China’s vaunted internet censors are capable of sifting an ocean of information and eradicating sensitive content within seconds. One young woman managed to hoodwink them for weeks.

       The text of a letter purportedly sent from a Tehran prison began to circulate on the Chinese internet last year around Lunar New Year. Its author, writing under the name Mahsa, described how Iranian secret police snatched her during a crackdown on anti-headscarf protests and interrogated her about her feminist beliefs.

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