found. >> we still don't have her. we're still looking every weekend. we're still missing her every day. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. this sunday, "meet the moment." conversations with people who are having an impact on washington and beyond. >> i am in pain every day. i am really in pain all the time. it does not leave.

>> actress selma blair diagnosed with multiple sclerosis is using her voice for the rights of those living with disabilities. >> i want equity. i want justice. >> journalist tim alberta with a warning about how he says the evangelical church is changing. >> they think the barbarians are at the gate and they need a barbarian to defend them. throughout the age and they need variants to defend us and they have decided the best way to preserve christian virtue in this country is to set christian virtue aside? >> has it shaken your faith? >> not even a little bit, no. >> allyson felix, the most decorated u.s. track and field athlete of all time speaking out about the black maternal health crisis. >> what do you wish doctors had told you? >> that i, as a woman of color, that i'm already at a greater risk for complications. three of the fittest healthiest

women in the world are facing these complications. i think it shows how dangerous it is to give birth today in america as a black woman. iranian american activist masih alinejad, and her work and push for women's rights in iran and around the world. >> my weapon is my word and that shows you that my weapon is more powerful than their voice. that's why they want to get rid of me. >> welcome to sunday, and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is a special edition of "meet the press" with kristen welker. good sunday morning. for more than 75 years, "meet the press" has had a history of shining a light on people who influence our politics from outside of washington. from jackie robinson, to robert frost, jane fonda, and gloria steinem. >> i am a citizen activist. i think it is in the highest tradition of our country for

private citizens to speak out, not just as individuals, but as members of organizations that can have some power. >> are you saying that the white male educated person is the enemy of the women movement or the adversary? >> from a statistical point of view, that's accurate. this morning, we are unveiling a special series, and we're calling it "meet the moment." from authors, to activists, community leaders, poets, and scientists. the voices outside of our politics shaping conversations that matter. we begin with actor selma blair who is known for her dead pan humor and quirky and intelligent performances in iconic films like "cruel intentions ", "heathers" and "legally blonde." >> what are boys like? >> ow. >> is that all you can think of? >> well, it doesn't look like

anyone is coming to your little party to me, heather. >> ms. kensington, do you think it's acceptable that ms. woods is not prepared? >> no. i don't. >> five years ago, at age 46, blair was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after battling the auto-immune disease from the age of seven. in 2019, she walked on to the red carpet with a cane for the first time at an oscars after-party making her disability visible in a powerful way. now, blair has become an advocate for americans living with disabilities. joining president biden at the white house, in october, to recognize the 33rd anniversary of the americans with disabilities act. and to advocate for new legislation for disability rights and pay equity. >> i'm here before you today as a proud disabled woman with my cane -- [ applause ]

>> and my service dog scout by my side. our laws and policies must reflect that our disabled lives are not of lesser value. >> selma blair, welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> thank you for being here. you were diagnosed five years ago with multiple sclerosis. you are in remission now. how are you doing, selma? >> i am in remission which is a very safe place to be as far as diagnosis goes, but i do have, even though there is no evidence of current infection, i do have the leftover, because i did have it for many years and didn't know and it leaves some burn areas, some scar tissue and all that. mine in the basal ganglia movement and some of it looks a little different than others with ms, and there is damage, but i am doing really well. >> you have your beautiful dog scout here with you.

are you in any pain? talk about the strength you find every day? >> i am. i am in pain every day. every day, and sometimes i have to -- i have dysphonia too that doesn't always flare up for entire conversations, but it is sometimes a stutter maybe, or something, and it goes in and out and people don't always understand that so there can be discrimination and confusion i think, where people think i'm putting something on and i want a dog and i just want a dog with me, there is a lot of tricky stuff but the real fact is i really am in pain all the time and there is i a stiffness that does not leave me. >> i want to talk to you about your journey to diagnosis. you have written about it. you have done documentaries about it. you say you had symptoms

starting at seven years old. >> there is a prenormal period, and i'm not certain, full on, but my doctor said there can be years of it accruing, great fatigue and problems, but i did, i had during sundown, i get electricity, i had very clear signs at that time. i had optical as a child, only from brain trauma or ms, and yet they didn't recognize it in me, even though i was seeking doctors my entire childhood. >> you have said of your experience, and this really was incredibly powerful, you said if you're a boy with these symptoms you get an mri, if you're a girl, you're called crazy. >> uh-huh. >> and a number of studies support exactly what you are saying. why do you think that this continues to be a problem in medicine? >> there are, you know, older male doctors, who really

