In 2005, as a parliamentary reporter in Iran, Masih Alinejad made a name for herself with exposing a bonus scandal in the Iranian parliament almost comparable in scale to that of MPs' expenses in Westminster.

In return, the Majles, or "the house of the nation" as it is known in Iran, declared her persona non grata and banned her from reporting the parliamentary affairs. The ban on Alinejad, who was working for the Iranian Labour News Agency at the time, prompted uproar in the press and three prominent national newspapers put her picture on their front page.

In no time, the then 28-year-old female journalist from Ghomikola, a small northern village, who had defied restrictions on women to work as a journalist, became a familiar name across the country.

Now at 36, living in exile in Oxford, Alinejad has devoted her time highlighting the situation of political prisoners and giving voice to the families of the protesters killed in the aftermath of the country's 2009 disputed presidential elections.

But this has come with a price. Her family has been harassed, she has received death threats. But most recently, Iranian state media have launched a sophisticated smear campaign to discredit Alinejad and dozens of Iranian journalists living in exile. Iranian state media have taken on fabricating contents to portray her as a spy of the British secret service, serving for Queen Elizabeth. The pressure has done little to silence Alinejad who has at least 70,000 fans on Facebook.

"Every week they write something about me, they try to smear me, discredit me," she told the Guardian. "They think that every morning I go for a breakfast with the Queen. It's just ridiculous."

Iran's state television, IRIB, has repeatedly aired TV programmes warning Iranians, especially officials and MPs, against speaking to her on phone. Boultan News, a website close to the conservatives, has published a series of articles on Alinejad based on fabricated contents.

"Masih Alinejad and her friends advertise life and relationships outside marriage," read an article's headline run by Boultan News. "Marriage will ruin love, we want to remain lovers and not husband and wife," she is falsely quoted as saying about her life with her partner. Boultan News has also republished an article about the so-called "pre-conditions by the BBC" for journalists who are willing to work for the corporation. "In the eyes of western seculars, the corruption and sexual perversion among men and women presenters at the BBC is normal and in fact, there are precondition for these people to be hired for such spying agencies, such as being a devil-worshiper … " reads the article which is based on fabricated contents.

"These are all fabricated and untrue," Alinejad said. "They have no shame, they are prepared to intrude upon the most private parts of your life. The regime agents trawl through my websites and Facebook page to use photos that I publish and claim it as evidence of sexual misconduct."

"The regime has no conscience. Recently, security officials approached the family of Alireza Rajaee, an activist currently in jail, and put pressure on his wife to leave him, to divorce from him. Who would do that?" she asked.

Alinejad's family has not been immune either. She said that his father, a simple old man working on a rice farm, has been brainwashed against her after security officials picked up unveiled pictures of her from her Facebook and circulated them in her village.

"It's now three years that he has not spoken to me," she said. "My father always loved me. When I was a kid, I used to go with him, in early mornings before sunrise, to help him as he worked on the rice farm. Even before leaving Iran he said that he really believe in me but now, he is estranged from me."

According to Alinejad, the Islamic republic is also concerned about Iranians living the journalists' lifestyle in a free world along with their work.

"Now that we are living outside Iran, we are free to live and dress and do as we like," she said. "People who follow my work or the work of BBC Persian staff see the personal freedoms that we enjoy, either on TV or on our personal Facebook accounts. That is a bigger threat to the Iranian regime, dominated by men who want to subjugate women, than perhaps our work. They are afraid of our freedoms in the west and fear women in Iran could see that and demand the same."

"If I interview someone, I record their voice and put in on my SoundCloud. Everything I do is out there in public," she said. "Hence, they call me a spy. I simply do my job."