people who are bravely fighting for basic freedoms in Iran?
Clearly, hundreds of thousands of people there, probably millions, are courageously rebelling against a repressive, murderous 47-year-old regime of religious fanatics. They are battling for rights as basic as women being able to wear their hair freely without being forced to hide it in a burka, a hijab or chador.
Yet the Left in the US is all but silent. How did a movement that is supposed to stand for social justice and human freedom come to such a juncture? One of the people asking that question is Masih Alinejad, a native of Iran, now an exiled human rights activist and journalist living in the United States. At the top of her X account she asks:
“Where is the Left now? Where are the ‘pro-Palestinian’ and ‘anti war’ activists when the Islamic Republic is killing innocent Iranians?”’ Alinejad then gives something of an answer of her own. Before exploring that, however, let’s briefly review who Alinejad is (image at top in a screenshot from one of her websites).
Among other things, she is an author who writes about the repression that she suffered from Iranian authorities in her book, “The Wind in My Hair.” Alinejad was arrested by Iranian security forces when she was a teenager for being part of a secret newspaper. Several other high school students with whom she published the paper were also arrested. She was held for 40 days in Iranian prisons and interrogated repeatedly. Ultimately she was given a five-year suspended sentence.
Later, as a journalist, Alinejad covered the Iranian Majlis, or Parliament, for a publication associated with an opposition party allowed at the time. She was forced out of the country in 2009 after exposing too much corruption and hypocrisy for the regime’s taste.
Alinejad relocated first to Britain and then to the US. She became an outspoken critic of the Islamic regime and, in particular an advocate for the rights of Iranian women. That did not sit well with the leaders of the Iranian regime.
In the early 2020s Alinejad warned publicly that there was a plot by leaders in Iran to kidnap her and take her back to Iran. That evidently did not work out and the regime appears to have switched strategies. In January 2023 the Justice Department “unsealed charges alleging that members of an Eastern European crime group engaged in a plot to murder this victim (Alinejad).”
Then, in October 2024, the Justice Department announced: “That group was not acting alone. Today, we hold their Iranian masters to account, and allege that these (four) Iran-based co-conspirators, including a Brigadier General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, directed the murder plot.” The same statement confirmed Alinejad’s early assertion that the regime was trying to kidnap her: “As recently as 2020 and 2021, Iranian intelligence officials and assets plotted to kidnap the victim from within the United States for rendition to Iran in an effort to silence the victim’s criticism of the regime.”
The case involving the “Eastern European crime group” went to trial in March 2025, according to a Justice Department statement at the time. The two members of the Eastern European crime group, described more precisely as “two high-ranking members of an Azerbainjani faction of the Russian Mob,” were “found guilty of murder-for-hire, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and related charges.” The Justice Department added that the two acted “on behalf of the Government of Iran.” In October 2025 they were each sentenced to 25-years in prison.
The third person arrested with them was a would-be hitman who resided in Yonkers, New York. According to the Justice Department, he “repeatedly traveled to Ms. Alinejad’s neighborhood to surveil her residence and locate her.” He also “sent photographs, videos, and updates” to his Eastern European gangster partners. On July 27, 2022, the statement continues, the hitman wrote to his superiors, “this matter will be over today.” For some reason that did not happen. The next day, July 28, he sent his co-conspirators “a video taken from inside the car” while “driving with the assault rifle.” He said, “We are ready.”
That same day, however, he was stopped for “a traffic violation and, during a search of the vehicle, police officers found the assault rifle; 66 rounds of ammunition, including one in the chamber of the assault rifle; approximately $1,100 in cash; gloves; and a black ski mask.”
The would-be hit man cooperated with authorities, testified at the trial and has apparently not been sentenced yet. The Iranians charged in the case “remain at large.” As an Assistant Attorney General working on the case noted, “The defendants and their criminal associates came chillingly close to gunning down an Iranian-American journalist on the streets of New York.”
It is worth noting that this investigation and prosecution began during the Biden Administration and was continued by the second/current Trump Administration.