probably did not know the intricacies of a girl, you know, everything that does not need to be blamed on menstruation or something, yes, that comes with its own bag of things, to know about, but also medical students, this don't have ms, and ms is different for everyone, and it can be disguised as emotional times, i have prefrontal damage that could cause emotional hysterical crying and i'm the wild one that wakes up in the middle of the night, waking up laughing hysterically or sobbing in front of people or maybe moody, maybe, and i believed all of these things, and i was put on really strong anti-depressants at a really young age. and i drank. i drank because i felt so "other." i just went in the basement and i drank from a really young age. >> what age. >> seven. >> when you got that diagnosis, after all of the years of suffering, you are describing real suffering, and you were finally diagnosed at age 46, what was that moment like for

you, selma? >> i was relieved that i finally had something that could be understood and treated. it took me like another year to realize a lot of my childhood symptoms were ms. i thought oh, all of this poor feeling i had, and this lethargy and attitude, all of this has led to now i've given myself ms, you know, everything, but it was the gratitude of people helping me. i was such a loner in my life. i was already sober by this point, though. i had already really made an effort to get myself better. more than an effort. it was a major change. i am so grateful i have been sober for years so i can properly process and feel comfortable realizing what people were doing for me and realizing this is not the norm. >> when you think about those years that you went undiagnosed, doctors were frankly not listening to you, do you feel

anger? >> sometimes. but i don't want to feel anger, because i don't want to feel blame. i don't want to, you know, because maybe i wasn't ready to be diagnosed yet. maybe i wouldn't have been able to quit drinking, maybe. i don't know. but i do, the thing that was such clear signs, with ms, the part of, i get more sad, because it made me lose my entire, my entire years, until diagnosis, because i hated myself for not, for making up that i wasn't feeling well. i just believed that. >> well, you were recently at the white house, and lending your powerful voice to mark the 50th anniversary of the americans with disabilities act. what was it like for you to be there at the white house? why was that important for to you be there?

>> for me, it was such a mark of how far i've come, and i meant that as something that could be aspirational to people. not that you have to be cured, not that getting some great podium is the answer for something. but there was a vibrance in me, and i had the energy to get to this incredible experience. and of course, you know, having that walk from the white house, to the south lawn was really healing for me, in so many ways, having, you know, the most powerful man in the world, like you know on your arm, you know, i'm on his arm, and it is like wow, things have changed, and a lot of this is help from the disability community. judy heumann, who was the greatest organizer and rallier of her friends with disabilities, she was the grand dame, she created the american disabilities act, they went to and do the sit-ins when the government couldn't see it, and they were getting out of their wheelchairs and lying on the ground to say pay attention.

because growing up, we did not have exposure, people with disabilities. it was like they didn't exist. and i had that mind set, not on purpose, i just had nothing else. >> what is your message to lawmakers, to the president, what do you want to see next for the disabled community? >> equity. accessibility. i mean, yes, of course, i'm so grateful that anything was put in place, but again, sub minimum wage for people with disabilities, you can work all day and get paid 50 cents an hour. no. why is that okay? that is really they just use it as kind of slave labor to get disabled people out of the house, to have something to do, and it's just really out of touch and wrong. i want equity. i want justice.

i want this community and all other marginalized ones, too, of course. but the disability community is creative and strong and loyal and fun and i mean really, because people who have had to figure out situations, and i really don't do lip service. you really need to be with people with disabilities, and know nothing about us without us, is what i have heard from the start when i joined up, oh, right, right, of course. of course, we need a fit model that is a wheelchair user. of course, you need a real wheelchair user to go down that ramp to check that angle. there are things, you're trying to do the right thing, and you're not really at the crux of starting this conversation. well, when we come back, journalist and author tim alberta, the son of a pastor with a warning about the evangelical church, and how it's testing his faith.

