Sahar Family Website

Hierarchical administration of information within MKO

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 30

none of the information would be circulated among the rank and file and there was a strict hierarchical discipline with no leak Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, you have put your finger on an issue worthy of note, that is, victimizing insiders and sending them to their death. Did they really theorize such issues for the insiders with concretized exemplars from the outside?

Batool Soltani: As for the subjects I mentioned, I have to underline that none of the information would be circulated among the rank and file and there was a strict hierarchical discipline with no leak to the lower ranks. The reactions concerning Zamani’s execution that I mentioned were limited to the members of the Leadership Council. On the surface and among the rank and file you could see what was commonly seen outside of the organization; they were in tears and mourned his death. Massoud and Maryam always insisted on the exigent priority of the Leadership Council and were of the opinion that information had to be restrained within the council. The lower ranks had to only carry out the orders of the top even if the day came when a mass suicide was inevitable.

Rajavi believed there was no need to let the lower body be enlightened about the matters discussed in top levels which could mount unnecessary tensions. It was enough to move on a slow path or effusive acts like that of the June 17 immolations. What was of the significance and vital for the organization was to keep rank and file in readiness and ripe for suicide operations through justifications that could be embedded in them from the top. I tell you for sure that if the subordinate members knew the truth and what they plotted at top layers, half of them would detach from the organization; their role was to materialize the chimeras of the leaders. In contrast to them, the higher echelons had the responsibility of constantly testing the inferiors’ loyalty and readiness and lay the groundwork. Even they would be equipped with the prerequisite means of suicide in a practical test to calculate reactions.

SFF: At the present, what means they have ready at hand in Camp Ashraf for committing mass suicides?

BS: I do not now just now, but when I was there any member of the Leadership Council carried at least two cyanide capsules. Wherever they were present, you could find equal quantity of cyanides. Or there were always supplies of fuel, the alcohols reserved for medical uses, and incendiary substances and devices mainly used in celebrations which could all be utilized easily for self-immolations. In general, the organization is potential enough to access to any type of substance and means needed for suicide and immolation operations. Even if you could detect noting kept by the organization, you will be surprised to see how ready they would be when the right time came.

SFF: Does it mean that the organization has still amounts of weapons secretly stored for a day to come?

BS: As far as I was involved, there was no possession of stored weapons because Americans were so sensitive and had sophisticated instruments that could easily detect hidden arms. Besides, the organization had no intention to give any excuse to Americans which could make them suspect the organization in other grounds that required a reciprocal trust following the disarmament. The organization tried to show straightforward which could ease the way to achieve a comprehensive collaboration. Possession of arms completely spoiled the martyred expression the organization tried to wear.

To be continued

October 19, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Primacy of death and violence in the ideology of MKO

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 29

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, before going on, let’s open a parenthesis to clarify why the organization is primarily motivated by holding at violence as a working strategy; it is either killing others or prompting suicide operations. In fact, a permanent leg among its pillars of relation with the outside is violence and death. Of course, it has been innate from its very beginning and they even believed that when arrested, they had to behave in a way to provoke the Pahlavi’s regime to execute them. A proven fact is its leaders’ fervently presented offensive defenses in the course of their trials. In contrast to the mainstream of the political and struggling groups, the organization has hardly cared about the individuality of its members as the militants definitely framing the main pillars of its structure and to take the decisive precautionary measures to save their lives.

The members of the organization are encouraged to either kill or be killed and there has to be necessarily justifications to convince them choose the either way. Your experience may illuminate some dark aspects of the organization’s resorting to violence. Of course, the organization’s early booklets explicitly chart its worldviews but you are not old enough to be familiar with these early ideological mentalities unless they have been referred to in their ideological instructions. Do you have any perception of the founded innate strategy that can be proved through your personal experiences?

Batool Soltani: It is so sensitive an issue you are referring to. It could have been talked about at the beginning or the end of our discourse about self-immolations. But it is crucial to know why the organization, unlike other similar political or armed groups, cultivates homicidal tendencies with an emphasis on suicidal ones in a struggle to counter its adversaries and exclusively invest on the tactics that highly risk the lives of the insiders. It has to be pointed that when the organization is on a stand to advance with a heavy hand the first priority is an aggressive militarism but it recoils to a defensive suicidal stand when some bottleneck blocks its advance. It can take the form of self-immolations, imposing human shield or any other form and have been adopted as a working strategy from its very formation days.

As a vindication of its rightness in its struggle path, the organization has always boasted about the counts of its killed and imprisoned members believing that these martyrs substantiate its hegemonic legitimacy over all other opposition groups antagonizing the regime. Rajavi is of the opinion that the rightness of any ideology is maintained by the number of its victims and martyrs; in the sphere of his political and ideological imagery, the life and death of man is so simple an issue like drinking water. I remember reading some related sources in the organization but I fail to remind them clearly to give exact details.

Being a product of Rajavi’s own mind-set than a methodological study, I think Rajavi has deduced that when man can so easily sacrifice his life, so he is capable of achieving distant, inaccessible goals. When it is politically and morally, from a certain ideological point of view, acceptable to use unconventional tactics such as violence and fear to achieve certain goals, then why should one waste time to stick to others that fail to be productive at all. The recruited members of the organization that are trained to invoke fear in the opponents and exploit the vulnerability of the victims are themselves the victims that victimize adversaries for certain ambitions. In fact, whether a member kills or is killed it is the organization that profits from all these bloodshed.

I remember my first days in the organization when Rajavi repeatedly highlighted the counts of the casualties the organization had inflicted on the regime, which had been widely covered by the media, as a proof of his organization’s legitimacy and his authoritative hegemony among other opponent groups. Connecting his organization’s terrorist activities with legitimate political struggle, Rajavi played a double-faced role before the Western world; he presented the statistics of his terrorist deeds against the regime as a proof of legitimacy while he exaggerated about the organization’s martyrs as the instances of human rights violation by the regime. Rajavi is not the least concerned about the life of people, either the insiders or outsiders, and even the organization’s press coverage of the executions by the IR is a cunning manipulation of the dynamics of violence to demonize the opponent side.

I have seen plain examples of the glorification of violence and death-seeking attitude within the organization, an experience that can better than any other theoretical sources of ideology lead you to fathom why the organization delights in the martyrdom of its own members. One instance was when the news of the execution of Hojjat Zamani broke inside the organization. I have nothing to do with Zamani’s extent of cooperation and organizational career, the only thing I know is that he was arrested when dispatched on an operational mission. Sentenced to imprisonment, he escaped while he was on leave but was recaptured and at last his antagonistic attitudes led to his execution. My stress on his execution is only to illustrate the organization’s internal reaction after his death. You may be surprised to know that the news of his execution was the cause for a real celebration within Camp Ashraf, I mean a real festivity in which they sang and danced.

