Nejat Bloggers

Traumatic experience of Masoumeh Chaheh in the MEK

Masoumeh Chaheh was only 23 years old when the MEK commanders left her alone in deserts of Iran-Iraq border where she was raped. The outcome of that trauma is that she has been kept in a psychiatric institution for 20 years now.

Masoumeh Chaheh and her brother Hamid Chaheh joined the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq in 2002. At the time, Masoumeh was 23 and Hamid was 20. A few months later, Masoumeh was the one who revolted against the cult-like regulations and suppressive system of the group. She asked to leave the group, but it was no simple.

Hamid Chaheh

Hamid left the MEK in 2014 after the group was relocated in Albania. Only after his defection from the Cult of Rajavi, he learned about his sister’s heart-breaking fate. Today, near a decade after his defection he has found the courage to speak out. In an Interview with former MEK member Siamak Naderi, he gave testimony about his own experience as a member of the Cult of Rajavi as well as his sister’s.

According to Hamid, the MEK commanders had promised him to send his sister back to Iran with the company of one of their trusted agents –who were actually smugglers. Eventually, Masoumeh reached her aunt’s house in Tehran with bloody hands and in a state of mental breakdown. She would repeatedly say that several men in black chased her and raped her. Their other sister recounted the traumatic story for Hamid years later.

Masoumeh living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients

Since then, Masoumeh has been living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients. Based on Hamid testimonies only after ten years of psychotherapy, Masoumeh could speak about her experience as a member of the MEK, at Camp Ashraf. Today, she can explain what had happened to her in front of the camera of one of her family members, which is shown in Siamak Naderi’s TV show. “It was very hard,” she says in her purple hospital pajamas. “All day, they forced us to run and to work hard.”

She is 44 years old now, but she looks much older. Almost her entire hair has turned white. She is not able to stay home with her family more than one week per a month because she is always at risk of getting uncontrollably nervous.

The brother of Masoumeh, Hamid has lately come to term with himself in order to speak out about his sister’s distressing experience in only a few months of involvement with the Cult of Massoud Rajavi. As an expert and researcher on the MEK, Siamak Naderi is the first person to interview these two heart-broken siblings.

September 10, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

We Make Hope Happen for MEK Members

Members of the MEK are isolated from the outside world. Even inside the group, they are often made isolated from their peers as part of the group’s regulations and even punishment. They are not allowed to have intimate relationships with their comrades and family members –if they are members of the group too. leaders of the MEK use cult-like practices to maintain their control over members, a ruling system that forces members to stay single, to work hard without payment, to wear the group’s dress code in particular forced hijab, to forget family, friends and normal life. One of the outcomes of such a suppressive ruling is suicidal ideation.

Suicidal ideation is associated with depression and other mood disorders. Under the manipulative system of the Cult of Rajavi, most members are at risk of suicidal ideation. They are depressed, suppressed and helpless. They perceive no image of a normal life outside the group. In one sentence: they have lost hope.

Several members of the MEK have so far committed suicide. On the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day Isa Azade, a former member of the group, presents a list of MEK members who committed suicide under the suffocating ruling of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, on his Facebook account. According to Isa, the reason for so many suicidal attempts –of which several succeeded- was that hope and love has been killed by the leaders of the MEK. He recounts the heart-breaking stories of these people:

Parvin: She fell in love, but love was forbidden in the MEK. This was her crime that led her to commit suicide.
Kamal: He was also in love. He did not want to obey the rule of “Forced Divorce” but he had no way out. He killed himself.
Alan: She was teenager, smuggled from Germany to the MEK’s camp in Iraqi deserts. MEK commanders forced her to wear hijab and military uniform. They trained her as child soldier. They told her that she could never get back to Europe. She shot herself in head.

Shamsollah: he was fed up with the mafia system of MEK commanders. He killed himself a few days before the group’s relocation from Iraq to Albania.

Isa Azadeh also writes of Minoo, Masoumeh, Mehri, Zahra, Marjan, Homa, Yasser, Elias, Soheil, Khodam and Saeed. They all committed suicide because they had lost hope under the excruciating pressure of Rajavis’ ruling.

Each year on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is valued by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). WSPD marks global commitment to suicide prevention. It is organized to raise awareness about suicide prevention and mental health. On the occasion of this day, IASP consider the importance of holding on to hope every day.