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welcome back. journalist tim alberta explores the complicated relationship white evangelicals have with faith and politics in the trump era, in a new book "the kingdom, the power and the glory: american evangelicals and the age of extremism." in 2019, tim's dad died suddenly and he returned home to cornerstone, the church his father had pastored in michigan for nearly three decades, a place where tim's own christian faith had grown. instead of consoling him, some members of the church approached him to complain about his journalism. one church member even wrote a letter demanding he investigate the deep state and accusing him of treason. tim says it's a crisis in christianity. evangelical leader russell moore spoke about it earlier this year. >> almost every family i know has people who don't speak to each other anymore about this personality and this figure. >> let's talk about your father,

because you opened your book, recalling your experience at your father's funeral, you were understandably expecting compassion from the church community with whom you had grown up. a lot of these people knew you as a kid and watched you grow up and yet you experienced something very different in part because of your coverage of then candidate trump. what was that experience like? >> yeah, so, you know, i've been pretty critical of donald trump. i think, you know, objectively critical and fair in my coverage, but critical nonetheless, and when it came time to bury my father at the church where i had grown up and he served as pastor for more than 25 years, there were some people who saw that occasion as appropriate to just have it out with me, to litigate their differences with me over trump, over trumpism, over politics in general. now, i want to be clear, there

were lots of people there who mourned with me and cried with me, and who treated me like the grieving son that i was, but there were some of these folks who didn't see a grieving son. they saw a vulnerable adversary in that moment, someone who was on the other side, and that's heartbreaking. it is not just heartbreaking because, you know, it was me and my dad's funeral, it is heartbreaking because this happened inside a sanctuary, right? sanctuary means set apart. it is a place set apart for the purpose of believers to come together, and to worship, and be one body in christ. and this was not that. >> someone handed you a letter at your father's funeral. what did it say? and how did you respond? >> yeah, so the letter was from

a long-time elder in the church, family friend, someone who had known me since i was a child. and the letter basically just accused me of being a traitor, a part of the deep state, that i was undermining god's ordained leader of the country. >> a traitor? >> yes. >> that's such strong language. >> and this is part of what i tried to unpack in this book, but this tie between god and country, and this idea that, you know, america is a kingdom that is ordained by god and must be fought for, as though salvation itself hangs in the balance, kristen, it leads individuals who i think deep in their heart are good people, it leads them to do and to think and to say some really unhealthy things. >> given that, that you watched this evolution of people within the evangelical community act, say, behave in ways that you feel was antithetical to what you were taught in scripture, has it shaken your faith? >> not even a little bit, no. i mean my favorite author, favorite writer, favorite apologist, cs lewis, he said we only know that a line is crooked because we have first seen a straight line.

so you know, mankind is broken in many ways, humanity has been fallen since the garden of eden and if you believe that, as i do, you believe that we only recognize that brokenness because we know what god's perfect plan looks like, and that's jesus, and so for people to deviate in this way, no, it doesn't shake my faith, it shakes my faith in the institutions of christianity, the institutions of men, but it doesn't shake my faith in jesus, and i hope if nothing else that people will understand that as they read the book that i am not trying to burn down christianity, i'm not trying to destroy the church, i'm trying to help stabilize the church. >> sounds like part of what you're saying is that this experience, writing this book, some of your personal painful experiences, may have even deepened your faith. >> i think that is totally fair to say.

and in fact, yes, they have. because when you're, when you're really hurting, in the sermon of the mount, jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted, i have felt that comfort, in ways that i probably wouldn't have, had i not gone through some of this, and so i'm really grateful for that. >> you write that, quote, for decades, the religious right imposed exacting moral litmus tests on public officials, and yet eventually, quote, evangelical leaders embraced trump's shortcomings. how do you explain this evolution? >> well, it is an evolution. and it's an arc so you think about the 2016 election and it is easy to think now, but for a long time, evangelicals were trump's softest supporters and he had to really go to great lengths to firm up his support. he had to put mike pence on the ticket. he had to release the list of the supreme court nominees.