Nothing could have pleased them more than Zamani’s execution by the regime since it was a good excuse to appeal to human rights organizations and to condemn the regime for oppressing Mojahedin. Nobody was grieved or became furious about his death as naturally they had to and they openly congratulated his execution as it could influentially fuel the organization’s propaganda machine particularly to array human rights defenders against the regime and to help recruit new forces. Although the organization appealed to a variety of human rights defenders and organizations to bring Zamani’s execution to a halt to advertise a pro-democratic profile, it was also anxious not to have overdone to impede his execution. It will be not wrong to say that the organization prayed the regime would accelerate the process of his execution since it was one way it could boast its position as the sole active alternative the Iranian regime still cared to counter as a trouble-maker.

In a message addressed to the Leadership Council after Zamani’s execution, Rajavi asserted that his execution was equal to one thousand feats accomplished by the council because his death could muster new recruits and scatter seeds of hatred in the hearts of his family and relatives. In general, the organization craved for the execution of all those members in the prisons of the IR regime, people like Saeed Mansouri, Jamil Bassam and Ibrahim Khodabandeh. Hearing no news of their execution against the organization’s expectation, it elicited anger among us in the Leadership Council and we began criticizing and disparaging them for failing to commit suicide as we did when Arash Sametipour was arrested. We would revile them for not provoking the regime to execute them. Massoud and Maryam had reiterated that the IR Ministry of Information had adopted a new policy not to execute any member of the organization; now the organization was resolute to do its best to inflame the regime to spur executions.

Besides, the organization had contrived ways that led to the demise of the members. When, for example, Beheshteh Shadroo was at the charge of the operation teams sent to Iran, after the frequent successful return of a team, she would order the head of the team to take the forces under his/her command to a non-reconnoitered region where they could be easily hit and killed. In this way, the imposed death begot martyrs from among the forces whose date of practical competency had expired and could best serve the organization by their martyrdom. The organization hoped and prayed that the IR would kill so it had an open hand for propaganda.

There were also suggestions of arranging to club a woman to bleeding and to record the scene to use against the regime in abroad propagandas. The organization presumed that such scenes of violence and flow of blood could beget rebellion and social disturbance that could finally lead to the regime’s collapse. Benefitting the organization in its best use, the news of members killed and executed in Iran carried the menace of what destiny could be awaiting other members if they ever dreamed to return to Iran.

To be continued

October 17, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Human shield in defense of Ashraf

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – a précis of parts 27-28

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, if you will, let’s have a discussion on the issue of human shield and mass suicides and what necessitated its application. What are the parameters that influence the operations and to what degree and under what circumstances they extend?

Batool Soltani: At the threshold of the US invasion against Iraq and when threats were nearing the action, Rajavi was sensitive on two things; defending Ashraf against external threats including closing the camp and expulsion from Iraq and second, adopting an appropriate means to defend Ashraf and resist. He specifically reiterated that Ashraf had to be defended tooth and nail. But the premise developed into more objective form of defense when Saddam collapsed and the suggestion of human shield turned to be a serious option on the agenda of Rajavi. Of course, at the time the organization was busy preparing passports for high ranking members including the members of the Leadership Council to relocate when the right time came.

The option was first brought to attention in a session where Massoud Rajavi addressed the audience through a satellite broadcasted videoconference. Of the subjects he focused on were Ashraf and Auvers, stating that Auvers and Maryam were believed to be the brain of the organization while Camp Ashraf was the beating heart of the resistance against Iran. For sure the brain kept working until the heart beat. Ashraf was the heart that pumped the blood to brain and had to be protected by any means; the two were interconnected and one failed to operate without the other. It was what he talked about from a theoretical point of view.

Following the incidents of the June 17, it was broached that the members of the Leadership Council had to be prepared to protect Ashraf. It was the first time the human shield tactic was implicitly touched on in general. In one of his messages to Mozhgan (Parsai) Rajavi recapitulated that we would stay, die and bury here in Ashraf but never move. It was a question of resisting or dying if the Iraqis decided to repatriate members to Iran or evict from Ashraf to another location. Of course, repatriation to Iran was out of question because of the internationally guaranteed IDs issued for the members under the article four of the Geneva Convention. To tell the truth, it was not at all important for the organization to make any attempt for the safety of the members; all it cared about was survival of the organization and preserving Camp Ashraf and protect it against external threats. Then, the focal point was to think of means to accomplish the end.

The human shield was one of the opted options; mass suicides could effectively frustrate any effort that aimed at dismantling the integrity of Ashraf. It included any other threat like forced entry of American or coalition forces to temporarily close or deactivate the camp. Our first choice to resist against intruders had to be using non-firing weapons; needless to say that the organization actually made no resistance against the American forces and succeeded to take the control and hegemony of the camp in its own hands.

However, the human shield tactic was temporally removed from the agenda since Ashraf continued to be under the organization’s control and there was no need to make use of the ploy.

As Rajavi stated, he preferred the ‘arms carriers’, meaning the disarmed members, to the arms themselves; an incorporated armless army could be much functional and appropriate than the arms. The question of suicide operations and human shield were all directed at safeguarding the entity of the organization and its hierarchical order; it was the red line that could not be crossed and all members had to preserve. It was the policy adopted until 2006 when I left the organization. The deployment of the American forces at Ashraf made no change in the organizational structure and it took the liberty of acting according to its ironbound disciplinary.

The regular commute of individuals into Ashraf followed its routine and they brought anybody into the camp under the cover of the visiting families and they were even present when American forces inspected visitors at the check points.

There is a statement issued by the National Council of Resistance that specifically warns against the outbreak of what the organization refers to as human tragedy in the case of any possible attack against the camp by the IR forces or missile attack. It is what the organization expresses for the outsiders but its real definition for the insiders is the use of human shield to thwart any threat of eviction or expulsion enforced by the Iraqi government. The statement explicitly clarifies the responsibility of members in defense of Ashraf; any member has to become a human shield to impede disintegration of Mojahedin’s main bastion and heart. I remember a time when there came the news of Badr’s 9th army and groups of local Shi’its nearing the gates of Ashraf.

The organization announced full alert and all the members of the Leadership Council began preparations for mass suicide. Some brought arms and cyanides were checked and distributed. So serious were they in carrying out their mission that two members of the council, Marzieh Ali-Ahmadi and Darz Beigi, committed suicide when in their returning to camp they got an impression of being challenged.

SFF: What were the more highlighted factors about mass suicides, the manners, conditions or their reflection in the media?