Nejat Society and its sister organization in Albania, the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) are two entities founded by defectors of the Cult of Rajavi and families of members of the cult who are still taken as hostages inside the group’s Camp Ashraf 3, in Manez, Albania. Nejat and ASILA’s main mission is to keep the light of hope burning. All their activities are directed to create a sense of hope for every member of the Cult of Rajavi. Hope is a key ingredient for life and can be an antidote to suicide and a powerful tool to break the metal and physical bars of the cult.

By Mazda Parsi

September 9, 2023 0 comment

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Four decades of human rights abuse by the MEK leaders

Leaders of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), have been violating the rights of their own members for over 4 decades. Violation of human rights in the group was the result of its cult-like attitudes. The MEK, under the rule of Massoud Rajavi was no more a political group. Rajavi has turned it to a destructive cult of personality since he came to power in the MEK.

Forced Celibacy

Human rights abuses began from the very days after the bizarre marriage of Massoud with Maryam Qajar Azdanloo –later called Maryam Rajavi. Maryam was married to Mehdi Abrishamchi, a high-ranking member of the group but her husband handed her over to the leader as a sign of loyalty. This was the start of a series of human rights violations in the MEK which came one after the other.

During the 1984 and 1985, following the so-called ideological marriage, all married members of the MEK were coerced to divorce. Male members had to surrender their wives to the group leader. Female members were manipulated to consider Massoud as the only man of their life. Celibacy became mandatory in the Cult of Rajavi. Any disobedience to the command would lead to punishment including interrogation, imprisonment, torture and even death.

Self Criticism

Punishments were along with a brainwashing system that worked through the hierarchy of the cult. Mind manipulation process was amplified. Self-criticism sessions, daily reports on personal thoughts and actions led to suppression by the commanders and pressure by peers.

Isolation

Members were isolated from the outside world. Mental and physical bars were formed around the group. News was filtered. Contacts to family and friends were forbidden. The entire members had to focus on the group’s leader. His words were considered a holy book.

Child abuse

The brainwashing system of Massoud Rajavi kept on destroying the entire family center. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Rajavi ordered parents to surrender their children to the group. Around 7 hundred children of Mujahed parents, from two months old to 15 years old, were smuggled from Iraq to Europe and North America where they were left in team houses, foster families or orphanages. The number of heartbreaking stories of MEK children mounts to the number of the smuggled ones.

Child Soldiers

About 3 hundred of these children were smuggled back to the MEK’s camp in Iraq. They were recruited by the MEK as child soldiers of the group’s so-called National Liberation Army. Child soldiers of the MEK were coerced to wear uniforms and receive military trainings. Several of them could later escape the group and reveal what they endured in the Cult of Rajavi. The stories of former child soldiers of the MEK became viral in the social media.

In addition, a lot of former members of the group published their revelations about human rights abuses inside the MEK. Their personal accounts of living in the MEK destructive cult were covered by media and human rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch.

Today, 4 decades after the ruling of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi over the MEK, the group members are still under constant human rights violations. Forced hijab, forced labor, forced celibacy are only a few examples. Brainwashing sessions are still held every night at Ashraf 3. Members are not allowed to contact their families outside the group. Even if they have family members inside the group, they are not able to have routine visits of normal family members.

The international human brights bodies and the Albanian authorities must take proper actions in order to stop human rights abuse in the Cult of Rajavi.

Mazda Parsi

September 4, 2023 0 comment

Nejat Publications

Nejat Newsletter No.106

Inside this Issue:

_ People inside MEK face HR abuses regularly

Nejat Newsletter No.106

In an interview, published by VOX News Albania, a former member of the MEK, Mustafa Beheshti, revealed what happened in MKO camp located in Manza, Durrës.

_ Women Council of ASILA traveled to the city of Shkodër

Members of Women Council of the association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) traveled to Shkodër in line with the goals defined for this council.

_ The Voice of Families conference was held in Tirana

The Association for the Support of Iranians living in Albania called the purpose of holding this public conference “to bring the voice of the waiting families of members of the Cult of Rajavi.”

_ Rama warns to expel MKO if it uses Albania for war against Iran

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama says the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) must leave the country if it wants to use Albanian soil to fight against Iran.

