Page 45 – Nejat Society

MEK goes from terrorist list to Canadian politicians’ best buddy

Canada’s political establishment has become increasingly close to a group it once banned as a terrorist organization. Reports that the violent cult Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) may set up shop here reflects this country’s increasingly conflictual relations with Iran.

Recently Iranian government aligned media reported that the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is considering a move to Canada. The Albanian government has begun to restrict the group’s operations. In June, a camp inhabited by over a thousand MEK members was raided by the Albanian police and MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has been blocked from entering the country. As a result, there’s speculation the group wants to leave Albania, which has hosted it since 2016. The MEK denies it plans to relocate to Canada, which would be geographically and logistically, if not politically, difficult.

Liberal MP Judy Sgro speaks at an MEK-aligned Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) event, on February 4, 2023. Image credit: NCRI site.

A Global Affairs spokesperson responded to an inquiry by The Canada Files’ Editor-in-Chief, Aidan Jonah, on the matter by writing: “Canada continues to be gravely concerned with the systematic discrimination and harassment that women, men and youth face in Iran, and stands in solidarity with the courageous people of Iran, especially the women and girls of Iran, who are at the forefront of a powerful call for change based on equality, respect, and justice. With respect to the MeK, Canada does not recognize the Mek as being a credible political actor, does not endorse it, and does not engage in any communications with it.”

MEK’s history

According to US government sources, the MEK has teamed up with Israel to assassinate Iranians. In 2012, NBC News reported that the MEK was “financed, trained, and armed by Israel’s secret service” to assassinate Iranian scientists.
During the Iran-Iraq war the MEK fought with Saddam Hussein’s forces. In the mid-1980s Iraq armed and equipped a 7,000 strong MEK force. A World Beyond War article by Robert Fantina highlighted that, according to one report, by early 2016, ‘…out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 had fallen victim to MKO’s (MEK’s) terrorist attacks.’”

Until a decade ago, MEK was listed as a terrorist group in the US and Canada. Their impact was felt in Canada, even during that era. In 2003, a 22-year old Iranian-Canadian woman, Neda Hassani, set herself on fire while in London, on the orders of MEK leaders, to protest Maryam Rajavi’s arrest.

MEK in Canadian politics since removal from Canadian terror list

In 2012, prominent pro-Israel activists worked with Iranian dissidents to convince the State Department to remove the MEK from the US terrorism list, which paved the way for Ottawa to follow suit. Two years after working to delist the organization then MP Irwin Cotler invited MEK leader, Maryam Rajavi, to speak at Iran Accountability Week on Parliament Hill. Cotler subsequently attended many events organized by the MEK-aligned Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

So has Stephen Harper since he was defeated in the 2015 election. Last month Canada’s former prime minister travelled to France to participate in the MEK’s Free Iran World Summit.
Canadian politicians are increasingly willing to openly identify with the MEK. In July of last year seven MPs attended the MEK’s Free Iran World Summit in Albania. Thought to be funded by Saudi Arabia, the group paid for the Canadian politicians travel and accommodation.

Each of the seven Canadian MPs who attended the summit were contacted by TCF EIC Jonah, to get their opinions on the GAC statement saying Canada’s government doesn’t recognize MEK as a credible political actor. None responded to the emails sent.

Melissa Lantsman, who is now deputy Conservative leader, participated in the delegation to Albania. During September 2022, Lantsman spoke at an NCRI event at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

During February 2023, former ministers John Baird and Tony Clement, as well as a half dozen sitting MPs and two senators, attended a Toronto event put on by the MEK-dominated NCRI. At the event Liberal MP Judy Sgro applauded “MEK, the NCRI and other movements trying to finally get rid of an oppressive group of Mullahs that do not deserve to be there.” A former immigration minister, Sgro even labeled MEK leader Maryam Rajavi’s 10–point plan a “model for the world”.
Sgro was also part of the Canadian delegation at last month’s Free Iran World Summit in Paris. According to a transcript, she gushed that “Madam Rajavi, your Ten-Point Plan is a true example of democracy, and I’m so happy to see so many countries have recognized that.”

Canadian officialdom’s growing dalliance with the reactionary group reflects the aggressiveness of Canadian policy towards Iran. Despite de-escalation in its first few years in office, the Liberals have reignited Harper’s low-level war on Iran.