BS: They were much sensitive to record the scenes of the immolations for immediate and widespread media coverage. In fact, the priority was having the control of media and resources in hands. To air first hand reports, the organization had positioned equips of photography in the vicinity of the scenes of operations.

SFF: How the suicides were planned to be launched and what conditions caused their materialization?

BS: the suicides had to be carried out first individually and one by one. In the next stage, if threatening forces behind the gates of Ashraf were resolute to break into the camp, the members had the order of committing suicides in groups. In the case of a widespread military intrusion that could lead to the fall of camp, all the members were to commit a mass suicide. The Leadership Council had clearly delineated anything to counter threats against the heart of the organization and to coerce a line of human shield before Ashraf.

To be continued

October 12, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Neda had been tutored from the childhood

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 26

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, you know better that the organization had highly invested Neda Hassani,had been tutored from the childhood to become a devoted MKO memebr on Neda who was hardly of any weight and importance within and without the organization until she was burned to death, an anonymous girl who had suddenly become the focal attention of the media in a week. I believe she achieved preeminence in public and it can be said that she had great impact on the whole situation. Of course, that was exactly what the organization expected. As Neda’s case is sensitive, let’s talk about her and her life and struggle background and I will pose further question if necessary.

Batool Soltani: You are right. Neda was not a preeminent among the members before her immolation. It was possible that in the higher echelons they had given her some attention but nothing amongst the rank and file. Her popularity is considered to be for a variety of reasons especially her age. To talk of my acquaintance with her, we were once on the same team-work in Camp Ashraf before the US invasion of Iraq and when Maryam (Rajavi) was still in Ashraf. the organization had highly invested on Neda who was hardly of any weight and importance within and without the organization until she was burned to death, However, Neda left for the Europe simultaneous with Maryam’s relocation to France. Of course, Neda had been raised and living in Europe and came to Ashraf after she was graduated.

SFF: Pardon me, Ms. Soltani, I prefer to pose questions on the spot. Was Neda an active member of the organization abroad?

BS: Not from the very beginning. The organization first worked on Neda’s family and they became sympathizers through participation in rallies and protest meetings. Gradually, the organization succeeded to recruit Neda and her brother to transfer them to Ashraf. The family, however, remained just sympathizers. You know, it is one of the approaches through which the organization recruits members. There are countless instances of the families that ceased their support for the organization while their children are still enthusiastic cadres who gainsay their own families. There are also instances of the parents detached from the organization while their children are active members or vice-versa; a real tragedy that has been going on all these years within the organization.

SFF: There is a photo of Neda in her seven or eight busy fundraising for the organization. Have you seen the photo?

BS: Yes, I have seen. The very same year Neda set herself on fire, it was one of the many photos they publicized in a biography of her. It is an indication of the organization’s impact on her family to have convinced them to let their daughter to engage in fundraising activities because of her low age. So she was somehow a sympathizer from the childhood. She was naive and emotionally sensitive and could be easily impressed. I think such photos talk enough to condemn the organization of abusing the sympathizer’s children.
SFF: Were Neda’s family political refugees?

BS: I do not know. But it was typical of the organization to establish contacts particularly with the political refugees since a cause of sympathy could easily convince them to cooperate with the organization especially when the families were on the fence or were facing problems. Because of its influence abroad, the organization could attract some of these families under its umbrella to exploit them for its political aims. Noteworthy, many of these families that had been granted political asylum through mediation of the organization faced troubles after they announced their detachment.

SFF: Was Neda born in Europe?

BS: I do not know, but I know she was raised in abroad.

SFF: What about her education?

BS: I have no exact information but I have seen a videotaped celebration of her graduation as well as her photos.

SFF: I think there is something ambiguous about her academic education because of her age. How old was she when she committed suicide?

BS: I think she was twenty-one.

SFF: Naturally, she could not have possibly been a university graduate. Beside her age, she was on a continuous process of moving and relocation.

BS: I may have seen a videotaped party of her becoming a high school graduate. So she must have been nineteen when she came to Ashraf. (Here Ms. Soltany pressed some keys on the laptop at her hands to make sure) Yes, it is here, she was nineteen. However, she was in Ashraf for a year and then left for the Europe accompanying Maryam; she came in 2001 and left in 2002.

SFF: How did she behave in Ashraf?

BS: She was a kind of friendly, I mean, she was warm and intimate and very active.

SFF: What organizational rank did she carry?

BS: She was a K2, the lowest organizational rank. But she caught their attention because of her active potentiality and they were satisfied with her activeness. At the time, they hardly sent anybody abroad and they were sensitive to select one if one had to be sent to Europe. But they selected Neda to send abroad and she was one of the few who accompanied Maryam.

SFF: Did not it raise question when they decided to send someone in her eighteens abroad especially after she had just arrived at Ashraf?

BS: She was too close to organizational standards and was well melted in the relations. These parameters were influentially decisive.

SFF: How is it possible that a young, europeanized girl who had just detached from a common, bourgeoisie world to join a remote camp and whose only distinctiveness was to have been recruited from a sympathizer family could so fast become the main focus of the organization’s attention. Could she in a one-year span reach a practically ideological maturity?

BS: You know, a great drawback that disputed sending members abroad was a risk of sticking to the tastes of the bourgeoisie life there. In contrast to what you think, the age and
struggle background were not the fixed canons to pick a member for a mission abroad.

There were members with a forty-year record of struggle who the organization never consented to send abroad because they could be easily enticed by the threats of the bourgeoisie life. Nasrin Asadi, for example, was a real expert in accounting who had long lived in abroad. Then, she could be a suitable choice to be sent abroad since she was well acquainted with the social atmosphere there to play an influential role but they opposed her dispatch.

Even I, who had been already sent to England for some time to receive computer trainings, had failed to win their trust since there was a possibility of making contacts with my family and children. In general, they never selected exhausted, questionable members to dispatch to abroad where they could be probably magnetized by the bourgeoisie life. It was of great importance for the organization to learn that the selected members had truly despised the bourgeoisie life and abhorred returning to it in the same way that they loathed the imperialism and the regime.

SFF: How is it logically acceptable that a girl in Neda’s age had reached a point to despise such a life? Of course by logic I mean the very logic that rules within the organization. Possibly that is because the organization had worked on Neda from her childhood when values deeply form in man. It can be said that Neda received her ideological trainings from the very childhood which precisely differentiated her with the adults who received their trainings in their young and mid-ages. Besides, Neda voluntarily came to Ashraf while the organization insisted her stay in Europe. She had reiterated many times that she preferred a militia life to political activities and she was absolutely opposed to her transfer to Europe and even cried and begged to stay in Ashraf while others like Laleh Tariqi and Zelal Habibi who had been picked to be sent abroad submitted to orders with pocketed pleasure. I want to know how Neda could overcome the threats of being melted in bourgeoisie life while the more experienced, old members had failed?

