Story

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

The letter of Hossein Ghadimi to his captive brother Morteza Ghadimi in the MEK camp

Hossein Ghadimi from Darsjin, a village in Zanjan Province, Iran, is the brother of Morteza Ghadimi member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq. For years with his mother and other family members, He has been passionately and non-stop pursuing his brother’s release from Rajavi’s captivity. His last letter to his brother is as follows:

My dear brother Morteza,
I don’t know why the MEK leaders don’t allow the letters sent by the families to reach you?! Although we are aware that Rajavi is afraid of free communication even in the form of an emotional letter, we express our feelings and emotions to you by continuously sending letters that we know you are not allowed to reach.
We will never get tired because we believe that despite the numerous obstacles and restrictions built by the MEK leaders, you will finally be able to view the our letter on the Internet, on Nejat Society website.

My dear brother,
You know better than me that there is no bright future for the MEK and its leaders. After the incident of June 30, this year, it became clear to each and every one of you that Maryam Rajavi is using you as a human shield around herself. I hope that you hesitate and eventually will change your life path by getting rid of Rajavi’s hellish cult ending this long-time separation.
In the hope of your freedom

Your brother Hossein

November 15, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The Albanian News 24 TV Channel interviews Ali Zamani

Ali Asghar Zamani is a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and the current member of the Nejat Society office in Albania called Nejat Albania.
He managed to escape the group camp on Thursday, September 14th, 2023.

Zamani joined the MEK in 2003, together with his family –his wife, son and daughter—because the MEK agents had promised him to transfer them from Iraq to Europe and help them find a good job and a happy life there.

But soon he realized that he was deceived; the MEK did not provide them any possibility to go to Europe and get asylum there. Instead, all the family were separated from each other. They could hardly ever see each other.
News 24; the Albanian 24-hour news television channel has recently interviewed Ali Zamani on his experiences with the MEK. The Albanian Balkan Web also published a report on the interview. The
report reads:

Ali Asghar Zamani

“I escaped from the Manza camp after 20 years”, the confession of the former mujahedin: Here’s what happens inside

The Iranian Mujahideen, otherwise known as the “Iranian opposition”, have been in exile for a long time.
The Iranian People’s Mujahideen Organization (MEK) was founded in Iran in 1965 by a group of radical students who combined Marxism and Islam.
Although there are no exact official data, the number of Mujahideen sheltering in the Manza camp is thought to be 3,500.

Ali Zamani is a former Mujahed who was able to escape from the Manza camp after 20 years of being in the MEK.

In an interview with moderator Çenkuela Hasa, he revealed how he became part of this organization, his escape and his new life in Tirana.
He told FitStation on News24 all the experiences of these years.

“In the beginning, I joined the MEK with the idea that our path alongside this organization was towards Europe or America, but I soon realized that this was not true.

I entered the MEK with my wife and two children, they forced us to separate because for them family did not exist, the men lived separately and the women separately. For 20 years, I watched the boy only from afar and could never speak to him inside the camp, while I never saw my ex-wife again after we entered the camp. It still continues to be there. MEK controls everything, psychological pressure was the hardest part, to control thoughts, actions. I am happy that I was able to escape after 20 years” – said the former Mujahedeen.

November 13, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MEK defectors, Shahbaz and Soleimani were released from Karrec

On November 8th, 2023, Mehdi Soleimani and Hassan Shahbaz Hosseini, who were detained in the Karrec refugee camp in Albania for almost a year, were released, Nejat Society Albania reported. They are defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and members of Nejat Society Albania.

MEK defectors, Shahbaz and Soleimani were released from Karrec

Shahbaz and Soleimani were detained almost a year ago. According to Nejat Albania, after proving that all accusations were invalid, they were released unconditionally.

According to the report, these guys never gave up. They refused to sign the paper to announce that they allegedly voluntarily leave Albania.

MEK defectors at Nejat Albania Office

Last year six former members of the MEK were detained as illegal refugee. Four of them had been released earlier. Nejat Society Albania express its gratefulness to defense attorney Irwin Grabova and the authorities of the Albanian government, who finally released these innocent Iranians.

