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Mr. Zarif's Disconnect on Human Rights
(Washington Post) Masih Alinejad - During an interview last month with TV host Charlie Rose, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif asserted that Iran doesn't "jail people for their opinions." I'm an Iranian woman who was jailed at age 19, while pregnant, for helping to create a student newsletter - in other words, for having an opinion. Like too many others, I have been forced into exile because of my opinions. Two weeks ago security agents arrested human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, the deputy director of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), which was cofounded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi. Zarif does what he is paid to do. As a diplomat, he will defend the country's unsavory human rights record. He will back Iran's judiciary as it keeps Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and others in detention. He will defend the persecution of the Bahai religious minority. The writer is an Iranian journalist living in New York.