Courage — From Where Does It Come?

Courage is the king of the virtues, it is said, for without it, none of the other virtues would be possible. And it is always in too short supply.

I have been thinking about courage recently due to a series of interviews by National Review’s Jay Nordlinger with figures around the world who possess it in abundance. One of those is Iranian-born Masih Alinejad, who was expelled from Iran in 2009, after having been previously imprisoned for anti-regime pamphlets.

But with seven million social media followers, she has proven more of a thorn in the side of the regime abroad than in Iran. She has a Facebook page where she posts videos sent to her by Iranian women of themselves without hijabs, the symbol of the regime’s social control. In 2019, the mullahs imposed a ten-year prison sentence on anyone sending a video to Alinejad.

Though Alinejad is now an American citizen, the FBI uncovered an Iranian plot to kidnap her and return her to Iran via Venezuela. At least one other exiled Iranian journalist has been thus kidnapped, and once back in Iran, executed.