A video on Alinejad’s “My Stealthy Freedom” website shows her commenting on the verdict some time shortly after it was handed down. She begins, laughing, “I am alive, woo-ooo,” then adds, “I have to say that I love America. I love America. The government of my birth country tried to kill me. But, the government of my adopted country tried to protect me from this f*#^ing ugly man.” As she said this Alinejad laughed joyously and held up a newspaper photo of the Ayatollah/Supreme Leader of Iran. That was only the fall of last year.
I love America. The government of my birth country tried to kill me. But, the government of my adopted country tried to protect me from this f*#^ing ugly man.”
Masih Alinejad while holding up a photo of Iran’s Supreme Leader
The My Stealthy Freedom website, by the way, is one made famous by Iranian women, at the risk of their lives, posting pictures of themselves with their hair waving free — although they often found ways to obscure their faces.
Since the latest revolt broke out in Iran, Alinejad has given numerous media interviews while receiving thousands of reports from Iran and posting about the situation there almost constantly on social media. She has warned repeatedly that the regime is murdering protestors.
For instance she reported on the shooting of 24-year Robina Aminian several days before major media outlets picked up the story.
“Robina Aminian, 24 years old, was from the city of Marivan, studying fashion design at Shariati University in Tehran. On Thursday (January 8), after returning from class and joining peaceful protests, she was shot from behind by forces of the Islamic Republic. She was unarmed. Her only crime was demanding FREEDOM.
Her mother was taken to identify her body. What she witnessed revealed the truth the regime is trying to hide.
‘It wasn’t just my daughter,’ she said. ‘I saw hundreds of bodies with my own eyes.’”
Alinejad continued, “This is how dictatorships survive: by terror, by lies, by killing innocent protesters.”
Robina Aminian, 24 years old, a fashion design student killed while protesting the Iranian regime. Photo from Masih Alinejad post on X.
Alinejad quoting the mother about having to sort through “hundreds of bodies” to find her daughter was the first I heard about what we were later able to see on major networks, at least on some of them.
Alinejad and the American Left
Except for perhaps the “I love America” thing — and, oh yeah, the laughter — Alinejad seems like someone American social justice warriors could get behind.
Except for perhaps the “I love America” thing — and, oh yeah, the laughter — Alinejad seems like someone American social justice warriors could get behind.
But, no. Alinejad is certainly not feeling the support, as evidenced by the question at the top of her X account, which I mentioned earlier:
“Where is the Left now? Where are the ‘pro-Palestinian’ and ‘anti war’ activists when the Islamic Republic is killing innocent Iranians?”’
Below that Alinejad posted a clip from her September 30, 2022 interview with Bill Maher. To put that in chronological context, Alinejad appeared on Maher’s show two months after the would-be hitman was arrested near her home and roughly three months before the hitman’s mobster accomplices were indicted.
It was also during the 2022 uprising in Iran sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody after morality police arrested her for wearing her hijab in a way they considered improper. Amini was killed two weeks before Alinejad appeared on Maher’s show. An estimated 500 people were killed during those protests.
During the interview Maher asked Alinejad about her experiences with the American Left. She replied:
“It just breaks my heart, because for years and years we have been warning them, about the dangers of morality police. . . (those) who talk about Islam and Islamic countries, they never go and live under Sharia law, but they don’t even let us talk about our own experiences. I grew up in a country where I was told that if you show your hair you are going to go to jail. You will receive lashes. You will get killed like Mahsa Amini. But, here they tell me ‘shh, if you talk about this you are going to cause Islamophobia.’ Phobia is irrational, but believe me, my fear and the fear of millions of Iranian women, and Afghanistan, is rational.”
“I grew up in a country where I was told that if you show your hair you are going to go to jail. You will receive lashes. You will get killed like Mahsa Amini. But, here they tell me ‘shh, if you talk about this you are going to cause Islamophobia.’”
Masih Alinejad
Little, if anything, appears to have changed on the American Left since then. For instance Yascha Mounk, publishing in both Persuasion and the Free Press, wrote that the “mainstream media” was “oddly slow to grasp the importance of this moment.” He added, “On Saturday morning, I searched the principal publications of the American left for any mention of Iran. There was nothing on the websites of The Nation or The New Republic or Jacobin or Slate or even Dissent.”