_ Iranian protesters urge Albania to close down MKO camp

Azadeh was deceived to join the MEK in Iraq when she was a young newly married girl. Her husband left the group a few years later but Azadeh was coerced to stay.

_ Evidence on MEK’s unpopularity

The Move by the Albanian police came after the French government banned the group’s planned annual gathering in Paris. The MEK could finally run its multi-milliondollar rally based on a French court order, but it could never play the part of a popular opposition group against the government in Tehran.

_ The double face of the MEK

While presenting itself as a moderate opposition in the eyes of West, the MEK continues to perpetrate terrorist actions in Iran for the overthrow of the I. R. I., as evidenced by their own official website, where the attacks are described as heroic acts.

_ MEK does not speak on behalf of the Iranian people

an Iranian opposition figure, Alireza Akhondi, the Swedish politician who had warned the world politicization in particular the ones of Italy to beware that the MEK does not represent the aspirations of the Iranian people.

_ Bijar Rahimi, the most recent defector of the MEK

Bijar Rahimi joined the Association for the (ASILA) after his defection. His brother Sarfaraz Rahimi, also defector of the MEK and his Albanian wife Erisa have been active members of ASILA since its foundation.

To view the pdf file click here

September 4, 2023 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Rudy Giuliani, MEK’s paid supporter charged with 13 crimes.

As the Western support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is in decline, the group’s paid supporter Rudy Giuliani surrendered on charges in the Georgia election subversion case. As Donald Trump’s key election lawyer, Rudy Giuliani together with two other lawyers, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis are under trial.

On August 23, 2023, CNN reported, “The scene of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a notable former federal prosecutor, walking into the Fulton County jail represented another remarkable moment in the ongoing investigation into Trump and his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.”

According to the report, as one of Trump’s most outspoken attorneys in 2020, Giuliani was charged with 13 crimes, including breaking the state’s racketeering act, engaging in various criminal conspiracies, and soliciting a public officer in the state to violate their oath.

For more than a decade, Giuliani has pushed the agenda of the MEK, giving paid speeches and writing newspaper op-eds expressing support for a group linked to the deaths of six Americans in the 1970s.

In October 2019, NBC News warned about Giuliani’s material support for the Cult of Rajavi. The article was titled “Giuliani’s work for Iranian group with bloody past could lead to more legal woes”.
NBC News quoted Daniel Benjamin, a State Department counterterrorism coordinator from 2009 to 2012. He has focused extensively on the network of American politicians who have been paid by MEK, including Giuliani.

“I found it pretty distasteful that they were shilling for this group even if it was delisted,” Benjamin told NBC. “This is a group that has American blood on its hands, and it’s never owned up to that.”

“Look at those who have gone on their gravy train and then go to their events and say MEK is going to bring democracy and peace to Iran,” Benjamin said. “Basically, these guys bring aboard their pals. Especially among the hardest line anti-Iran folks, this is the place to go. Though plenty of people become much more hard line once their pockets are filled with MEK money.”
The authors of NBC New also quote from Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sadjadpour describes the organization as a fringe group with mysterious sponsors that garners slight support in its home country. “Their population in Iran hovers between negligible and nil,” Sadjadpour said.

Today, in August 2023, after the MEK’s headquarters was raided by the Albanian Police, the group’s base among its paid supporters is much more devastated than before. Regarding that Albania is a loyal ally of the United States, the move by the Albanian authorities to confiscate the MEK’s computers and other digital tools of its cyber army must have been granted approval of the American authorities.

The group’s paid supporters among the US warmongers like Giuliani seem to have to leave the group alone to help their notorious background.

August 26, 2023 0 comment

Canada

What should Canada expect after the potential move of the MEK to its territory?

Concerns over potential relocation of the MEK members to Canada has been on the rise. Regardless of the group’s violent acts against Iranian people, regarding the previous experiences of France, Iraq and Albania in hosting the group, Canada should be aware of the problems it will face with.
in 1986 France’s Prime Minister Jacques Chirac evicted the MEK out of France. Massoud Rajavi and approximately five to ten thousand MEK members were received by the Iraqi government. Rajavi moved to Iraq –which was then fighting Iran– and set up a base on the Iranian border.