for a lot of these people who are panicked, who are just stricken with fear about the culture changing so quickly and the country turning on christianity, and that their faith is in the cross-hairs and one day they're going to be persecuted for their faith in this country, i mean a lot of folks believe that, they think the barbarians are at the gates, and so they need a barbarian to defend them, to protect them, and so you know, they look at trump and the behavior and the rhetoric and in some sense, because he is not bound by biblical teachings, not bound by biblical virtues, he is free to fight for them in ways that no good christian ever would, and that is the tragic irony to all of this, is that in some sense, these people have decided that the best way to preserve

christian virtue in this country is to first set christian virtue aside. >> you go so far as to say christianity is in a state of disarray. can it be fixed? what needs to happen? >> well, what needs to happen is to get back to christ. >> you have said that this book is about christianity but it's about your dad, too. what do you think your dad would make of this book? >> well, i think we would have some spirited conversations about parts of the book. i think he would disagree with certain conclusions that i've reached but i think the underlying message and i think the figure whom i'm constantly redirecting the conversation back toward, jesus, i think he would be incredibly encouraged by that, and he would in total agreement with me on the ultimate conclusion. >> and just big picture, tim, as we approach christmas, where are you with your faith right now? >> my faith has never been stronger, and to be honest, i was really worried about it. when i set out to do this project, i knew that i would

encounter some things that could shake my faith, and i have prayed every day, and i have read my scripture, and i have been in community with believers, my small group, my wife, family, friends, people who have helped to keep me grounded throughout this journey, so my faith has never been stronger, and i think what i really come to appreciate is how, kristen, you know, this idea that we shouldn't air the dirty laundry inside the church, that we shouldn't try to hold ourselves accountable, i mean that's nonsense. i mean if you look throughout scripture, old testament prophets and new testament disciples and apostles, that's all they did was call out what was wrong in the church and point people back to the true god. so it has been trying for sure, but i've emerged actually in an even better place than i went in, which is kind of crazy to say. >> tim alberta, thank you so much for sharing your reflections on your book with us. we really appreciate it. >> thanks for having me, kristen. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. and when we come back,

seven-time olympic gold medalist allyson felix talks about her life-threatening experience giving birth and her push for improving black maternal health care. i'm orlando and i'm living with hiv. i don't have to worry about daily hiv pills because i switched to every-other-month cabenuva.

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welcome back. when allyson felix stepped off the track at tokyo games in 2021, she had just won her 11th career medal. seven golds, eclipsing carl lewis to become the most decorated u.s. track and field athlete in olympic history. but now she is making headlines for a new reason as an advocate for black maternal health, black women have a maternal mortality rate three times the rate of white women. for felix, it is personal. in 2018 she developed severe

pre-eclampsia with her daughter cameron and in a devastating turn this past may, tori bowie, the anchor of the relay team was found dead in her home facing complications from childbirth at eight months pregnant. that experience and her own has made allyson felix a powerful voice on behalf of black moms everywhere, from the white house, to the halls of congress. >> mothers don't die from childbirth, right? not in 2019. not professional athletes. not at one of the best hospitals in the country. and certainly, not to women who have a birthing plan and a birthing suite lined up. i thought maternal health was solely about fitness, resources, and care. if that was true, then why was this happening to me? >> allyson felix, welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you so much for having me. >> well, let's talk about your road to motherhood. at 32 weeks, you were diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, your beautiful daughter camryn was born two months early, how did that experience shape you?

>> i feel like it really changed me. and i think more than anything, it opened my eyes. i think i kind of had an understanding of statistics, and what maternal health was like in america, but i didn't really understand it. i remember when i was in the hospital, and i had the full birth plan, i thought i was going to have a natural birth and it was going to be beautiful and all of these things and they told me i had a severe case of pre-eclampsia, and i didn't even quite understand what that meant or what that meant for me, for my baby, and just feeling scared. i'm a professional athlete. i have taken care of my body my entire life. and so to know that things really got scary, and difficult, was so hard, but at the same time, it opened my eyes to the struggles of so many other women, especially women of color. >> take me inside that moment when you were told that you had pre-eclampsia, because you had

gone in for a routine checkup. >> yes. >> at 32 weeks. what were those emotions? >> yeah, i was expecting to go home, you know, and i was admitted, and when i was admitted, things just spiralled downhill really quickly. and so i didn't even have time quite to process everything, and it just moved so fast, and then i ended up having an emergency c-section. >> what was your greatest fear? >> that my daughter wouldn't make it, you know. that i don't even think -- it wasn't until after, you know, i came out of that experience, that i realized how scared my family was for my life. i was only thinking about my daughter, and what that meant for her, but they told me later on that they were so uncertain. >> when you're in the middle of this experience, as you said,