November 11, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The story of a single Mujahed father and his three sons

Having been forced by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to divorce his wife, Heidar Babai had to raise his three kids alone. He left the MEK in the early 1990s because he did not agree to divorce his wife, Nasrin Yunesi. Massoud Rajavi had ordered all married members of the group to divorce their spouses. A few years later Rajavi ordered members to give their children over to the MEK human traffickers to smuggle them to Europe and North America.

Nasrin and Heidar had two children, Hammed and Hamaad when they left Iran to join the MEK in Iraq. Under the order of the group, first, Heidar left his wife and two sons for Iraq and went there through Pakistan border. Then, Nasrin and Hamaad were smuggled to Iraq by the MEK agents. The MEK agent had coerced Nasrin to leave the six-year-old Hamed in Iran.

Heidar was in the MEK’s camp in Iraq when he talked to Nasrin on the phone, and he found out that Hamed was not with her. He shouted at the poor woman who was already mourning for her older son. “I shouted at Nasrin,” Heidar writes in his memoirs, “But I knew that it was not her fault. She was in that path because of me.”

Heidar Babaei and his three sons

Once, Heidar, Nasrin and Hamaad gathered in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, they could maintain their family center for a while. Heidar and Nasrin used to work in different units of the MEK army, Hamaad was kept in the buildings established for Mujahedin’s children. At night, they would stay with each other in their room in Eskan buildings.

In July 1988, Heidar took part in Forough-e Javidan, the MEK’s cross border operation against Iran, financially and logistically supported by Saddam Hossein. He was seriously wounded, hospitalized for several months. It took him a long time to be allowed to call Nasrin. Nasrin was crying, she could not believe her ears. She had been told by the commanders that her husband was killed.

Forough-e Javidan was a catastrophic defeat for Massoud Rajavi who had the illusion to capture Tehran in three days. He wanted to justify his failure not by his logical thinking but by blaming members for being preoccupied by wife and life!
Therefore, the order for forced divorce was issued. Heidar did not obey the order. He kept on seeing Nasrin and Hemaad. For a short period of time, they were the only family who would still go to Eskan to be together at nights. He had to walk a long distance in dark to reach Eskan. Nasrin got pregnant with her third son, Pooyan, but the MEK leaders did not let Heidar know about it. They forced Nasrin to stop the family visits.

Following the order, a lot of the MEK members announced their willingness to leave the group. It was not just a simple request to leave a normal group. In order to leave the cult-like structure of the group, members had to be indoctrinated, punished, imprisoned and if none of the tactics succeeded, they were surrendered to Iraqi authorities. Heidar was lucky to be able to gain a passport for himself and his family, but ultimately he had to leave Iraq without Nasrin and Pooyan.

A few months took Heidar and his second son Hamaad to reach Netherlands. They lived in refugee camps. At the time, Massoud Rajavi had issued his second order to totally collapse MEK families. This time, he had ordered the separation of children from their parents. Nasrin had to leave the two-months-old Pooyan to MEK human traffickers. They had taken him to Netherlands, but the MEK authorities did not want to give the boy to his uncle Siroos who lived there.

Heidar made efforts to get his little son back. The poor baby was left with a MEK female defector who wanted to use him to take refuge from Dutch government. His brother, Siroos could finally take the baby. When Heidar reached Netherlands and saw his son for the first time, named him Pooyan.

The single father and his two sons had to stay in a refugee camp for two years. He was then given a house by the government. His efforts to contact Nasrin in the MEK was totally futile. “Each time I tried to contact her via the MEK offices, she would call me in a few days and would insult me,” he recounts. “This was not my Nasrin, the love of my life. She was always polite; she would never shout at me. I was sure that she was under pressure by the MEK to make me stop looking for her.”

The next step for Heidar was the reunion of Hamed who had been left wandering among his dad’s and mom’s relatives in Iran, for six years. Heidar went to Turkey, he organized Hamed’s departure from Iran. He paid too much money to get Hamed’s passport to take him to his home in the Netherlands.

Now he was responsible for raising three sons who missed their mother very much. “My sons always miss their mother,” he writes. “Especially Pooyan who has never seen her. I was the only father who would take his son at school. Pooyan always witnessed other children whose mothers were waiting for them.”

