An Iranian-American journalist and women's rights activist, Masih Alinejad, was a potential target to a man who was found near her home in New York with a loaded rifle. Fortunately, he was arrested and Alinejad expressed her shock to learn what happened.

She is known for promoting videos of women violating Iran's head covering law to her millions of social media followers. It was said that the same journalist was a target of a Tehran-backed kidnapping plot last year. What she had to say about this to Reuters was: 'What the Iranian regime did, first trying to kidnap me and now sending someone here trying to kill me, it's a pattern. It's a continuation of their way of oppressing dissidents inside and outside Iran...I'm not scared of them and I'm going to continue my fight against gender apartheid. Because I didn't do anything wrong, I'm not a criminal, my crime is just giving voice to voiceless people.'

Tehran has dismissed all allegations of involvement in the kidnapping.