you didn't have that broader sense that women of color experience complications during pregnancy at higher rates. did you feel like your doctors, your medical community, was listening to you? >> i felt like i should have known that i was at risk. i felt like i should have been told the signs to look for. instead, i wasn't. i didn't know what pre-eclampsia was. i didn't understand that this swelling of my fetus was not just a sign of pregnancy but could be pre-eclampsia. i felt like i had great medical care but that is not always enough. >> what do you wish doctors had told you? >> that i, as a woman of color, that i'm already at a greater risk for these complications. what are the signs? what can i do to, you know, help this not happen, and also, you know, i should be taking my blood pressure at a certain point. so just being educated and being aware is huge. >> so no doctors ever relayed that information to you, that you were at higher risk for something like pre-eclampsia as

a woman of color? >> no, i wasn't told that. and the first mention i heard of pre-eclampsia was when i was being diagnosed with it. so i think that's why awareness is so huge for me, and to not only tell my story but amplify other stories. >> did you get sick? how bad did it get? >> because i had severe features of pre-eclampsia, they were in constant worry of me having a stroke, of my vision being lost, and so the only cure for pre-eclampsia right now is to deliver, and so that is what happened very quickly, you know, i went from being admitted to the hospital and being told that our goal was to stay there for another two weeks, try to stay pregnant, and i delivered, you know, later that night, and so it was a very quick progression, but i know that if i did not deliver, myself or my baby or both of us wouldn't have made it. >> you have been very outspoken here because the bigger picture

here is that there were four of you on the 2016 olympic track and field team in rio, and then your teammate, tori bowie, tragically died due to complications of childbirth. how is that possible in this day and age? >> it was absolutely devastating that three of the fittest, healthiest women in the world are facing these complications, and i think it's a stark reminder that, you know, this condition does not discriminate. it doesn't matter if you have the best medical care. you can still suffer from it. and to me, it just, it really hurts my heart that my friend tori passed away, and it brought this back to the forefront, that this has been happening, this is the reality of black women giving birth in america, and there are so many situations that are like this, and so i hate that it takes such a

devastating loss, you know, to bring it back to the forefront, but it also is just such a motivation that we have to do better. >> what was that moment like when you realized tori had passed in the midst of childbirth? >> it's heart breaking. it's heart breaking when i read that it was pre-eclampsia, it just brought everything back to the forefront, i had been doing work in the space, and so passionate about it, but when it is someone you know, when it's a friend, someone that you have competed alongside, and had all of these special moments, and you know, everyone dreams of motherhood, a lot of women do, and it breaks my heart to know that that was her experience. i think it shows how dangerous it is to give birth today in america as a black woman.

i mean out of the four of the women on the team, three of us are mothers and that is astonishing and it is just not okay, and i think about the future, and just keeping families together, and i just know that we have to do more. >> what is your message to the medical community? what more do you want to see done? >> yeah, definitely more training. more implicit bias training. we had countless stories of women not being heard when they're in the delivery room, at doctor's appointments. i don't think you should have to be prepared to advocate for yourself. it is intimidating for a lot of women. the doctor is the expert. and to have to push up against them is difficult. and so that's one thing. policy change, of course. and you know, at that level, it is very important. and then just the awareness of it all as well. and i think we just have to remember these stories. these people, and not be detached from that as well. >> when you look at the statistics, women of color are three times more likely to die

in childbirth than white women. when you see those statistics, and 80% of complications are preventible, how does that make you feel? >> knowing that 80% are preventible to me, it's infuriating. i also, it also brings me a lot of hope. there is a possibility to reverse it. we can do something about this. and i think it starts with listening. it starting with hearing. and obviously there is a lot more to that. but i am hopeful for the future. and before we go, exciting news, we learned after our interview, allyson felix is pregnant and expecting her second child. cameron's baby brother is due in april. congratulations. and you can catch the paris olympics next summer on nbc, and streaming on peacock. when we come back, a champion for women's rights, masih alinejad is using her voice to challenge iran's top leaders and inspiring others around the globe.