Today, Heidar’s sons are grown up, but Nasrin is not allowed to visit them yet. She is still barred from the outside world in the MEK’s headquarters in Albania, called Ashraf 3. “I am sure that Nasrin has no access to the Internet,” Heidar writes. “She has not been able to read my memoirs, but the MEK has brought her to their TV channel to show me that she has no intention to leave the group, but I know that she is kept there against her will.”

November 8, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

How the Cult of Rajavi works according to Steven Hassan

If you think that cults are merely traps for gullible and weak-minded people, Steven Hassan would urge you to reconsider. The mind control expert is the author of Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults. He’s also a former member of the Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church cult.

Based on Hassan’s lived experience and research, a destructive cult is dishonest from the beginning. Destructive cults always lie to new members about their true intentions, according to Hassan. This is a very repeated pattern in the stories of defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ Cult of Rajavi).

Just for instance, a large number of former members of the MEK have been recruited to join the MEK in Iraq when they were working in neighboring countries of Iran and were dreaming of having a better life in Europe. The MEK’s recruiters never told them that they would join a political military cult. Instead, they promised to help the targeted folks immigrate to Europe to have their dream life and they should just stay in the MEK’s camp for a while. The victims had no idea that they would end with an isolated destructive cult that would coerce them to leave all their belongings behind and stay there for their whole life.

“You might think you’re getting a free dinner,” Hassan says, “you’re learning a self-help technique. You don’t realize that the goal is to get you to sign up for a week course. Then it’s a two-week course, a six-month course. And then they want you to divorce your wife, give over your assets, and work for no money.”

This is exactly what happened to thousands of MEK members. As the most recent defector of the Cult of Rajavi, Ali Asghar Zamani’s involvement with the group follows the same pattern that Hassan states. Ali Asghar Zamani, his wife and their two children were recruited by the MEK agents, in 2003. The Zamanis did not have any idea that they were going to Iraq to the military Camp Ashraf. The MEK agents had promised them immigration to Europe to build a happy life there. But, for years their destination was the isolated camp in Iraqi deserts where the family fell apart. Ali and his wife were forced to divorce. His initial resistance against this order did not work. His wife was finally separated from him. Their 17-year-old son was coerced to wear military uniform and their little daughter was taken back to Iran. Since then, they could hardly ever see each other. “During the 20 years of membership in the MEK, I could see my son four or five times, from long distance,” he recounts. Zamani escaped the MEK’s camp in Albania, called Ashraf 3, last month.

Steven Hassan believes that there are some warning signs of a destructive cult that people should watch out for. Based in research and theory from leading expert psychologists and scholars who’ve studied brainwashing, “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. These mind control techniques work because, according to Hassan while you’re getting indoctrinated, your critical faculties are getting worn away. That might be through hypnosis, food or sleep deprivation, or forcing them to cut off contact with friends and family. In the MEK all these tools are used except hypnosis.

The way BITE works is explained by Hassan:

flag ceremony at Camp Ashraf,Wednesday Jan 29 1997,

Behavior Control

A group member dictates where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates with, or isolates them from others.
They regulate your diet through forced fasting.
They manipulate a person and deprive them of sleep.
They practice financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence.
They impose rigid rules and regulations.
Instances in the MEK: Rules of a destructive cult with para-military attitudes dominate the MEK. Forced unpaid labor, sleep deprivation, forced dress code, forced hijab for female members are only a few of these suppressive rules.

Information control

They practice deception (by deliberately withholding or distorting information, and/or lying).
They minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information (TV, internet, former members, and so on).
They make extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda (YouTube, newsletters, movies and other media).
Instances in the MEK: Mobile phone is forbidden in the MEK. The Internet is allowed to only a few of high-ranking members. All defectors of the MEK start to learn who to use a smart phone after they escape the group’s camp.

the MEK members in an confession session

Thought control

They require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth (black-and-white, good vs evil thinking).
They change a person’s name and identity.
They use loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts, and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.
They employ hypnotic techniques to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and age-regress the member.
Instances in the MEK: Most members of the MEK have pseudonyms. Questioning about the leaders’ decisions and strategies is not accepted. If you criticize the group’s leaders and cause you are considered enemy and so you deserve to be punished. Thinking is forbidden, let alone critical thinking.