Mounk ended his piece by saying, “I have, since I started to be politically conscious, been a man of the left. I joined the German Social Democratic Party at the age of 13 and still believe in many of the same ideals as I did then: in international solidarity; in the need for a generous welfare state; in the supreme evil of racial hatred and ethnic cleansing and war. I would love once again to feel part of a mass movement that stands up for those values in a principled manner. But with a left that finds itself unable to cheer on the brave women and men now taking to the streets of Tehran and so many other Iranian cities, I have little in common.”
Austin’s Congressional Representatives on Iran
Also, we checked to see if either of the two Congressman representing Austin have weighed in on the situation in Iran.
Congressman Lloyd Doggett posted about Iran on January 10, writing on X: “The people of Iran deserve to finally be free of Khamenei’s brutal dictatorship. Their fearless protests across the country give them, and them alone, the right to determine their future.”
Doggett added, “While we need to take every reasonable step to expose the wrongdoing and support the protesters, Trump’s threats of military intervention likely undermine the protests.”
Below that Doggett posted a New York Times headline: ‘”Iran Supreme Leader Vows to ‘Not Back Down” – After Days of Fierce Protest Khameni accused protestors of trying to ‘please’ President Trump. Iranian authorities signaled further crackdowns on the demonstrations.”‘
Doggett was referring to Trump’s January 2 social media post which warned: “If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Trump has so far failed to follow up on that threat even as thousands of protestors have been killed. It is good to have the President of the United States weighing in on the side of the protestors — and any intervention in Iran would-be complicated and complex — but, maybe don’t threaten an intervention if you’re not going to do it even when 12,000 people get mowed down.
In contrast to Doggett, Congressman Greg Casar was silent on the issue until January 14. Then he posted:
“The Iranian government’s attacks on peaceful protesters are horrific.
I stand with the Iranian people taking to the streets to peacefully demand a better future for their country.
And I stand against Trump using these protests as pretext for another reckless attack.
Bombs do not create democracies. No more wars.”
While it is risky to read too much into one official commenting on an individual topic while another remains silent, it seems fair to say that Casar styles himself as a very pro-revolutionary guy. He is also a frequent social media poster on a wide range of topics. So why so slow on this one?
An interesting aspect of Casar’s post is that it happened the day after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani broke his silence on the Iranian uprising when asked about it at a press briefing. Mamdani said, “I absolutely do not support the way the Iranian government has responded to that.” He added, “I think that the Iranian government and every government should respect the right of people to express their political opinions and for people to be able to do so safely.”
I do not think one would have to be deeply cynical to believe that Casar spoke out only after Mamdani made it safer for those on the left to do so.
The deadly crackdown in Iran is widely thought to have begun on January 8. Doggett posted two days afterward. Casar waited almost a week. On the day Doggett posted about Iran, Alinejad was saying that “sources inside Iran, through messages sent to me, report that hundreds of protesters have been killed by security forces.”
By the time Casar posted about Iran, Alinejad was reporting 12,000 deaths. She tweeted on January 13, the day before Casar posted: “Killing more than 12,000 people in just a few days of protests, after cutting off the internet to hide the crime is a war crime.”
The Free Press also reported the 12,000 figure and CBS News reported between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths. Both reports were on January 13. The Free Press cited “official figures that were leaked to Iran International,” a “Persian-language television network based in London.” CBS also cited Iran International as a source and also wrote: “A source in Washington with contacts in Iran told CBS News on Tuesday that a credible source had told him the toll was likely between 10,000 and 12,000.” CBS also acknowledged that their numbers are, “many times larger than the numbers reported by most activist groups independently in recent days — though those groups have always made it clear that their tallies are likely underestimated.”
The increase in the death count between the time Doggett and Casar posted was enough that remaining silent might have become politically perilous for a member of Congress.
* By the way, Alinejad hasn’t confined her ire just to the Left. For instance she posted on January 13: “Hey @TuckerCarlson! While Iranians were under a total internet blackout, the regime aired your show on state TV. They only broadcast voices that normalize them, shield them, or redirect blame away from them. If you oppose intervention, if you reject protecting unarmed civilians, then, use the influence you clearly have and tell the regime to stop slaughtering our families.”
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