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welcome back. as we do every year, we want to take a moment to remember some of the iconic people in politics, culture, and the media who we lost in the past 12 months. >> i'm ready for a good fight. i've got things to fight for. i'm in a position where i can be effective, and hopefully that means something to california. ♪♪

♪♪ >> the united states cannot fight themselves every tragedy that exists in the world, tragic as it may be. one of the philosophical questions that has to be answered is the way we engage ourselves beyond moral condemnation, and to what effect. ♪♪

>> i had no problem with being thrust into the world of stardom because i never thought about it. nowhere in my boyhood dreams was there the idea that one day i would be in hollywood, one day i would be on broadway, or one day i would be making an album and be successful. ♪♪ ♪♪ athletes usually stay too long, they stay past their peak, i think you should always leave on time, so they can remember the best of you. ♪♪ >> i loved what i did, and i

thought the way to do it was to just work very hard, and it would be noticed. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> i don't think i have ever shied away from controversy. i don't think jimmy ever shied away from controversy. jimmy always told me whatever you do, you will be criticized. the only way not to be

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welcome back. 22-year-old mahsa amini died last year in iran, in the custody of the morality police, arrested for improperly wearing the hijab, her death igniting protests around iran and around the world. tens of thousands of women and men waved placards with her face shouting "say her name," women and girls threw off their head scarves and demanded the end to the islamic republic's rule. the mahsa movement became the most serious challenge to the legitimacy of iran's ruling clerics since they took power in 1979. security forces responded with a violent crackdown, arresting thousands and killing at least 500 protesters including

children and teenagers. after fleeing iran in 2009, women's rights activist masih alinejad has played a role in encouraging such demonstrations against the law in iran, mandating women wear a hijab. she lives in brooklyn and was the target of a kidnapping attempt in 2021 and an assassination attempt by the iranian government last year. and she's been called the woman whose hair frightens iran. >> this should be on my head. and cover my massive hair, and if i don't cover my hair, i get killed. >> as we sit here today, you are under threat of assassination by the iranian government. you're under protection by the fbi. you have said you're not afraid. where do you find your courage? >> to be honest, it is scary,

but i don't want to live in fear, because i know this is the goal of those who try to kill us. these killers in iran, trying to put the fear inside us, and to push us behind the curtain, i'm not going to let them win. that's why, i learned from my heroes within the country, iranian women, mothers, whose children got killed, but they hold the picture of their loved ones, they go to the same place where their children got killed and say here we are, we have no fear of you, so i learn from my true heroes within the country. even women, walking unveiled, showing their beautiful hair is a crime, they walk unveiled and show their faces and say that you are scared of us, not the women of iran, you're the badass. >> in some ways this is a life-long fight for you, in your

memoir, which i am holding here, "the wind in my hair," you write that when you were a girl, you weren't against the hijab, you were against the mandate that you had to actually wear a hijab, you wanted women to have the freedom to choose. how did you know at such a young age that you felt this way? >> first of all, it's not the wind in my hair anymore, it's the storm in the hair of iranian women, because now protesting against compulsive dating, became the symbol of the agenda, against the apartheid regime, you are right, when i was a little girl in a tiny village, in a very, very traditional family, i had no clue of feminism and equality, and nothing like being my true self, let's fight, no. i just had a little brother, and he was able to jump into the river, he was able to ride a bicycle and show his hair, and he was able to sing and go to stadium, and all of these activities that i was banned from doing this. why? because of being a girl. and that was not fair to me. that's why i started my

revolution from my family's kitchen saying to my family, i don't want to be forced to stay at home. i want to go out everywhere. so i remember that in my tiny village, my brother addi was scared of the darkness, during the day, he was able to go anywhere, prince of the village, during the night he was scared to go to the outhouse, because we didn't have inside bathroom. we were a very poor family. and told my brother, during the night, i know darkness can be like a monster, darkness can devour you all and my mom told me you stare into the darkness, instead of being scared of darkness, darkness will disappear. i used this tactic and said to my brother, during the day -- i

can defeat the darkness during the night, take you to the outhouse, but during the day you have to take me everywhere. >> that is a bit of motto for your life. you stare into the darkness. you stare it down. >> that's true. kristen, i have to say that. because we the women of iran, we the women of afghanistan, we experience a lot of darkness, you know. a lot of darkness. and imagine, imagine, you have beautiful hair. before coming here, how much time do you spend to make your hair beautiful. so you use mirrors here in america. we use mirrors, you know, to make ourselves the way we want to be. >> i want to talk about the fact that for you, in addition to the defiance that you felt when you were a young girl, when you were a teenager, you started writing about your opposition to some of what you saw as the oppression by the iranian government, and you were actually arrested for it. when you were a teenager.