BS: Neda was selected for abroad because she felt no attraction for the bourgeoisie life. There was no doubt and the organization had been convinced. She had no craving to return to the world she had divorced. As a rule, the organization dispatched recruits to Ashraf to caulk their bourgeoisie appeals and to obviate threats of returning to it. Talking about Neda, it is different. She was young and standing at the beginning of a long path full of costs and threats and she lacked the organizational maturity to understand these facts in a theoretic, political and ideological framework. Her sympathy for the organization was the result of her childhood enthusiast and the information the organization had instilled into her in a one way relation. Above all, she was so young to face any challenge and adversary.

She was different with those who had been tied in with the organization at least from its post-revolution phase and had long been witnessing repeated losses and Rajavi’s promises that never came true. They had surmounted a tortuous path that had raised further doubts in each step; they had been broken many times but remodeled through Rajavi’s justifications and promises. They know how Rajavi dealt with the dissidents and they were well aware of the costs they had to pay to defect; they have long been engaged in a never-ceasing battle with the past and future and the organization has to devise approaches to monitor them and to discover what passes in their mind. How busy is the young mind of Neda to know anything of these wrestling?

Unlike Neda, these members have lost a precious life with no hope to refurbish. At least they try to take advantage of any possible opportunity to rebuild the remaining days of an unsecure future, let them call it threats of reunion with the bourgeoisie life or anything, for them it is closeness to freedom. They have long been filled with promises but nothing has ever changed. That is the reason why the young Neda is selected while the old veterans are kept behind the closed doors.

To be continued

October 10, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Defining an MKO organizational jargon

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 25

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, one of the intriguing subjects to talk about is the unlike the world outside, a member of Mojahedin has established a relation of ‘pardakhtgar’ with the family and associates organization’s use of an internal jargon on which one can collect a book. You have repeatedly used such jargons in the course of you interviews and that may be because you have failed to find equivalents for them or you are used to using them. One of these jargons is the term ‘pardakhtgar’. If you please, start by explaining about this jargon.

Batool Soltani: Frankly speaking, you are right and one can compile a terminology of jargons used in the organization’s internal relations. More interesting is when you listen to an inter-organizational debate and for sure you need a jargon expert to interpret so you may understand what they mean. To talk about the stated jargon of ‘pardakhtgar’, the organization always insisted that in contrast to rumors outside that the members displayed no sign of emotion towards their children, families and relatives and denounced them just as heartless people devoid of love and amity would, we do value emotions and are sentimental beyond ordinary people.

To prove, the organization gave examples to show that much of the affection and friendliness dominating the society are conditional, superficial and shows of formality; a trademark only to secure interests. It reasoned that as soon as people felt their interests were threatened, all love and friendly passions would vanish and brothers tried to cheat and tear each other to protect their interests.

It holds the persuasion that unlike the world outside, a member of Mojahedin has established a relation of ‘pardakhtgar’ with the family and associates. To have a better understanding of the term, they would say a member of Mojahedin establishes his relations with his family and associates according to the prevalent social norms but he never engages in an interest-rated relation to turn his back on them for personal interests. A member of Mojahedin, they would say, is a clear-sighted revolutionary highly appreciating feelings and sentiments and who intends to purge them of the filth of caste and exploitation.

It is only possible through cleansing the society and people’s living milieu, or as they would say, to purify the oxygen they intake. In a purged society, motivations transcended worldly interests and feeling were no more means to trick and hoax the intimates and people. In that case, no class system and personal interest could possibly blur the feelings with illusions of materialism and unconditional and true love would find its real value with no relative bond to define it.

Then, they raised the question that the most appreciated love and affection was the unconditional kind the organization was after and it was impossible to achieve unless the society could be purged. As the revolutionary elements undertaking the responsibility to implement the cause, Mojahedin saw no other way but to temporary sacrifice whoever they loved.

Here the term ‘pardakhtgar’ can be defined; that is to say, a member of the organization sacrifices his love and affection for the family and associates so they may transcend the limits of the material world and achieve the sphere of an unconditional love and affection that could include not only the beloved around them but the humanity in general. His struggle and immolation is to stop people paying for the attention and affection they receive and to purify the atmosphere and set up a utopia wherein the unconditional love will reign.

This is a one-way demonstration of love and feeling and only a Mojahed is believed to fully discern the meaning of love and passion for the close and the humanity. He curbs all his feelings and deprives himself of a common give and take interest-rated love for a permanently stable tender and unconditional love. To achieve the goal, one side has to sacrifice and he is a Mojahed.

SFF: Ms. Soltani, the fact is that such claims are much alluring and idealistic. But a question to ask, were they really truthful in what they claimed or it was another abused means to achieve organizational ends? Was Rajavi after creating the claimed utopia or he was channeling the feelings towards a milieu of highly committed relationship?

BS: To tell the truth, Rajavi is a real, ingenious sophist. I have reiterated many times that when you look at the organization from the inside, you see an integrated order wherein everything looks to be at its own place. But the problem begins when you look at it from the outside and try to discern the encountered ambiguities and paradoxes according to the existing system before you, nothing is at its place and you are left in the middle of complete disarray. It is the very same matter with the term ‘pardakhtgar’. In contrast to its internal interpretation, it is meant be spent for and direct all love and affection to the leadership alone and to force all in his obedience. Of course, you will notice a flagrant contradiction in Rajavi’s claims. I think even a revolutionary struggling for a certain cause has to secure an emotional bond first with his own family and relatives before trying to universalize it.

Those who easily turn their back on their children, parents and any beloved one are in fact practicing to cut all attachments with the outside world. When Rajavi states that all love and devotion has to be directed to him, he means to be replaced with all the sources of attachments; he must be the sole entity without whom the promised utopia could not possibly be established.

Such a theory works for a variety of abusive purposes. A member devoid of familial attachments, for instance, can easily carry out a mission of purging a member of his own family just because the victim is claimed to be an agent of the regime. Thus, I believe such rhetoric is mainly aimed for personal interests to guarantee Rajavi’s egocentric dominance over the organization.

To be continued

October 7, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The members were coerced into dedicating themselves to Massoud and Maryam

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 24

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, in our last session, you pointed to instances of the The members were coerced into dedicating themselves to Massoud and Maryam organization’s persuasive approaches in its contact with the victims’ families with particular emphasis on Neda’s family. Did not such dual behavior raise any suspicion when the family saw that on the one hand the organization eulogized Neda as a holy martyr but on the other hand claimed her immolation as an impulsive and willful act? Did the organization or Maryam have any other scenario to justify the dual deal?