Before being elected in 2015, Justin Trudeau promised to restart diplomatic relations with Iran that Harper severed in 2012. But Israeli nationalist forces scuttled the Liberals’ bid to restart diplomatic relations and there was never any serious bid to remove Iran’s designation as a state-sponsor of terror, which Harper imposed.

Nonetheless, there was still significant political support for restarting diplomatic relations with Iran through 2019. That year some 15,000 individuals signed an Iranian Canadian Congress petition sponsored by NDP foreign critic Helene Laverdiere calling for restarting relations.

But anti-Iranian sentiment grew sharply in January 2020, after the US assassinated top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp General Qassem Suleimani and nine others at the Baghdad airport. In retaliation to the Trump administration’s brazen violation of international law, Iran launched a dozen ballistic missiles at US-bases in Iraq. On heightened alert for a US response, the Iranian military mistakenly downed Ukraine Airlines flight PS752, killing 57 Canadian citizens.

Relations soured greatly as a result. Israel lobbyists and long-standing opponents of the regime effectively drove grieving families to place all the blame for the tragedy on Tehran.

Relations have deteriorated even further over the past year since the government suppressed a protest movement. Canada has adopted over a dozen rounds of sanctions, targeting hundreds of Iranians and entities including media outlets and universities. Ottawa has also banned 10,000 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp from Canada, condemned the country in various international forums and brought Iran to the International Court of Justice. Canadian courts have also seized tens of millions of dollars in Iranian assets and rendered judgments that would take even more.
In response, Iran recently took Canada to the International Court of Justice accusing Ottawa of illegally seizing its diplomatic assets.

Canada’s hostile policies and dalliance with the MEK take place as Washington seeks to destroy Iran economically. In April, the US seized an Iranian oil tanker and recently began unloading over $50 million USD of its fuel. Tehran responded by seizing two ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. Washington then dispatched more naval vessels to the region and is mulling placing armed personnel on commercial vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.

Reports that the MEK is moving to Canada may well be Iranian government disinformation, but the fact such a move is plausible highlights a remarkable turnaround for a group once listed as a terrorist organization.

Mujahedin-e Khalq’s growing respectability among politicians also demonstrates how much Canada follows in lockstep with the US Empire and its Israeli subsidiary.

THE CANADA FILES – by Yves Engler

September 13, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Ahmad Razani’s killing, the collapse of a family in the Cult of Rajavi

Ahmad Razani was a member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MEK), whose family of four fell apart in the cult-like structure of the group. He, who loved his wife and children, and during his years of captivity in Rajavi’s cult, the grief of his wife and children always made him against the leaders of the group. Under the pressure and accusations, he finally committed suicide.
Motherless children after Forough Javidan

Ahmad Ali Razani was from Lorestan, Iran. In 1367, on the eve of Forough Javidan operation, leaders of the Cult of Rajavi brought Razani and his family, like many other supporters from all over the world, to Iraq to take part in the operation. In a very short period of time with minimal military training and without the necessary physical and mental preparation, a large number of MEK suporters were sent to cross the Iranian border. Razani his wife and two children, Bahram and Shahnaz had joined the MEK from Germany, Europe. Batul Soltani, former member of the Cult of Rajavi, says about this family:

“Ahmad Razani is one of the thousands of unfortunate victims who were transported to Iraq and Ashraf by the organization along with his wife and daughter Shahnaz Razani and his son Bahram Razani. I remember well and I saw his wife in the meeting before Forough operation. He was crying and saying that he loves his wife, and she doesn’t even know how to use an arm. He complained that why the organization wants to send her to the operation. After the operation, I saw Ahmad Razani with tears in his eyes and he said that his wife was killed and his children became motherless. He said only one word that his wife was sent to the operation against his wishes and said that he felt the sadness of years on his shoulders and said that he wished I had died earlier and was not in this world. He considered himself guilty of his wife’s death and said that I dragged her along with me, and he was also crying, and the memory of his wife did not leave him alone for a moment.”