Emotional control

They manipulate and narrow the range of feelings—some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.
They teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt.
They make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.
They instill fear, such as fear of the outside world, enemies, leaving or being shunned by the group.
Instances in the MEK: In the MEK love is forbidden. Members of the group are not allowed to miss their normal life outside Ashraf. Having feelings for their family and friends causes them to be the subject of punishment for the crime they committed: They have thought of wife and life! As a member of the Cult of Rajavi you must regard your family as your enemy.

By Mazda Parsi

November 4, 2023 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization

UNESCO researcher: MEK does not have widespread public backing in Iran

While the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) claims that its so-called “resistance units” are active all over Iran to push the overthrow of the Iranian government, independent researchers and journalists have always stated that the group lacks public support in Iran.

Zaynab Malakouti Khah is an Iranian researchers at UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy of Shahid Beheshti University. She graduated from Iran in 2012 with a First-Class in Law and obtained an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Reading, UK. She has published several articles and a book on human rights, international law, Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Financing.

In September 2018, her article titled “Iran: Sponsoring or Combating Terrorism?” was published by Studies in Conflict and Terrorism journal. In a part of the article under the subtitle “Iran as a victim of terrorist attacks”, the author presents a fairly comprehensive and independent outlook on the MEK. The following is that part proceeded by its references:

Iran as a victim of terrorist attacks
Dissident nationalist terrorism

Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, various groups opposed Ayatollah Khomeini. The leading opposition group was the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), with a background in Marxist and Islamist interpretations. The MEK survived the test of time and developed into the most disciplined armed organization opposing the Islamic Republic.23 The MEK was established in 1965 in opposition to the Shah and the United States. It targeted U.S. civilians and military personnel, supporting the U.S. embassy hostage-taking in Tehran.24 Following the 1979 Revolution, although the MEK first endorsed Ayatollah Khomeini, they later attempted to overthrow the government but failed and fled to Paris and then Iraq.25 Members of MEK sought refuge in Camp Ashraf near the Iran–Iraq border and were financially and militarily supported by the regime of Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq. From 1980 to 2003 (when MEK’s weapons were confiscated by the U.S. intervention mission in Iraq),26 they carried out several terrorist attacks in both Iran and on Iranian interests in other countries.27 Selected attacks by the MEK included the bombing of the Islamic Republic Party Headquarters (1981), which led to the death of approximately seventy high-ranking officials; attacks on diplomats (1987 and 1994); an explosion in the Imam Reza Mausoleum (1989); attacks on thirteen Iranian embassies around the world (1992); the Presidential Palace; the Defense Ministry and military bases (2000);and a motor attack on the Supreme Court and other governmental buildings (2001).28

In retaliation, the MEK’s members were executed in prison,29 the total execution toll is difficult to estimate[..]. The MEK had been designated as a terrorist group by the United States,33 United Kingdom,34 and European Union (EU). However, it was removed from their blacklists in 2012, 2008, and 2009, respectively, due to the curtailment of terrorist activities.35 Iran condemned the delisting of the MEK and highlighted the Western double standards on terrorism.36 The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, condemned the U.S. methods of separating “good” and “bad” terrorists, asserting that this “shows terrorism is bad if terrorists are not America’s servants, but if terrorists become America’s servants, then they are not bad.”37 The supporters of the MEK still believe that the organization is capable of replacing the current regime,38 and it continues to have some powerful Western supporters.39 Regardless of the U.S. and the Western support for the MEK, 40 as a group that carried out terrorist activities, it does not have widespread public backing in Iran. They have killed dozens of civilians, and a Human Rights Watch report indicates violations of human rights inside the organization, ranging from detention of its members who wish to leave the organization to torture. 41

