++ On the occasion of International Women’s Day much was written about the suffering of women inside the MEK. Many were personal accounts. This week it surfaced that Maryam Rajavi had organised a meeting in a church in Tirana, Albania and in a governmental building in Paris to mark Women’s Day. She failed because both France and Albania put a stop to her plans. Rajavi was unable to travel to Albania so instead the MEK hired a hotel salon in Paris for her.

++ Massoud and Anne Khodabandeh’s Huffington Post article on the MEK in Albania was translated into Arabic and Farsi. The issue is gaining momentum as more and more people are asking what is really happening there.

++ Narges Beheshti, from the MEK families, wrote an open letter to Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi which was published in Arabic and Farsi in a wide range of publications. Narges explains that her brother Morteza was injured in clashes in Camp Ashraf and then deliberately left to die because he was a dissenting member. Morteza’s son has never seen his father and was brought up by family in Iran. The MEK prevented both sister and son from attending his funeral. Another brother, Mustapha, is still in Camp Liberty and Narges hasn’t seen him for fourteen years. She says that people who come out of the camp tell her he is being kept by force and wants to leave. In her letter Narges holds Al Albadi responsible for what happens in his country – she says, “it is not the UNHCR’s country”. She also alleges that there is evidence some officials in the UNHCR are being bribed by the MEK.

++ After visiting hospital, Karim Gholami from Fanous Association in Germany wrote a note about his situation. He titles it ‘Today’s suffering, the result of yesterday’s abuse’. Gholami was injured in the Chehel Cheraq operation but didn’t receive proper medical attention and was left disabled and is a wheelchair user. Now, when he visits doctors in Germany they tell him this could have been avoided. In his piece, Gholami names several people in the MEK who pretended to be doctors but weren’t qualified.

++ Former MEK member Ghaffour Fatahian from Payvand Assoc works as a painter and decorator in Paris. He relates a recent incident when he began working in the house of an Iranian homeowner. The owner was curious about how Fatahian had come to be in Paris. He says, “when I related my experiences with the MEK, he became impassioned and started swearing at Rajavi and all the rest of them”. It turned out that this owner was being pursued by people like Mehdi Abrishamchi to join the National Council of Resistance as a personality. The owner said, “no matter how much I reject them and swear at them to their faces, they refuse to go away. They have no shame and no dignity”. He said, “the only good thing that happened to me was that I was a political prisoner in Iran at the same time as Massoud Rajavi. I got to see who he really was and because of that they could never fool me. Sadly, for people like you [Fatahian], you had to go through all these bad experiences for many years and had to wait until now to see him for what he is”.

In English:

++ Mazda Parsi of Nejat Bloggers has translated Maryam Sanjabi’s story into English. Sanjabi joined the MEK in 1986 and rose to become a high level member. But this all changed when she was accused of being an ‘agent of the Iranian regime’. After this, Sanjabi was subjected to interrogation and severe physical beatings before, in what she describes as “dark comedy”, the MEK declared her innocent. Sanjabi managed to escape the MEK and now tells her story to warn the international community to beware Maryam Rajavi’s claims to support women’s rights.

++ Al Mastar News, Baghdad reports ‘Saudi backed Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) cooperate with ISIS’. “According to well-informed security sources, today morning Iraqi Federal Police foiled a suicide attack by a group of MKO terrorists who attempt to target a gathering of prominent Sunni clerics. Although Iraqi Police spokesman was reluctant to go into further details, but the previous confessions made by arrested ISIS members show the great degree to which MKO is cooperating with the so-called Islamic State. Maryam Rajavi, the self-styled president of People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has ordered her clique to develop close relation with ISIS field commanders. Observers believe due to MKO’s military acumen in guerrilla wars and committing myriad of terror operations against civilians, the remnants of this terrorist group serve as valuable tools for ISIS in murdering key Iraqi figures.”

++ On Saturday March 5th, former members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO), active in different human rights associations including Aawa, Pen Club, Iran-Fanous and Women Association, held a conference in Koln, Germany. The meeting was held on the occasion of the International women’s Day to cherish hundreds of women who are still taken as hostages behind the MKO’s cult-like bars.

++ Mir Bagher Sedaghi, Switzerland, wrote an open letter to Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana thanking him ensuring that Maryam Rajavi’s deceptive hiring of a church in Albania’s capital was cancelled. Exposure of the MEK’s nefarious activities in Albania’s media ensured that the esteemed religious leader was made aware of the MEK’s plans in advance.

 March 11, 2016

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest++ Maryam Rajavi’s idea to hold the March 8th Women’s Day celebration on the 28th February raised a few eyebrows. Several people described it as a desperate attempt to draw attention away from how disastrous Iran’s elections had been for her. First she had told the people of Iran to boycott the election, then she said it was America’s fault that they didn’t stop it. Then immediately after the election she fell silent as though it had never happened. Some commentators pointed out that any use of Maryam Rajavi to discredit Iranian elections is doomed to fail. Here is a woman who was appointed as ‘Interim President’ seventeen years ago by her husband – who has never since thought to suggest any other candidate let alone hold an election. Maryam Rajavi wouldn’t accept a proper election on anything.

++ The fourth series of families visiting Camp Liberty this year have returned to Iran and are furiously writing to the UNHCR and anywhere else they can think of to find out how it is possible that a decade since Saddam’s regime has gone they still can’t meet with their relatives. They blame the UN office in Baghdad which is in charge of Camp Liberty for giving in to the American embassy which doesn’t want to allow contact. They blame the government of Iraq, saying they are surely responsible for their own country, yet the families can’t get access to their loved ones. This visit attracted widespread coverage in Iraqi newspapers and this has prompted Rajavi to respond by spending a lot of money paying writers to write against the families. But the writing is the same as ever – accusing an eighty-year old woman of being an agent of the Iranian regime and coming to Iraq to kill her own son. Some Iraqi readers have replied to such articles by commenting that the MEK talk rubbish.

++ An interview with former MEK member Ehsan Bidi in Tirana and an article by Anne and Massoud Khodabandeh in the Huffington Post have been translated into Arabic, Farsi and Albanian/English. What the MEK wanted to do clandestinely is now being exposed and this has made them panic and start reacting. They have clearly ordered all their lobbyists to drop everything else and try to stop this news from being repeated anywhere but in the Albanian media in particular. The MEK leaders have given the go-ahead to their agents in Albania to spend unlimited funds in order to stop the story that the MEK is getting together with illegal gangs in Albania. Ehsan Bidi has announced that he fears for his life as the MEK are making direct threats against him.

March 04, 2016