Masoumeh “Masih” Alinejad is an Iranian journalist author, political activist, and women’s rights activist. Contracted by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Alinejad currently works as a presenter/producer at VOA Persian Service, a correspondent for Radio Farda, a frequent contributor to Manoto television, and a contributing editor to IranWire.

Alinejad is well known for her criticism of Iranian authorities. She now lives in exile in New York City, and has won several awards, including a human rights award from UN Watch’s 2015 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, the Omid Journalism Award from the Mehdi Semsar Foundation, and a “Highly Commended” AIB Media Excellence Award.

In 2019, Alinejad sued the Iran government in a U.S. federal court for harassment against her and her family. She released a book in 2018 called The Wind in my Hair that deals with her experiences growing up in Iran, where she says girls “are raised to keep their heads low, to be unobtrusive as possible, and to be meek”.