References:
23. Ervand Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,1989), 1.
24. Ibid., 126.
25. Ibid., 216–219.
26. Andrew T. H. Tan, The Politics of Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2006), 187.
27. Abrahamian, The Iranian Mojahedin, 221; Saeed Hakimiha, “siyasat-i Jinayi Iran darQibal-i Mubarizih ba Tirurism,” Majalih-i siyasat-i Difayi 19, no. 76 (2011): 77; Anthony H. Cordesman and Adam G. Seitz, Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Birth of a Regional Nuclear Arms Race? (Washington, DC: Centre for Strategic and International Studies, 2009), 326–327.
28. Jeremiah Goulka et al., eds., The Mujahedin-e-Khalq in Iraq: A Policy Conundrum (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009), 80–89.
29 Amnesty International Organisation, “Iran: Violation of Human Rights 1987–1990.” https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/200000/mde130211990e (accessed 12 September 217).
30 Reza Afshari, Human Rights in Iran: The Abuse of Cultural Relativism (Philadelphia: University Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 114.
31 Ibid., 48–57.
32 Amnesty International Organisation, “Iran: Violation of Human Rights 1987–1990.”
33 People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran v. Department of State and Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State, 01-1465; 01-1476; United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 9 May 2003; National Council of Resistance of Iran v. Department of State and Colin L. Powell, Secretary of State, No. 01-1480; United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 9 July 2004.
34 Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) order 2—1 SI 2001/1261, and Secretary of State for the Home Department v. Lord Alton of Liverpool and Others [2008] EWCA Civ 443, United Kingdom: Court of Appeal (England and Wales), 7 May 2008.
35 In 2012, the MEK was delisted from the U.S. terrorist list due to the confirmed absence of terrorist activities by the group. U.S. Department of State, “Delisting of the Mujahedin-e Khalq,” Department of State, 28 September 2012. www.state.gov/j/ct/ris/other/des/266607.htm (accessed 9 July 2017). Britain’s Court of Appeal ordered the government to revoke the terrorist designation, because from 2001 no military activity had been carried out by the MEK. (Secretary of State for the Home Department v Lord Alton of Liverpool [2008] EWCA Civ 443). There followed the Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2008, SI 2008\ 1645. In 2009, the EU removed the MEK from the terror list because of the lack of two conditions for being a terrorist group, including “serious and reliable evidence or clue” (Article 1(4) of the Common Position 2001/931/CFSP), and “committing, or attempting to commit, practicing in or facilitating the commission of any act of terrorism” (Article 2(3) of the Regulation 2580/2001).
36 “Iran Condemns US for Double Standards Over MEK Terror De-Listing,” The Guardian, 29 September 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/29/iran-condemns-us-mek-terror-delisting (accessed 12 September 2017).
37 Gawdat Bahgat, “United States-Iranian Relations: The Terrorism Challenge,” Parameters 38, no. 4 (2008): 102.
38 Keith Crane, Rollie Lal, and Jeffrey Martini, Iran’s Political Demographic and Economic Vulnerabilities (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008), 28.
39 See: R (Lord Carlile) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2014] UKSC 60.
40 People Mojahedin Organisation of Iran, “Grand Gathering of the Iranian Opposition in Paris,” 30 June 2018, http://english.mojahedin.org/i/grand-gathering-the-iranian-opposition-paris-2018 (accessed 1 July 2018).
41. Human Rights Watch, “No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the Mojahedin-e Khalq Camps,” Human Right Watch, 2005. https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/iran0505.pdf (accessed 13 July 2017); and “U.S. Terrorism Report: MEK and Jundallah,” Iran Primer, 23 August 2011. http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2011/aug/23/us-terrorism-report-mek-and-jundallah (accessed 11 August 2017)

November 1, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Family of the MEK hostage assure him of their love

The website of the Mujahedin Khalq has published an article allegedly written by Hassan Shabanpour. As it is usual in the MEK propaganda system, the so-called writer of the article has condemned his family as agents of the Iranian government. Following the publication of such a letter, Hassan’s brother, KaramAli Shabanpour sent a video message to Nejat Society to denounce the tricks used by the MEK leaders in order to maintain their members in their camp.

Hassan Shaabanpour was a soldier fighting for Iran during the Iran-Iraq war when in 1988 was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces. He was then kidnapped from Iraq POW camps by the MEK recruiters. Since then, he has been taken as a hostages in the MEK.

His father QanbarAli and his five siblings have made efforts during over 3 decades to visit or contact Hassan. When the MEK was located in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, the Shabanpours traveled to Iraq several times but the MEK commanders did not allow them to visit Hassan. “In response to our demands to visit our beloved brother, they threw rocks at us,” his brother says.

The family of Hassan Shabanpour kept on taking actions to find a way to contact Hassan. They have so far published several open letters to the Albanian authorities and to international human rights officials asking for aid to release their loved son from the MEK. That is why they have become a special target of the MEK’s hostility against families.

