"Exiled Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad got under the skin of the Islamic Republic with 'My Stealthy Freedom,' a Facebook campaign encouraging women in Iran to post photographs of themselves not wearing the compulsory headscarves. The page has attracted some 482,000 'likes' and commanded considerable international attention.
"Now, Iran has hit back with a thinly veiled lie, broadcasting on state television in late May that Alinejad had been assaulted and raped by three men in London in the presence of her son. Two days later, a hardliner commentator and TV personality called Alinejad a 'whore who should not be elevated to the level of a heretic.'
"It didn't take long for Alinejad to answer back, posting a video clip of herself singing a famous Iranian song about freedom on a London tube station platform near where Iran's state television had claimed she was assaulted. She intends to file a complaint with the Iranian judiciary against the Iranian television station who broadcast the false claims.
"'My son and I are living a proud and peaceful life,' Alinejad wrote on Facebook. 'Sometimes when I burst out singing he starts laughing. I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could break into song in a metro station in my own country and that nobody would assault my intellect...'
"'I know that it might get nowhere, but this is my only recourse. I do not want to give in.'"