Batool Soltani: it is a good point. In General, the organization had adopted a dual position concerning the immolations. You could easily make out two images of the victims; an image was to demonstrate them as holy individuals to fuel its propaganda machine and encourage others to take the same line, and the other, to put the responsibility of immolations on the victim themselves to dodge any charges against the organization. But, as you pointed out, the organization is clever enough not to err and prepares an exact scenario before stepping into action. To make Neda’s family to believe, for example, the organization forged a journal that it claimed belonged to Neda.

It contained some personal photos and some recollections from her family and friends and especially notes indicating her enthusiastic devotion and commitment to Maryam. Neda’s parents were simple people who could simply believe as if their daughter’s life was tied to Maryam and finally, they appeared to be convinced to show no reaction even if they could not believe it all at the bottom of their hearts.

At the end, they came to be persuaded that their daughter had committed suicide and they could change nothing for her loss. Then, the organization put two choices before them; to move in parallel with the organization’s scenario in glorification of their daughter’s death or take an opposite side and spoil everything and sully their daughter’s name. Facing such a dilemma, of course they preferred to consent to the organization’s will and follow its scenario. Thus, in spite of the fact that they might have discerned the contradiction in the organization’s manner, they faced the bitter truth that they could in no way change anything. Of course, I am not sure if Neda’s parents or other victims’ families had ever become aware of such contradiction. In any case, the organization had thought of a plan to ward off any criticism or charge. The first priority was to make them reconcile themselves to the organization through a variety of offers, threatening, deception and smearing the reputation. Each can be a different subject to talk about.

SFF: In relation to the approaches you pointed out, what could have been the reaction of the organization if Neda’s family took a different turn against it?

BS: Naturally, the organization would face a rocky road to ride but not impossible. It always had a trick up its sleeve and the best working one would be to classify them as the opponents. Everything would be clear then and the organization did to the family whatever it would do vis-à-vis its opponents. To mention, remember Reza Asadi the father of Zohreh Asdi. The father separated from the organization while his daughter is still a member. Or the case of Somayeh Muhammadi whose father strives to get his daughter out of Camp Ashraf. The least charge against them is that the organization has labeled them the agents of IR regime. The organization does everything to spoil their characters and indicting them for a variety of baseless charges of theft, immorality and the like.

Imagine a defector in its worst become the agent of the regime, it might be possible. But being so scoundrel an individual was impossible especially when he had served the organization for some time and they had disclosed nothing about such a rogue. Anything for the organization is either black or white, nothing in the middle. You have to be either on its side or the opposite against whom it has adopted an antagonist attitude to the end. Even if a defector had once been exalted as a hero, nothing can save him from the wrath of the organization by joining the opposite side.

I mean to say that it could be the same thing with the families if they failed to compromise with the organization. Only if it happened that Neda’s family had taken an antagonistic route against the organization, the first person who stood against the family would be their own son living in Ashraf. And only God knows what charge would be posed against them and they would be accused of what untold scandals; and it was enough to mobilize the sympathizers against them to disturb and annoy them and turn their life into a real hell.

The organization had always a coin with two sides at hand; a brilliant, alluring side and a hell of a bad side and I have seen the bad side abroad when it decided to treat the opponents. The simplest approach was to instigate hatred among the sympathizers and the opponents; there was nothing more to do but to sit and watch them finish the job themselves. For sure, the organization had shown the other side of the coin to Neda’s family and what it was capable of doing to change things completely; they could choose to become wretched, dejected people who could not even dare to visit their daughter’s tomb.

It is a tactic for the organization not to open a war front at the first stage and to arrive at a compromise through other approaches and promises. That is because it may inflict much cost on the organization and a longer process to follow if it shows an antagonistic attitude from the very beginning. Of course, there is a red line nobody should ever transgress; the sanctity of leadership, Maryam and organizational principles should never be violated. Now imagine Neda’s family had taken a different path and had fallen with the organization; their very first move to make preparation for their daughter’s burial and mourning would turn as a backlash against themselves and they would face accusations of being provisioned and provided for by Iranian regime and more.

An odd but common approach was to coerce members to endorse in their own handwriting that they had entrusted whatever they had to Massoud and Maryam, as I did myself. We put it in writing to announce we were possessions of the two and had willingly chosen our path of struggle and devotion. We also stated that our emotional communion with family and relatives was not a superficially common and limited but relatively ‘pardakhtgar’ (an organizational jargon meaning sacrificing all love and emotion for a greater cause).

Our real love and devotion all had to be spent for the accomplishment of higher and dearer causes and for Massoud and Maryam; they were the central integrity of all love and devotion and all families had to be grateful of entrusting the life of their children into the hands of the two. I am sure Neda too had signed such papers before committing immolation and had conceded her life and love to Maryam which could be used as a winning card before her family.

To be continued

October 5, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Neda’s family feeling obligated to the organization

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 23

Sahar Family Foundation: Remarkable in the immolation’s observation is the subject of the compare the organization’s indifference to Khata’s death and its manner and conduct with Neda’s family before and after her suicide operation. organization’s establishment of relation with the family of the victims. First, it is of significance to learn from what angle the organization does look at the families.

Second, how it opens relations with them; third, is the family background ever important to select the suicide, and forth, what deterrent role this family backgrounds plays to affect selection of the victims? And last, elucidate the impact of the 17 June self-burnings on families as you have witnessed.

Batool Soltani: Your questions although they all focus on a single issue, they can be discussed from a variety of aspects concerning the organization’s furthering relations with families. Let’s begin with some introductory details and I will further explain if needed. The organization keeps a confidential file for members with whatever ranking and organizational background in which there is certain sub-file containing information about the members’ family; the individual statistics of any family member, social class, job status, political inclinations and where they live, that is to say, inside or outside of Iran.

The latter information is highly important for the organization and it cares about the families’ dwelling in foreign countries. All supervisors were sensitive to find out if the members under their command had any member of their family residing in any foreign country.

It was much because the presence of a family member in a foreign country could be challenging and would cost the organization a lot. From a political-security point of view, they could possibly infiltrate the organization under any pretext to get it into trouble. As a result, members whose family or some member of their families lived abroad were suspected to be bonded with an infiltrator. I will explain how they could cause trouble. The organization became hypersensitive to families especially in the case of occurring suspicious deaths, suicide operations, missing of members and imprisonments and the like. When, for instance, a member like Soheil Khata died of a suspicious cause, the organization cared not the least because he had nobody abroad. Nobody knew he died of suicide or was murdered. His death was no cause of trouble because he had nobody abroad to question the organization, but it could be different if he had.

