A prominent journalist hailing from Iran has called out a plethora of officials from the country’s regime for sending their relatives to US schools despite its vitriolic condemnation of the West.
As protests continue against the Iranian regime amid reports of executions and murders of women and activists in the country, Misah Alinejad, who has long been known for opposing Iran’s strict Sharia law, posted a video on Twitter detailing the findings.
“People have the right to know whether these children of the regime officials went abroad with their own money, with the money of the ‘great Satan’ US, or with their fathers’ money,” Alinejad said in the video.
The granddaughter of Ayatollah Yazdi, a cleric who was head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts until his death in 2020, is reportedly studying and living in the United States. Alinejad attempts to contact her in the video, and her husband declines to comment, hanging up on the journalist.
“Money stolen from us through repression is now in the hands of their children”
Two children of a former health committee chairman – Ali Nobakht Tehrani – went to school in the US, according to Alinejad’s research. Ehsan Nobakht, the son, lives in Washington, while daughter Niloufar lives in Los Angeles.
Another notable finding Alinejad puts to the public on the VOA television service, which she works for while based in the US, was that of the son of former minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Javad Zarif’s whereabouts.
“Medhi Zarif went to college in New York City – but there are discrepancies as to whether it was paid for with his father’s money or the [Iranian] people’s money,” Alinejad said.
“There is no record of him working in the US,” she continues, heavily implying that in fact, it was funded by his father’s money – who was paid in the government role of minister of foreign affairs until July 2021.
The video was released amid protests, originally sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was reportedly killed by Iranian “morality” police after being arrested.
“These aren’t children of ordinary people like me and you”
Continuing with her exposure of these officials, Alinejad also mentioned Hassan Rouhani, former president of Iran and father of Maryam Fereydoun. Fereydoun studied at both Columbia University in the US and LSE in the UK, and according to Alinejad, went to the UN with the Iranian delegation to “tell people that women in Iran have no problems there”.
She has since been working for Deutsche Bank, and is still based in London. Her brother, Ali, also studied in the US, Alinejad said.
Despite allegations of hypocrisy made against them by Iranian people during protests, and journalists like Alinejad, officials have continued to mount their threats against those demonstrating and have stepped up retaliation.
A human rights monitor in Iran has reported that two political prisoners, one a singer, are to be put to death for protesting.
“Some say children of regime officials are independent – why blame them for what their parents did?” Alinejad said in her video.
“But these aren’t children of ordinary people like me and you – they were sent abroad by officials. They can enjoy high speed internet unlike most Iranians in Iran. They benefit from freedom of speech and religion, which we don’t have in Iran.
“Money stolen from us through repression is now in the hands of their children. For the past 40 years, they’ve had a policy of destroying the US, but they send their own children with our money to the US in first class. They’re actually destroying Iran,” she concluded.