MEK members at the grave of Ahmad Razani

Thus, Ahmad Razani’s children lost their mother at the age of five. After Forough Javidan’s operation, the forced divorce order was issued by Masoud Rajavi. Eventually, family life in Ashraf camp was practically prohibited. Bahram and Shahnaz lived in the Mujahedin Khalq children’s team house under the supervision of Mujahed women. They were allowed to visit their father only on weekends. Qader Rahmani, a former member of the Cult of Rajavi, writes about Ahmad Razani:

“Ahmed was the one whose wife was killed in Forough Javidan without showing any desire to participate in this war, so he was angry with the organization on this issue. His two children Bahram and Shahnaz in Ashraf were considered his only spiritual support and gave him hope of a new life. Ahmad Razani’s children were almost 5 years old. They used to come to our unit on Thursday afternoons. Children were only allowed to see their parents on Thursdays. I remember that Bahram, the son of Ahmed always insisted on playing hand football with me. Not long after, the organization did not show mercy to the children and denied their parents and children two hours of visitation. Bahram and Shahnaz were also among the other children who were smuggled to Europe (Germany), under the order of the organization and not their parents.”

Bahram and Shahnaz, child
Bahram and Shahnaz were separated from their parents and smuggled to Europe and North America along with seven hundred other children of Mojahedin Khalq in 1369. Ahmad Razani’s children left Germany again, and this time without their parents, they continued to live an organizal life inMEK’s orphanages in German cities.
Eight years later, in 1996, Razani’s children were sent to Iraq from Germany under the pretext of meeting their father, and like other child soldiers of the MEK, they were recruited in the MEK’s army. At the age of 15, Shahnaz and Bahram were organized in the so-called National Liberation Army, wearing military uniforms and carrying guns.

Due to the sufferings that the organization had imposed on Ahmad Ali Razani and his family, he was not happy with the organization and despite having a high organizational rank (MO rank), after his complained about the fate of his wife and children he was humiliated as a low-ranking member. He was always under supervision. After his children returned to Ashraf, his visits with his children were very limited and then completely stopped. Batul Soltani remembers how angry and sad Ahmed was at the time because of his children’s recruitment in the MEK army:

“Massoud Rajavi sent his daughter and son out with a lot of other children who had tricked their parents and dragged them out of Iraq. And again one day I saw him as if he was not in this world. And I asked, are you good brother Ahmed? He said, ‘what we thought and what happened…’ After his children were tricked and brought to Iraq to see their father, he felt that the organization had taken them as hostages. One day, in 1985, I saw him disappointed, and I asked him how he was doing. Ahmed said that there was no way forward or backward. He said that the sorrow he feels for his daughter and son does not leave him alone for a moment and he said, ‘they were brought to Iraq the pretext of visiting me here and first they tricked my son on the pretext of visiting and then by taking advantage of my son they also tricked my daughter’.”

Bahram and Shahnaz Razani did not easily cope with captivity in Ashraf. Batul Soltani says: “Shahnaz, his daughter, always had disagreements with the organization and did not accept the organization and its leadership and wanted to leave and was always under the influence of the organization’s officials.” And Bahram, according to Rahman Qadri: “He disagreed with the group and its leadership and wanted to return to Germany, where he was deceived and sent, and for this reason he was always under pressure from the authorities.”

Qader writes in a memory of Bahram Razani’s criticism on the leaders of the MEK, especially Mohammad Mohadesin, for deceiving child soldiers in the presence of Masoud Rajavi: “Bahram son of Ahmad revealed in the public meeting how Behnam (Mohammed Mohadesin) deceived them. Behnam told the children; I promise you will return to Europe and continue your education after meeting your parents in Ashraf. Bahram told him in the public meeting where Masoud Rajavi also participated: “Brother Massoud! Brother Behnam deceived us.”
Ahmad Razani’s mental breakdown

Ahmad Razani’s and his children’s criticisms against the cult leaders caused them to no longer be allowed to meet each other in the organization. Ahmad Razani was marginalized in the lower ranks. In the last years of his life, he was assigned to work in the kitchen of Ashraf Camp, where he finally hanged himself or maybe they hanged him at dawn on November 27, 2009.

At that time, the families of members of the MEK were protesting in front of the gates of Ashraf and demanding to meet their loved ones. They witnessed that the body of the victim was taken to the hospital at the exit door of the camp by several members of the organization. Then it was announced that Ahmad Razani hanged himself with a rope in the kitchen. After the initial examination, the Iraqi doctor of the hospital announced that the cause of his death could not be suicide. According to reports at that time, the doctor refused to issue a burial permit and the body of the victim was taken to Baghdad for an autopsy. The families protesting in front of Camp Ashraf, who were waiting to meet their loved ones, were moved and upset after hearing the news.

Razani’s children are still taken as hostages in the MEK. Bahram works for the propaganda machine of the group in the Internet. It is hoped Bahram and Shahnaz, like many other former child soldiers of the MEK, could manage to leave this destructive cult and return to the free world.