Now compare the organization’s indifference to Khata’s death and its manner and conduct with Neda’s family before and after her suicide operation. That is because Neda’s family lived abroad since long and they could push the organization into real crisis if they wanted and reacted against her death. So the organization mobilized all its power to bring her family under its control and, I believe, the organization had been in close contact with her family even before her self-immolation. It is even of magnitude to work first on her father or mother and I am sure they worked according to a scenario as I know that is how they act.

Here is the evidence to prove my claim. Following the immolations, Mozhgan Parsai stated that the immolations had inflicted heavy responsibility on the organization abroad. She meant Neda’s immolation with regard to her family’s living abroad could get the organization into big trouble and that calculated steps had to be taken when dealing with her family.

It was not important in the case of Marzieh Babakhani because she had nobody living abroad. Mozhgan insisted that all had to be mobilized to concentrate on Neda’s family and especially on her brother who was in Camp Ashraf. She issued additional orders to watch him directly and closely and to establish specific contact with him to further and justifiably clarify the issues. They in the organization know the right time for the right action through the proper means.

It is also of great concern in what country the families live, in England, France, Germany or any other European or non-European country. That is because the juridical systems in these countries could influentially affect the results of any lawsuit by the families against the organization. Remarkable in the organization’s ploy was Maryam’s showy behavior with Neda Hassani’s family. From the very beginning, Maryam started with a ceremoniously emotional demeanor and would weep tears in their presence to show her grief over her death. She wept for her and, at the same time, praised her spontaneous act in a show of her ultimate commitment to repudiate responsibility of her death and avert any lawsuit by her family.
The organization had even purchased gifts and presents to give her family on occasions. It moved just according to a preplanned scenario. Noteworthy in this entire affair was that all these factitious manners were filmed and photographed for widespread propaganda shows that were heavily reflected in the media.

SFF: Sorry to interrupt Ms. Soltani. Let’s continue the subject corroborated with your evidences in the next session. What were other issues the organization explicitly stressed on in relation to Neda’s family? Did they merely intend to gratify the family or implicitly made threatening to deter the family from engaging in any lawsuit against the organization?

BS: As I said, the organization mainly tried to persuade them that Nada’s immolation was not an organizationally persuaded action but impulsive. Of course all was implicitly stated otherwise it could imply organizational disobedience and Maryam was reluctant to use such terms directly. She rather meant to persuade the family that Neda’s death was the outcome of her great devotion and commitment to her leader and thus, on the one hand Neda would be the sole responsible for her own death and on the other hand, it would be Maryam who pocketed the merit of her action. Of course, Maryam showed so distraught with grief for Neda’s death that her parents who, impressed by Maryam’s performance, forgot about their own grieves and began to condole her on their own daughter’s death. Although it might be hard to believe and digest, but it really happened and the organization acted much cunningly in its role playing; to send an innocent to her death and then to sit weeping along with her family and then, not only escape trial on charges of her death but to make the family feel indebted to the murderer.

To be continued

October 3, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

17 June immolations, orchestrated or willful acts

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 22

Sahar Family Foundation: Ms. Soltani, significantly noticed in the course of the self-burnings was the TV coverage of the incidents; I mean the footages shot by the organization itself. It can be analyzed from different aspects especially when the organization claims immolations as willful and self-initiated acts. The very originally filmed scenes of the immolations prove that anything had been orchestrated beforehand. Will you give a further explanation of the outlook?

Batool Soltani: First I have to point out that I was not in the Europe at the time and saw noting directly. Whatever I impart is personal inferences. Concerning your question, it is explicit that the footages of the immolations were all filmed by the agents of the organization itself. The fact was accentuated in the internal meetings held in Camp Ashraf that it had been all filmed by the organization and distributed to a variety of foreign TV networks. Even they displayed the footages of Marzieh Babakhani and Mohsen Sharifi’s self-burnings and underlined it had all been filmed by the equipped agents of the organization. But they never said a word about it for the outsiders and claimed the footages were random TV reports filmed by other networks. Although they had done their best not to err, you could clearly identify the members in the frame of the camera.

Besides, there are other evidences to prove the footages were the work of the organization itself. Footages are usually licensed for a certain network and any second coverage carries the original licensed logo attached to it. It is natural since there exists a competition among the Western networks and agencies to have the leading role in an incident and to own the copyright on the footage; the footages of the self-burnings all lacked the licensed logo which proves the leading role of the organization in recording all scenes.

As soon as a member sets himself/herself on fire, the camera starts recording and it is exactly positioned where it had to. The big mistake made by the organization is that the scenes are all filmed by professional hand recorders rather than ordinary cameras or mobiles, which reduces the possibility of any random record.

The used sophisticated equipments proved that it was also a simultaneously orchestrated operation. It is strange to see someone walk to gas station to procure gasoline and then march to a certain location where he sets himself on fire; nobody ever think of it as a random shot, it is a film making. How people may come to believe the claims of the organization that the immolations were unplanned but self-initiated is too amazing. No doubt, they were exactly pre-planned and followed a written scenario. Another point to notice is the reflection of these operations outside of the organization.

After her release, Maryam Rajavi claimed the French police had prevented distribution of a prepared videotaped message in which she had asked members to cease self-burnings. The claim seems to be true since termination of an action is possible when you have issued orders for its commence. No member dared to engage in any act unless authorized and approved by the leader but no outsider had a clear image of internal affairs; they had to be kept in dark about the plans to prevent further negative costs and consequences. As you saw, in the course of some held trials in European courts, they could convince the court about the voluntariness of decisions.

There are other evidences that support the idea of organizationally schemed operations. To enumerate them, the first is the widespread TV coverage of the incidents; the authentic record of events is clear and widely distributed while each is filmed in a certain part of the Europe. The second is the vast propaganda blitz they staged following the operations, and second, and the most important, is Rajavi’s message mainly focusing on the operations and referring to the victims by names. Last but not the least, there are evidences of the organization’s past threats.

I remember Massoud and Maryam once threatened the French government of staging self-burning operations which was endorsed by many members who volunteered in the letters of the ideological revolution. They would read these letters to us in the course of training classes. As Rajavi stated in one of his speeches, the identical aspect in all these letters was volunteering for self-immolation. Thus, there remains no doubt that the operations were all organizationally orchestrated and aimed to achieve certain goals.

SFF: A question to ask, had all these self-burnings been planned to kill or the priority was laid on the propaganda and political aspects of the operations? Is it possibly justifiable that the organization had already promised members that it would interrupt to survive them immediately as soon as they had staged the operations?

BS: I know nothing of these details in particular. If they had resolved on such a policy, it would have been worked out in councils out of Auvers-sur-Oise. I cannot exactly impart anything.