“According to what I know about my brother, the article has nothing to do with him,” says KaramAli in the video message. “Considering the organizational pressures and the unavailability of outside news, I doubt that he knows about the issues of the day. Rajavi’s mercenaries are trying to insert an article in their websites in the name of my brother. They use it as a chain on his feet, so that he does not think of leaving the organization someday. Using these tricks and deceptions, they are trying to prevent him from leaving.”

He continues, “As his brother and as the representative of his family, I declare our love and support for Hassan. The nonsense the MEK propaganda says does not prevent us from claiming our right and from loving our brother.”

October 30, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Grown up in the MEK, my therapists shed tears for me

The stories of children of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) can be documented as evidence of the existence of abusive practices and maltreatment in the group. All children of Mujahed parents are more or less survivors of traumatic experiences. However, not all of them find the courage to recount their sufferings after leaving the cult-dominated atmosphere. The most recently published account is that of Atefeh Sebdani whose traumatic childhood has even moved her therapists.

The story of Atefeh is so touching that her therapists could not help displaying compassion what is not so normal during the healing process. “How could she help me when she did not know which trauma she should work on?” Atefeh asked in an interview with the Iranian researcher Farah Shilandri.

Atefeh Sebdani published her autobiography, “My hand in mine” a few months ago in Sweden where she and her two brothers were smuggled by the MEK agents over three decades ago. Together with seven hundred children of the MEK, they had been separated from their parents and trafficked to Europe and North America under the order of Massoud Rajavi, leader of the MEK cult.
“The more I wrote, the calmer I got,” she told Shilandri. “But I also want to point out that there are many people who secretly contact me who are either defectors of the MEK, or are the children separated from their parents by the group, and they say that they are happy that someone has the courage to talk about this and in my opinion, this is a very important issue that should be raised. Many do not dare to speak out loud about this.”

As a survivor of the Cult of Rajavi, she clarifies why it is so difficult to dare to speak out, “I would like to point out is that we, the children of Mujahedin, have lost everything a person can lose, we have nothing more to lose. To the extent that we were not only deprived of our parents, but also erased our identity from our minds. They even planned our feelings, thoughts and beliefs. At first, it was difficult for me to understand this situation. Finding myself and finding my values was not easy for me, who had learned to deny myself, my character and my values.”

When Atefeh was 19, she left the foster parents who were members of the MEK and had imposed all types of child abuse against her, her two younger brothers and two other foster kids who were also children of Mujahed parents – a girl and a boy, the boy was later recruited as child soldier and sent to the MEK’s camp in Iraq, where he was killed. The killing of Hamid was one of the last traumatic events for the teenager, Atefeh.

To answer Shilandri about how her experience with therapists were, she says, “I have gone to different psychologists, but to no avail. I don’t want to raise myself up. But the fact is that my experiences and problems were so complex that psychologists did not know how to treat them. I visited for the first time for two phobias. But I did not get any results. The second time was after my foster brother was killed (as I said before, he and his sister lived in that house with us). My foster brother went to Camp Ashraf and joined the MEK, but he was killed during the Iraqi attacks on Camp Ashraf in 2011.”

According to Atefeh, the Mujahedin and the family who were in charge of her and her siblings were very happy and proud of his death which they called martyrdom. “But his death hit me hard,” she says. “This is why I went to the psychologist again on the recommendation of my colleagues. For two years, I went to counseling and psychoanalysis sessions every other week. I would talk, and the psychologist would just cry.”

Atefeh suggests that her book is like a statement to her that indicates that she stands by her belief. She believes that someone should write about what happened to children who have been victims of the Cult of Rajavi. “I consider it my responsibility to write and express the truth,” she says.

October 28, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The collapse of Ali Asghar Zamani’s family, the outcome of joining the MEK

A family of four was collapsed immediately after they joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Ali Asghar Zamani, his wife and their two children were recruited by the MEK agents, in 2003.
The Zamanis did not have any idea that they were going to Iraq to the military Camp Ashraf. The MEK agents had promised them immigration to Europe to build a happy life there. But, for years their destination was the isolated camp in Iraqi deserts where the family fell apart.

Ali and his wife were forced to divorce. His initial resistance against this order did not work. His wife was finally separated from him. There is no married member in the MEK.