what was that like to be going up against the government, arrested at such a young age? >> i was only 19 years old, and i was pregnant, when i was actually involved in activities, just conflict around, against the government, when i got arrested, and i found out i was pregnant, i was like this is the end of my life. again, the darkness in myself. >> it sounds like you found a lot of strength in your pain, in those moments when you did feel afraid as a younger women. >> yes, because they managed to put the fear inside us. but what i see now, they are scared of powerful women like me. i was like yes. why kill me in america? i don't carry any weapons. no guns and bullets with me. but the government, they have guns and bullets and they try to make the nuclear bomb, they do everything, they can kill and execute innocent people. with that power, money, prison, all of the state media, they're scared of me? why?

my weapon is my social media. my weapon is my word. and that shows you that my weapon is more powerful than their voice, that's why they want to get rid of me. >> let's talk about how you recently used your voice, your weapon, as you say, to speak out in the wake of the tragic death of mahsa amini, 22 years old, she died in the custody of police, for, they say improperly wearing the hijab. it prompted protests throughout iran. you highlighted those protests. what do you think came of that moment? >> you know, i think that in the 21st century, mahsa amini, then dozens of other women got killed for the crime of showing their hair, burying their full head scarf, i can't believe right now that i'm sitting with you that they're doing that to iranian women. it created a huge anger around iranians, men and women,

shoulder to shoulder, took to the streets, they started to say that we want an end for this barbaric regime. and i believe that the flame of the revolution is still burning. maybe you don't see it, like nbc, msnbc, fox news, channel 4, bbc, but i see that, the number of women who, you know, practice their civil disobedience, increased for sure. >> you are saying you think there will still be change in the wake of the death of mahsa amini, because we have not seen that yet, and some people look at the protests and wonder, why wasn't there reform in the wake of those protests, in the wake of all of those voices coming together. >> you know why? because i have to say that the level of the brutality is very high, but let's be very honest, revolution has different phases,

in many countries in the history it took years, so that's why. i have to say the islamic republic took everything away from us, our family, our dignity, our homeland, our freedom, everything, but not hope. not hope. that's why i believe that sooner or later, we'll really bring this regime down, and i'm going to invite to you a beautiful country, you're going to love freedom and a beautiful homeland, without this barbaric mullah telling you what to wear, how to behave, how to think, you know, they don't even allow you to dance, to have a normal life, so i still have hope, because a new generation has nothing to lose. >> your mom is obviously a huge part of your life, and i can feel and see the emotion when you talk about the fact that you haven't seen her for more than 13 years now. is that in some ways the

cruellest part of all of this for you? >> that's my big thing. do you have a picture of my mom? she's very brave and she's my hero. she's not even able to read and write, but she is a true feminist, and she told me how to be strong, and it's not easy for me to be away from my mom. i'm very sorry. >> nothing to be sorry for. take your time. >> i wake up every day out of fear of losing her, without being able to hug her, and this is the situation of millions of iranians, people, living in a exile or inside iran, this is the government, they are ruining families. many families. but i have hope.

i have hope. i'm not sure whether i have hope whether i can see her or not, but yes, this is painful. >> and finally, what would your mom say if she were sitting here with us today, about this moment, about your struggle and fight for women all over this world? >> she would be proud of me because she knows that i'm still fighting against the darkness. my mom told me that instead of being scared of the darkness, just open your eyes as wide as you can, the darkness will disappear, and as a kid, i thought that was a fact and i tried to open my eyes as wide as i could, but now i believe that all women in iran, afghanistan, across the globe, we must do that, we must open our eyes, as wide as we can, we have to stare into the darkness, we have to get shoulder to shoulder, and

fight against this barbaric mullahs who are killing us. my mom would be proud of me. >> there is no doubt about that. masih alinejad says in the new year, her goal is to take her message directly to the white house and meet with president biden. if you want to help this morning, consider giving to the national multiple sclerosis society, maternity care coalition or the committee to protect journalists. that is all for today. thank you so much for watching. we want to wish you a very merry christmas. we'll be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." amid big questions over donald trump's ballot eligibility, is there any question that he engaged in an insurrection? if courts don't hold him accountable in 2024, will