As Saddam’s private army, the MEK collaborated with former Iraqi dictator for spying and launching cross border operations against Iran and then for suppressing Iraqi Shiites and Kurds’ uprisings. After the collapse of Saddam Hussein, the newly established Iraqi government as well as the Iraqi nation did not want the Cult of Rajavi in their soil. The group had occupied the land, named Camp Ashraf, which originally belonged to Iraqi farmers of Diyala province.

Iraqi authorities made efforts to convince the MEK leaders to leave their territory peacefully, but they clashed with Iraqi security forces who wanted to build a guard post inside Camp Ashraf. The result was violence. Massoud Rajavi ordered the unarmed MEK members to resist Iraqi soldiers not allowing them inside the camp. Nouri al-Maliki, the then prime minister of Iraq – whose ambassador to the US called the group “nothing more than a cult” – insisted it leave the country.

Last month, the same scene was repeated in Albania. The Albanian state Police tried to enter the group’s camp in Manez named Ashraf 3, residents of the camp were ordered not to allow the Police to touch their computers –their main tools to fight the Iranian government. The Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in an interview for German network Der Spiegel, said that the Mujahideen cannot use Albania to fight against Iranian government. Rama said that currently Albania is being “used as a trench in a war that is not ours,” warning that if the MEK insists on fighting Iran, “they must leave Albania.”

As a country that still hosts the MEK’s main headquarters in the suburb of Paris, Auver Sur d’Oise, France has witnessed the most violent scenes from the MEK members and sympathizers. In June 2003, after the group’s base was raided by the French Police and Maryam Rajavi was arrested under the order of Frech judiciary, the group followers were ordered to commit self-immolations to protest the arrest of their she-guru. Several MEK members set themselves on fire in 6 European cities. Two women died of self-immolations.

The Iranian Canadian Congress is truly concerned about the probable risks that the Canadian might encounter in case of the MEK’s immigration to Canada. “The MEK organization’s history and actions have raised significant alarm within the community”, the ICC’s Vice President, Mona Ghassemi wrote in a letter to Canadian Immigration Minister.

August 23, 2023 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Testimonies of Bijar Rahimi, the most recent defector of the MEK cult

Bijar Rahimi is the most recently defected member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). He escaped the MEK’s isolated camp near Tirana, two weeks ago. He surrendered himself to the Albanian Police immediately after he left the MEK’s headquarters, Ashraf 3.

Bijar Rahimi joined the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) after his defection. His brother Sarfaraz Rahimi, also defector of the MEK and his Albanian wife Erisa have been active members of ASILA since its foundation.

After his defection from the Cult of Rajavi, Bijar attended a conference titled “Voice of Mothers”, held by ASILA at Hotel Doro City, Tirana. He was one of the main speakers of the event. The audience were impressed by his heart-breaking memoirs of living in the MEK cult-like atmosphere.

Bijar Rahimi considers family as the main reason for his defection. “In the MEK, thinking of your family is forbidden,” he says. “If you think of your family you have to confess it in the daily self-criticism meetings.”

When the MEK was in Iraq, Sarfaraz and Bijar’s little brother went to Camp Ashraf, Iraq and asked for visiting him. The group leaders did not allow Bijar to meet his brother. “I could hear my brother calling my name, but I was not allowed to go and hug him.”

During the 21 years of imprisonment in Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality, Bijar never could contact his family. “My mother, my father and two of my older brothers died in those years and I never forgive myself for my absence during their last days of life,” Bijar says with tears in his eyes.

The tragic story kept on when the MEK was transferred to Albania and Bijar’s brother, Sarfaraz, could manage to leave the group and build a normal life in Albania. “My brother left the group, got married to Erisa but the MEK leaders did not allow me to attend their wedding party while they were only a few kilometers away.”

He asked the group leaders to let him visit his brother but each time his request was declined. Today, he lives with his brother and his little family. He can hug his nephew, Ermolindo. “In the MEK the Internet and smart phones were forbidden,” he says with a smile on his face. “I do not know how to use a smart phone, my six-year-old nephew is teaching me!”

August 9, 2023 0 comment

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

The Voice of Families conference was held in Tirana

On Friday, August 13, 1402, Asila Association held a conference titled “Voice of Families” in Tirana, Albania. The Association for the Support of Iranians living in Albania called the purpose of holding this public conference “to bring the voice of the waiting families of members of the Cult of Rajavi.”