Their 17-year-old son was coerced to wear military uniform and their little daughter was taken back to Iran. Since then, they could hardly ever see each other. “During the twenty years of membership in the MEK, I could see my son four or five times, from long distance,” he recounts.

The group leaders wanted to hand the little girl to human traffickers to take her to Iran, but Ali refused. The leaders told him that he should scarify his daughter for the group cause. He promised them to get his daughter to Iran by his own and then turn back to Iraq.

After he left his daughter to his mother in Iran, he got back to Iraq, this time to save his son but it was not a simple process. He was not allowed to visit his son. In the MEK, family relationship was forbidden; leaving the group was considered treason. Breaking these rules would lead to punishment. “They didn’t show my son to me, and if I happened to see him, I would be under commanders’ control; we couldn’t talk or contact each other,” he writes in his official announcement for leaving the group. “Because any kind of family contact was considered against the organization’s ruling.”

However, Ali succeeded to talk to his son after the group was relocated to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport. Ali got sick but his son could manage to visit the UN officials in the camp. He was aided to leave the MEK and to immigrate to Europe.
The father got stuck in the MEK for about a decade more. He was not able to leave the group until last month. “As a dissident member, I was jailed in a room when the Albanian Police raided Ashraf 3 two months ago,” he writes. “When the Albanian police came to the camp for inspection, they locked me in the proper room where I was living. Two members watched over me so that I could not go to the police and ask for asylum.”

Finally, he could ditch his commanders on a day that they had come to Tirana to do some errands. He escaped the group and surrendered himself to Police. He was welcome. He joined Nejat Society Albania that aided him get back to free world.
“The life in the MEK was full of suffering; we were under constant suppression in the MEK,” he says. “I could not meet or call my children in all those 20 years but since I left the group I can talk to my son and his family every night.”

Ali Asghar Zamani had a family of four before their involvement in the MEK. Today each member of the family is in a separate place. His wife in in Ashraf 3. His son is in a European country. His daughter is in Iran, and he is looking for a new life in Tirana, Albania.

October 24, 2023 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

3 decades of life presidency, the prove for Rajavi’s undemocratic ruling

Nearly three decades have passed since the appointment of Maryam Rajavi as the president on 30 Mehr 1372, she is still in power and carries the title of “elected president for the era of transfer of power and sovereignty to the people of Iran”. A title that cannot last for three continuous decades in any democratic structure.

As we know, words such as “election” or “elected”, like many other valuable words, have been emptied of their meaning by the Cult of Rajavi. No democratically elected president in the history of democracy has been able to hold office for thirty years, or rather for life, unless the power structure is a dictatorship.

The remarkable coincidence in the appointment of Maryam Rajavi to the presidency for life was that Almost at the same time, members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), were subjected to the most severe repressions and organized tortures at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. Massive interrogations, torture, solitary confinement and even the murder of members took place in Camp Ashraf prisons in the early 1990s.

In addition to the above-mentioned honors, the resume of Maryam Rajavi, the president of the so-called National Council of Resistance, during all these years, is a ten-point plan full of contradictions and deception, in which the right to choose for clothing, to choose for religion and freedom of expression and many other democratic rights are claimed to be fulfilled by her in case that she come to power in Iran.

The beginning of Maryam Rajavi’s presidency coincided with the height of the “Pot” meetings –in which dissident members were suppressed under peer pressure, interrogation and isolation. This type of ruling has continued until today in Ashraf 3, in Albania.

Today, the only achievement of Maryam Rajavi, after years of wearing a democratic title, is that about two thousand members of her group are forced to work under the command of the queen like worker bees on the outskirts of a village in Albania, while they are not allowed to leave their hive without organizational control.

And of course, another democratic achievement that can be considered for Maryam Rajavi is a concept called “resistance units”, which is summarized in images of groups of two or three people with their faces covered and being in secluded areas with a photo or a slogan of Mrs. president of whom they probably don’t even know the name correctly. In exchange for receiving a sum of money, members of resistance units are ready to set fire to the buildings in the urban areas in order to display another symbol of the democracy desired by Masoud and Maryam Rajavi.

By Mazda Parsi

October 23, 2023 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Story

Behavior Control

Information control

Thought control

Emotional control

Iran as a victim of terrorist attacks Dissident nationalist terrorism

Iran as a victim of terrorist attacks
Dissident nationalist terrorism