By Mazda Parsi

September 13, 2023 0 comments

Europe

MEK misled members of European Parliament

A report by the European Parliament has said that the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) terrorist organization has committed many non-transparent actions in dealing with the members of the European Parliament.

“Iran’s Mujahideen, an organization Human Rights Watch has accused of intimidating, torturing and sometimes murdering members of the Iranian diaspora, has been using aggressive and shady practices to meet MEPs, including by hiding their real affiliation,” said the report.

It added, “MEPs have been included by this organization as co-signatories of letters they had not co-signed or named as co-hosts of conferences they never endorsed.”

The report further said, “they were registered using over 45 different pseudonyms, such as ‘MEK’, ‘NCRI’, ‘ISJ’, ‘APA’, in order to mislead MEPs and the Transparency Register.”

The MEK group adheres to extremely opaque guidelines in their internal interactions, something that led many observers to liken the group to a cult.

The group has run into troubles with the Albanian government due to the non-transparent actions of its members which included hacks and other illegal activities.

The Albanian government has recently blocked the access of the MKO members to the Internet in their camp near Tirana.

The Albanian government has turned off Internet access at the Ashraf-3 camp outside Manze, a small hill hamlet 30 kilometers west of Tirana.

It is the latest restrictive measure by the Albanian government in the face of MKO cyberattacks.

According to an informed security source, the notorious cultish members have been compelled to use mobile Internet or illicit techniques for cyber operations since Albania is firm to keep a lid on the terrorist activities of the group also called MEK.

As a result of the MKO’s involvement in “terror and cyber-attacks” against international institutions, the Albanian police forces conducted a raid on the camp in June.

They seized 150 computer devices used for sabotage attacks.

During the clashes at the camp, at least one MKO terrorist was killed and several more were injured.

On August 12, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, said Tehran had filed a huge case against more than 100 members of the cultish organization, which has killed tens of thousands of Iranians.

September 12, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

A DIFFICULT STORY WITH MANY TRUTHS

Many articles have been read, many documentaries and films or other conceptions have been created to prove the way of life in the MEK camp and what the word ASHRAF itself means, which as a result came to our country.

In interviews and various public appearances, many situations have been shown that go beyond our reality as a country that aims to have western and qualitative standards in social welfare and the word family.

But in some cults, the word family means “crime” or violation of interests. Here we are talking about interests that affect the feelings and hearts of thousands of families. Iran as a developed country, with a formed infrastructure, and a very large population, suffered an emotional crisis caused by just a fraud.

Bijar Rahimi tells the story of his life

Some scams just cost some money, some scams cost causing the loss of something of monetary value, but it is not justifiable that the scam could cause the loss of the divine family relationship. The MEK did this trick by asking its members not to communicate with their families, since according to them, this could be a threat to their cause, which was never understood what cause it had, more than the interests of the superiors to this organization.

Like many of the stories, we have seen that they appeared in the public and most popular national media, some former members of this camp, who recently for several years have been able to live freely and create their families here, where one of them is Mr. Sarfaraz Rahimi, who, together with me, managed to bring out many truths in the media where many of the Albanian people understood that the Iranians who came to Albania came to live a different reality and to see the sun outside the bars of Camp Ashraf, but something else was promised.

Recently, Mr. Rahimi’s brother, Mr. Bijar Rahimi, was with me in his first media interview, on CTV, where he spoke a lot about his life retrospective, and said that if he could turn back time, he would not made that choice. He would not want that life. With more emotion and pain, I show what it means to live inside the MEK camp and the challenges and hardships that accompanied it. For these and more, follow his interviews in the media. I invite you to follow.

September 12, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Traumatic experience of Masoumeh Chaheh in the MEK

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

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

Hamid Chaheh

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

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

Masoumeh living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients

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

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

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

September 10, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

We Make Hope Happen for MEK Members

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Mazda Parsi

September 9, 2023 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

Four decades of human rights abuse by the MEK leaders

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

Forced Celibacy

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

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

Self Criticism

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

Isolation

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

Child abuse

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

Child Soldiers

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

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

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

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

Mazda Parsi

September 4, 2023 0 comments

Nejat Publications

Nejat Newsletter No.106

Inside this Issue:

_ People inside MEK face HR abuses regularly

Nejat Newsletter No.106

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

_ Women Council of ASILA traveled to the city of Shkodër

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

_ The Voice of Families conference was held in Tirana

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

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

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

_ Iranian protesters urge Albania to close down MKO camp

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

_ Evidence on MEK’s unpopularity

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

_ The double face of the MEK

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

_ MEK does not speak on behalf of the Iranian people

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

_ Bijar Rahimi, the most recent defector of the MEK

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

To view the pdf file click here

September 4, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK; The cult of the leader

Massoud Rajavi is an outstanding speaker, able to move audiences with his smooth voice, staccato delivery, and sharp turns of phrase. Neo-Stalinist, caught up in his own charisma, he soon created a cult of personality around himself and eventually his current wife, Maryam Rajavi . former members of the movement frequently criticize this phenomenon, described by many foreign reporters.

Born in 1953 to a middle-class family in Tehran,Maryam Rajavi was active from 1970 in the resistance movement to the Shah. She was a student at the Sharif Technical University in the capital. Rising to a leadership position in the student movement she joined Mojahedin in the mid-Seventies. According to her official biography, the Shah’s Savak executed one of her sisters, Narges, and agents of the Islamic Republic later killed another, Maasoumeh.

Maryam Azdanlu, working hard in the social department of the Mojahedin, played a key role in winning student support for the movement. As a candidate in Tehran for the legislative elections of 1980, her supporters claimed that she won over 250000 votes. She took part in Tehran’s popular demonstrations against the Islamic Republic soon after the revolution. In 1982, she joined the Mojahedin’s headquarters staff in Paris.” Elected” in 1985, after she married Massoud Rajavi, as “ co-leader”, she was made secretary General by decree four years later. Deputy commander In chief of the National Liberation army(NLA) since 1987, the National Resistance Council “elected” her “future president of Iran” five years later. Her role was to be the country’s provisional chief executive during the transition period that the Mojahedin predicted would follow the fall of the Mullahs.

Ervand Abrahamian, a City University of New York historian, has analyzed Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s “cult of personality’ in terms of the Mojahedin’s “sect-like” structure and behaviour. By 1987, he argues, the organization had developed all the symptoms of a religious cult or sect: worship of the leader, called “the guide” or ,less formally, but significantly :”the current Imam”. The Mojahedin’s “rigid” hierarchy was based on orders from the top and unquestioning subordination of the membership. Abrahamian describes a closed world with its own texts, censorship and enforced outlook. And this “world view” , despite frequent public denials, remained committed to a “synthesis” of the Shiite “religious message” with Marxian social science. He goes on to emphasize the organization’s creation of its own “history”,”martyrs” and “hagiography”. members follow a dress code. Finally, in Iraq, Abrahamian depicts a world apart with its own communities,press, offices, militia, training camps, clinics, schools and prisons,known as “ re-education centers”.

Peter Waldman, an American journalist, endorses this view. According to him, Massoud Rajavi’s marriage with Maryam, a relatively unknown ex-wife of one of his assistants, completed the group’s “transformation” from a political movement to a sect. he points to the Mojahedin’s publications that presented her new role as a “triumph of feminism” and an “ideological revolution” for Iranian women and Moslem world. She was used, he adds, as a contrast with the treatment of women under the Islamic Republic.

According to the former members, the “leadership cult” rose to a new pitch soon after their marriage. Waldman wrote that, Massoud Rajavi was described in a series of Mojahedin publication as “quasi-divine” and a “gift to mankind”. His marriage was compared to the Koran’s depiction of the Prophet’s, and he was seen as a source of “God’s light”. finally, according to the reporter, the group officially proclaimed Massoud Rajavi as “infallible” and “without sin”.
Dr. Ghaffour Moussawi, a psychiatrist and former member, suggest that Massoud Rajavi suffers from a form of narcissistic disorder:” this man is obsessed with his own personality. He believes himself to be above others. He can neither tolerate criticism nor face up to his own mistakes, of which, God knows.

There have been many during his long career as a despot. To establish his authority, he relies on demagogy, intimidation, raw power or the force of arms. He only recruits young people who have not yet developed their own personalities or critical capacities and will do anything to prove their loyalty. His narcissism is also evident in his avowed hatred for other Iranian opposition leaders, whom he insults and accuses of all kins of reason. He has attacked every one, including those most respected for their integrity, like Dr. Charlaat Madaari”.

From the book: The People’s Mojahedin of Iran: A Struggle for what? “By Victor Charbonnier,2004.

August 29, 2023 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 26, 2023 0 comments

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