SFF: Well. In your opinion, is it of any significance for the organization to focus on the political aspects and convince the members that it never lets anybody get harmed but betrays them in practice and sends them to their death?

BS: I do not think it is a proper angle to look from since there is actually no need for the organization to make such preparations. When members volunteer to risk their life, it means they have given their final acquiescence to die. There is no need to trick them and nobody hesitates to set himself on fire when the command is issued. It is possible that the organization decides to limit the killings to one or two but there might come times when the span of propagation borders no limitation and the circumstances require further continuation of the operations. The momentous approach the organization utilizes to overcome its crises is directly risking the life of the members.

As a result, it has the upper hand in having a particular situation in its own control by sending multitudes of victims to their death. If ever it discriminates in favor of a ranking member and makes an attempt to save him/her, that is because of his/her organizational status and has nothing to do ever with caring for the humane attitudes and the victim’s individual values. Still, the organization regretted the attempts made for the survived. Marzieh Babakhani was badly burned when they smothered the fire and she was a pitiful creature to look at with all those burns that had damaged her face and hands. She was badly deformed and suffered a lot and it was disputed why she had been allowed to live and they openly wished she had died.

SFF: Have you seen the photos of these operations’ victims?

BS: Neither themselves nor their photos. They said the doctors had failed to treat them well and from the bulk of their propaganda it could be discerned that the victims had made a great impression. Once Mozhgan (Parsai) applauded Marzieh saying she was a living martyr of the organization. She would say Neda and Sediqeh had passed away once for ever but Marzieh was suffering and dying in any moment. It is easy to picture how emotionally they impressed the members and alleviate the psychological and physical agonies of the victims.

To be continued

September 29, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

17 June immolations and the test of commitment

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 21

Sahar Family Foundation: What impact did immolations have on the relations within Camp Ashraf, and what objectives did the organization aim to achieve in particular?

Batool Soltani: The impact was widespread and it can be studied from a variety of angles. One was to promulgate and propagate the incident through a variety of means like video-clips, music, plays and TV programs. To impress the members, they had collected many old, impressive and devotionally themed music and songs and made new compositions that were then mixed with self-burning clips that were repeatedly displayed in dining halls and canteens.

To be a volunteer of suicide operations motivated in any form defined a high parameter for organizational promotion

The ends they strived for were to provoke and encourage members to identify with the models, to eulogize victims as heroes and heroines, to create a sense of self-criticism for failing to fully fulfill obligations, to coerce them to increase their frequent attendances of weekly hold sessions of ablution and confession to outpour what passed inside them, and above all, to frustrate formation of and doubt and question concerning the operations themselves.

In such an emotively moving atmosphere nobody dared to propound any question or utter any raised doubt; any logic and challenge had to be stifled and critics had no choice but to act in accordance with the whole climate. One interesting point to mention, the members were indirectly encouraged to register as volunteers for suicide operations and apply to burn themselves to death. They also arranged especial sessions to carry out a survey of opinions to have an assessment of the percentage of the volunteers for the operations at the time of Maryam’s arrest.

It was important for the organization to have an exact assessment of members’ allegiance whether to the organization or other external factors. The sessions were organized so cleverly that the attendants unconsciously uttered their internal reflections. To be a volunteer of suicide operations motivated in any form defined a high parameter for organizational promotion, but of further importance was the degree of organizational loyalty and commitment.

As the prerequisite for membership following the so-called ideological revolution was preparedness for death and suicide; to volunteer for operations worked only as a gauge of ideological, political and organizational commitment. The decrees of organization were the laws everybody was obliged to obey with no question; it was the first organizational principle. In the case of the June 17, it was a test of members’ loyalty and commitment.

I remember members who insisted to set themselves on fire at the time but the organization somehow convinced them that their deed was of no use. However, some were displeased of the antagonistic attitude and sought to execute their willingness. If they succeeded, it would question the organizational principle. Of the greater priority was obedience and the one who set himself on fire when unauthorized by the organization would be assessed a defiant.

Regardless of the nature of the defiance, the organization was concerned about its generalization which could cost it irreparable damage. In fact, all was a test of a critical article of the ideological revolution to assess its degree of reliability in the face of any similar crisis. We have already talked about the articles of the ideological revolution and Rajavi’s stabilized status as an ideological leader whose commands had to be consciously and unquestionably obeyed.

The volunteers of self-burning first had to request permission of Massoud and Maryam for the act, a signification of absolute submission to leadership. Any form of disobedience, even unauthorized suicide and sacrifice, was condemned since it could be a possible challenge against organizational principle and had to be strongly confronted.

A practical, regular and invisible assessment of members’ obedience, chiefly at such critical junctures, well identified the potentiality of overcoming a crisis in the future. In fact, it was not the multitudes of volunteers for sacrifice or the passive but the level and amount of obedience. Of course, nobody was aware of the real intention behind all these, otherwise the plan failed altogether.

SFF: What was the main source to break the news of immolations? I mean, was it important for them to be the sole breakers of the news or quote it from other news agencies?

BS: The first channel of information was the Resistance TV but the organization did not mind if other known news agencies covered the news. But the problem was that all information channeled to Ashraf were biased and direct access to original sources of information was prohibited and was highly controlled. It was mostly because the organization behaved in anomalous way with some media and believed they were the mouthpiece of imperialism and the enemies in shadow.

However, some of these agencies were known to be the sole reliable source of information and the organization could not neglect their role in global information exchange. Wherever there were concordance between its own news and that of the agencies, the organization did not hesitate to blow them up to get desired results. However, they received the least attention if their information failed to side with the organization. BBC, for instance, was and is one of those news agencies the organization has despised above all, and that is why you hardly encounter any of the agency’s news and information quoted and reflected by the organization.

Its open hostility towards BBC is based mainly on a once description of the agency by Shamloo that has continued so far, and the organization is really desperate what to do when the agency releases news when it is preciously to its advantage. Suppose, BBC covers one of Maryam’s political visits and meeting while taking an impartial stand and no further analysis. It is an ample opportunity to grab at and to exert the propaganda impact, but the organization shows no direct excitement and quotes the news along with vituperative attacks directed at BBC.

In many cases, the organization applied a clever propaganda technique and aired its own distributed information quoted from well-known news agencies and TV networks for greater impact and desired propaganda advantages. On the one hand, the organization could convince the insiders of Ashraf that it was the center of global political and media attention and on the other hand, it took advantage of exposing its capacity as an alternative. In fact, apart from its attempts to repel the French government, the organization had entirely aimed to be the focus of the global media and to influence the news headlines for some time.

