Nejat Society, in solidarity with the families of the captive members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO, Rajavi Cult) in Albania, held a nationwide online gathering with the participation of a number of provincial representatives and the presence of some families on Thursday, July 16, 2020.
The online gathering began at 10:30 a.m. and lasted for three and a half hours and was broadcast live on the Nejat NGO site. A limited number of families from a total of 20 provinces were able to speak on the program and convey their messages on behalf of all families. A number of provinces were unable to connect and participate in the gathering due to shortage of time.
First, Ebrahim Khodabandeh, CEO of Nejat Society, explained the recent activities of the families and the society. He thanked and appreciated the activists of the society in all provinces, as well as the families who have always supported them. He then reported on some of the activities of Nejat Society and the families.
He said that with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, families’ concerns about the situation of their relatives in the remote and isolated MEK camp in Albania had increased, and they were rightly worried about the health of their loved ones. This prompted them to write letters to the World Health Organization and Albanian officials, as well as international authorities, demanding to be in contact with their loved ones.
Khodabandeh also referred to the petition by families, asking the Albanian Prime Minister, as the person in charge of the MEK, to remove obstacles to meeting with members of the MEK, or at least to establish phone/video calls with families on an ongoing basis.
This petition attracted nearly 11,500 signatures from families, relatives, friends and acquaintances of members of the Rajavi cult from all over the world, who wanted nothing more than connection with their relations in the MEK camp in Albania.
Khodabandeh then referred to the Rajavi cult’s response, saying that the Rajavi response to the request, like all destructive cults, was base obscenity, slander and insult. He cited the example of a mother who has not heard the voice of her son – who had one day joined the MEK for some reason – for more than 30 years. He explained that for years this mother has been writing in various forms and by letter to whoever it occurred to her that she could, and that she had asked only for a call from her son. But after all this, the Rajavi cult brought the son to their television, and instead of a few kind words that would make his mother happy, the son started swearing at his mother and called her a mercenary, terrorist and even a”so-called mother.”
The CEO of the Nejat Society said that the MEK and Maryam Rajavi can shout for democracy, freedom, human rights, social justice, etc. from morning to night, and hold regular conferences and seminars, costing millions of dollars and bring war mongering American politicians to the stage, but in practice even cannot allow a kind word from the son of an elderly mother who is struggling with various diseases and finds herself in the last days of her life so that her only wish is to hear the voice of her child.
Khodabandeh concluded that all those slogans about defending the freedom and rights of the people, in practice start with these families, and when the MEK members do this to their families and when also MEK leaders do not tolerate the slightest word of dissent, it is clear what model of democracy and human rights they promise.
The program was broadcast live from the Nejat NGO site, and at the same time it was possible to post comments and log in to the chat system, where many families introduced themselves and wrote their messages. Their loving messages encourage the activists of Nejat Society.
The families stated that they had only one humanitarian demand and asked what was wrong with an organization that could connect 2,000 points to have a video chat but is unable to connect one simple video link for members to contact their family to make them happy? Aren’t these families among the people?
One of the interesting things that one of the families said was that while his relative was held captive by Saddam Hussein in an Iraqi POW camp, his letters kept arriving, informing his family of his condition, but after he was handed over to the MEK, there were no more letters and no further connection.
In his speech, Khodabandeh referred to the Rajavi cult’s excuses for preventing its members from visiting their families, and said that the organization used the excuse of the danger of coronavirus to prevent the visits. He asked if the officials of the organization do not meet or travel? In fact, he said, they are constantly traveling between France, Italy and Albania. Don’t they have a tight group life in a closed camp?
He continued that another excuse the Rajavi cult uses is ‘security threats’. They should be asked what security threats elderly parents can pose to the MEK in Albania. The ‘security threat’ has always been an excuse to separate a person from the family in the Rajavi cult from the beginning.
Regarding preventing members from communicating with their families, the CEO of the Nejat Society explained that this goes back to the cultic nature of the MEK. Cults not only coerce members to sever contact with their family, they also induce the member to hate and fear their family and have no feelings for them.
The member’s feelings must only be for the leader. For this reason, the cult does not allow its members to establish a loving and emotional relationship with their families, but instead they must confront their families with insults and slander so that their innate emotional attachment is not revived to hinder the brainwashing process.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh then raised the issue of the dilemma the MEK is now facing. He suggested that Nejat Society’s activities had placed the Rajavi cult at a crossroads. The organization must either obey the wishes of the families and allow the members’ relationship with their families, which is what we want. And this would show that the MEK has the capacity not to be afraid of families and family emotions. Or it continues in its current way,
exposing more and more of its anti-popular nature to the public, and it reveals that its slogans are completely empty and hollow, and that in practice the MEK is something else.
In the next part, the Rajavi cult’s suggestion of a visit by an international delegation to the families in Iran to prepare a report in this regard was welcomed.
Khodabandeh announced, on behalf of all the families, that this proposal is welcome, and the families are ready to meet and talk with any foreign delegation. And, of course, this delegation should also visit the MEK camp in Albania and talk to the members and deliver the letters of the families and bring their answers back.
In the end, while apologizing to the provinces and the families who did not have time to speak, the demands of the families were summarized, which is the same demand that was raised in the petition of the families with nearly 11,500 signatures addressed to the Albanian government as being responsible for the MEK. It means endorsing the right of families to communicate with their loved ones in the MEK camp in Albania and removing obstacles to establishing this connection.
About 2,000 MEK members are based in the cult camp in Albania, who are deprived rights such as the right to communicate with the outside world, especially with family and friends, the right to marry and create a family, the right to leave the cult, the right to criticize the cult leader and the organizational actions, the right to privacy and many other basic rights.
The extent to which the Rajavi cult fears families as part of the Iranian people and the hysterical and irrational reactions they evoke is truly thought-provoking. This fear proves to what extent the MEK is anti-people and to what extent it has the potential to suppress.
In this conference, the voices of the families were brought to every quarter and will be repeated over and over. The Rajavi cult will expose its anti-popular nature through threats and blackmail against the claims of the elderly mothers and fathers. They will not evade or silence these claims.