The Voice of Families conference was held at Dora Hotel in Tirana and was welcomed by the guests. The executive director of the conference was Erisa Rahimi and the head organizer was Ella Dada.

Dashamir Mersuli, president of Asila, Aldo Solullari, media manager of Asila, Khalil Ansarian, Hamid Atabay, as well as Bijar Rahimi, a new member of Asila, who recently left the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), spoke at the conference.

The Voice of Families conference

The conference also had guests from Iran: Soraya Abdullahi addressed the audience online, which was very impressive. Also, two video messages from Saeed Hosseini’s mother, Masoumeh Hosseini, and Fereydoon Nedai’s mother were played for the participants. The speeches of these mothers greatly impressed the guests.

The speeches of Bijar Rahimi, who had left the MEK a few days ago, and the facts he told from inside the camp of Cult of Rajavi were shocking for the audience.

The conference lasted three hours and at the end, the final statement was read by Hamid Atabay. It was then signed by all of the attendants of the conference.

Finally, Erisa Rahimi appreciated all of the families, Nejat Society and its CEO, Ebrahim Khodabandeh, for their support to Asila. He also thanked Dashamir Mersouli, the president of Asila, on behalf of the members and families.

The film of this conference will soon be made available to the public, especially the honorable families of Nejat Society in Iran.

August 6, 2023 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Bijar Rahimi: I was kept in the MEK against my will

Bijar Rahimi left the headquarters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) after 21 years. In 2002, he had been smuggled from Iran to the MEK’s camp in Iraq by the group’s agents.

Bijar is from, Iranshahr, Sistan Baloochestan, Iran. He was 41 when an MEK’s smuggler promised to take him to Europe to have a high-income job. He trusted the MEK’s recruiter and eventually he was trafficked across Pakistan border, and he was then taken to Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

“At Baghdad airport, I was received by two Iranians,” Bijar recounts his story. “They drove me to a place where everyone was wearing military uniform.”
In response to his question about the location, he was told that it was the MEK’s headquarters: Camp Ashraf! “I asked if I would be taken to Europe from there and they answered that I had to stay there for a while waiting to be informed about when and how to be transferred to Europe,” he recalls.

Bijar was given a military uniform and forced to stay in the entrance unit of Camp Ashraf where he saw a large number of people who had been taken there with the promise of immigration to Europe and lucrative career, too.

During the first months, Bijar was still pursuing the issue of going to Europe. Once he was told that the French Police had raided the MEK’s base in Paris and had arrested Maryam Rajavi. “They told us that going to Europe is impossible”, he says.

After the US invasion to Iraq, the country was insecure, they had to stay in Camp Ashraf under the cult-like ruling of Massoud Rajavi. He was under the group’s manipulation system for 21 years. He was not allowed to contact his family during those years. “They would clearly say that the main enemy of a Mujahed-e Khalq is his or her family,” Bijar Rahimi testifies.

His family went to Camp Ashraf to visit Bijar but they were not allowed to meet him. The MEK leaders never told Bijar about that. “I just know about that after I left the group,” he says.

After the MEK’s relocation in Albania, the brainwashing system of the MEK kept on working, isolating members from the free world. “Ideological meetings, reporting on peers, self-criticism sessions and psychological suppression still continued in Albania,” Bijar states. “I just wanted to get rid of the pressure and to make the dream of contacting my family come true, so I decided to escape the group.”

Despite the lies fabricated by the MEK leaders about the Albanian Police and the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Canada (ASILA), Bijar surrendered to the Police and then he was welcome by ASILA.

“My escape from the MEK was like running out to the darkness,” he says. “Despite my fears I was assured by ASILA and Nejat Society that what the MEK leaders say about them is pure lie.”

August 6, 2023 0 comment

Former members of the MEK

Bijar Rahimi Left the MEK’s isolated Camp Ashraf 3

The Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) declared the defection of another member of the Mujahedin-e Khlaq (MEK). Bijar Rahimi succeeded to release himself from the bars of the Mek’s headquarters in Manez, Albania, Ashraf 3.

Immediately after his release, Bijar Rahimi joined ASILA. Publishing a statement, ASILA congratulates Bijar’s family and other families of Nejat Society on his salvation from the destructive Cult of Rajavi.

ASILA also appreciates the cooperation of the Albanian state Police to provide security for defectors of the MEK including Bijar Rahimi.

July 31, 2023 0 comment

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