It appeared that domination of the mass media was more serious than Maryam’s release, it is a fact that can be well understood by the amount of the reports and news reflected by the media throughout the world. A look at the organization’s own media at that time and later reveals that it had designated a big bulk of its propaganda space, both cyber and non-cyber, for the reflection of the relevant issues and news and did not spare to stick even at the trifles. The origin of these news was often the organization itself and most often used them quoted from other news agencies; as it benefitted the effect of media coverage on the incidents of 17 June immolations.

To be continued

September 27, 2009 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MKO Abuse of Neda and Sedigheh’s death

An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Parts nineteen-twenty

Sahar Family Foundation: Maryam’s release was the cause for the celebrations held in Auvers and Ashraf and we observed a variety of programs aired by Mojahedin’s TV. The programs noticeably purported to introduce new spirit and concepts, the performance of new dances including a mystical dance in particular. Or magnification of signs and patterns that significantly denoted concepts of the ideological revolution, like that of sacrifice and devotion. What is your idea about these programs and what ends had the organization aimed to achieve?

Batool Soltani: I saw the programs you mentioned. To answer your question, I have to begin with a retrospect. Although it may seem irrelevant to the issue of self-immolations, it may explain origination and introduction of these innovations in the organization. I remember the first performance of Marzieh, an old Iranian diva, in Camp Ashraf. It was really an unexpected shock.

Until then, talking about any form of music, concert and singer was a taboo. Besides, nobody would ever think that in such an atmosphere of militarism overwhelmed by the smell of blood,
powder and gun music could be of any use and effect. Marzieh’s presence and performance in the camp changed the mind-set and the organization began to look at it as a working instrument.

It happened at a time when the organization had been disarmed and members had a lot of free time since there were no arms and, consequently, no heavy maintenance demands on them. Here, the organization resolved to replace new vehicles to keep the very same struggle morale among the forces. Art, an especially music, showed an appropriately working instrument for the purpose.

On the other hand, the organization strived to display a different profile for the West and that it had undergone a modernized change within and without. In fact, the organization keeps a tenacious hold on art and music to serve it for ideological instructions and to fulfill its purpose in the very same way it utilized arms and other means of violenve. The incidents of 17 June, self-immolations and the subsequent death of Neda and Sediqeh was the best granted opportunity to render the whole operation and the dead a legend through art and particularly focuses on the mystical dance. To make saints out of the two, art worked better and beyond any direct, long preach and ideological lecture.

Of course, these mystical programs were exclusively performed in Camp Ashraf because of the dominant ideological atmosphere there. Unlike Camp Ashraf, in Auvers-sur-Oise it was the common, modern music and songs sung by Iranian Los Angelino singers that prevailed. In France and in the midst of the modern, world mystical dances could communicate no effect; it was all western dances, Rock, Pop, Hard and similar music.

The Ashraf residents were the scapegoats ready to be sacrificed and they had to be kept ideologically ready and prepared for suicide operations. Those in the Europe were either spear carriers, who had to be appeased, or leading rankings who, naturally, had the responsibility of setting up the background for the victims. The art in Ashraf was a means to enhance the sense of devotion and sacrifice and you can explicitly notice the implied concepts in the style of the dances, the rhythm, decoration and design.

Hardly can anybody come out without the performance having made a heavy impression on him. In many cases, the members wished they had been in the place of Neda and Sediqeh in self-burnings. Such an impressive climate could not be created in any other way but through art and music and it was the force of music to meet organizational objectives that enticed Rajavi to change his mind, notwithstanding he cared not in the least for the art that serves the art itself. As at the present you are mainly focusing on the issue of immolation, I think the given details suffice.

SFF: you restated the death of Neda and Sediqeh. Will you please talk about the impact of their operations on the organization from any angle you look at it?

BS: To look at it from the best angle, it was the attempt to mythicize their death and consecrate them as saints and legendry heroines. Multitudes of poems, elegies and songs as well as the already mentioned mystical dances were composed and manipulated to justify the wounded and the dead of the immolation operations and to fashion archetypes for others to follow.

Here the aesthetics of art no further served to glorify the beauties of life but death in its most ugly and abominable form, self-burning. The function of art was converted here; to die for the ideals is evaluated a fair, worthy death, but to die for an egoist who believes in no humanistic ideal value but absolute autocracy is to become the victim of a cruel and unfair hoax.

How they infuse these teachings into the organization is a different discussion. In Camp Ashraf, for example, the first to enshrine them as legendry heroines was Mozhgan (Parsai). Of course, before she began the show off, Massoud had called to eulogize them as devotees who had proved their ideological truthfulness. Although he believed that members had shirked their organizational responsibilities towards Maryam, he began to extol Neda and Sediqeh and other hospitalized members as heroes who had transcended human limits.

They had reached, he stated, the summit of selflessness where they could easily engage themselves in feats that was hard or impossible for others to do. The people enslaved by their selves with no bond to a secure source of attachment would end to a wasteland while people like Neda and Sediqeh who depended on a safe and reliable guide like Maryam could easily brave any struggle and risk. For someone disenchanted self-burning is a deprecated suicide while for someone attached to a source of solace it is a spiritual act leading to salvation. One dissolved in the leadership did everything, even risked his life, to protect and save his/her life through any means.

Rajavi’s moralizations all came after the immolation incidents through cassettes in which he acknowledged ten other members who had set themselves on fire one by one. Then it was Mozhgan’s turn to comment on Rajavi’s statements and suggested to build a monument for the two martyred inside the camp. Thus, trough a clever pattern of conspiracy, they produced iconic archetypes and models; they named buildings and streets after them, made symbolic monuments, mounted their pictures on the walls everywhere and so forth.

Sahar Family Foundation: The consequences of the 17 June incidents were each causes for further arguments. But, let’s first ask how long did Maryam Rajavi’s detention by the French police last?

Batool Soltani: I cannot tell exactly, but I think nearly twenty days altogether. But it seems one year when you consider about what ensued from her detention. I think she was released on July 2, 8 in the morning.

SFF: Well, after her release, what message did she specifically deliver?

BS: She claimed that while in detention, she had prepared a few messaged that they had prevented to be sent out, including a videotaped message addressed to members in Europe and Ashraf residents to cease self-immolations.

It was what she said in her first delivered speech after her release. Another consequent event was a held celebration for freedom in Auvers in which the members of the Leadership Council and a number of local residents of Auvers-sur-Oise took part. She distributed flowers and made a speech and many boys and girls chanted and danced on the street outside.

We saw all these on the TV but we had also our celebration simultaneously inside Ashraf with the difference that the celebrations in Auvers displayed a modern, happy and joyful performance while in Ashraf it was more similar to a mystical-style ritual.

To be continued

September 23, 2009 0 comments

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