The controversial marriage and divorce of Massoud Rajavi with Abolhassan Bani-Sadr’s daughter, Firoozeh, is one of the issues that need to be studied in detail. That is because her divorce is concurrent with many organizational-related events including the so-called ideological
Firoozeh’s divorce hardly attracted attentions since it was eclipsed by the announced ideological revolution immediately after Rajavi and Maryam marriage and only a short statement published in Mojahed announced Firoozeh’s divorce without any further explanation. Since then, Firoozeh Bani-Sadr only once and in a meeting with Ms. Batool Soltani made references about her relations with Massoud Rajavi and his voracious power-seeking. Although her revelations highlight some peculiarities of Rajavi’s character, but Ms. Soltan’s shocking disclosures about Rajavi’s sexual relations with members of the Leadership Council completely overshadowed Firoozeh’s comments. The fact is that Firoozeh’s silence in all these years on the reasons for her divorce and its aftermath is much questionable. Her silence might have been grounded on some personal considerations or the consequent frustration after the disclosures. But her silence does not seem to be much sensible, unless there are unwritten agreements and compromise, when we see that her role in Rajavi’s private life and being au courant of his relations with Maryam Azudanloo might help to illuminate one of the challenging chapters of the organization’s history. But the recent remarks of Abolhassan Bani-Sadr concerning Rajavi’s scandal refute possibility of any compromise and we have to look for causes behind Firoozeh’s silence somewhere else, the most obvious of which can be her fear of Rajavi’s retaliation.
But in relation to disclosures and statements of Ms. Soltani it should be asserted that they did not receive the attention they had to. Perhaps one reason is moral considerations and respect for reputation and honor of those who are still caught in the clutches of Rajavi’s cultic sexual exploitation. On the other hand, the audience and the critics are too shocked by her disclosures to make further queries and to examine them in detail and thus, her remarks were only publicized under a few articles of sex-themed.
But in his recent interview with Mohammad Hussein Sobhani concerning Firoozeh’s marriage with Rajavi, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr also made new references to Rajavi’s cultic exploitation. His assertions as a father indicate that he was not willing to wed his daughter to Rajavi:
You know, as a father I was opposed to their marriage, in fact, I was opposed to political marriage, to pervert marriage for political causes. But my daughter believed in independence and freedom, in political evolution. This guy (Rajavi) had talked to her in detail and they reached an agreement over a dowry of independence, freedom and nationalism. And she was also granted the right of divorce if Mr. Rajavi ever in future made a move to violate Iran’s right of independence, freedom of man and national peace.
According to the mutual agreement between Rajavi and Firoozeh stated by Bani-sadr, the divorce must have been a rational and reasonable outcome as we see Rajavi violated the conditions in practice:
And so it continued until one night when my daughter called me and I could hear her crying over the phone. She said this guy (Rajavi) had decided to move to Baghdad and had told her to make her mind either to come or divorce. I told her why are you crying? You married him on some agreed principles, now you have a choice to break your vow and go to Baghdad with him or keep it. She said she wouldn’t. I said well, right now you leave and come here and tomorrow we will apply to the municipality or anywhere else for divorcing this mister husband. You divorce him and it is finished, this guy goes his own way and you do the same.
But the second part of Mr. Bani-Sadr’s interview focuses mainly on Rajavi’s cultic exploitation, already asserted by Ms. Soltani, which can start a new theoretical and psychosocial study of his lusts and covets. Tacitly approving Ms. Soltan’s disclosures about Rajavi’s sexual exploitations, Mr. Bani-Sadr comments on the close link between sex and the absolute authority that will lead to the demise of totalitarianism at the end according to historical evidences. Since he has stressed that he has authored a new book on this subject, we hope that the book will work as a start to break the long silence and also motivate those interested in the subject to better illuminate the dark aspects. Concerning cultic authority and the destiny of peoples like Rajavi, Mr. Bani-Sadr states:
Breaking from the reality and being imprisoned in a world of fantasy fuels the urge for engaging in such activities and leads to madness. As a result, he [Rajavi] must connect to a kind of reality, an existing reality that can satisfy him. So he comes to say this is the cult that I have formed wherein any man and woman are my devotee. And he is satisfied to say I told them to divorce and they obeyed, I told them either they had to love the organization and its leadership or choose something else but they chose me. Suppose she [Ms. Soltani] is right, which I hope is not, about the sexual intercourse that took place, so it is the only fact and reality he has made a connection with in this cult, no other reality can be found beyond it because he has access to nothing else. ….. This man (Rajavi ) suffers when he has to think about any reality, and he has no other way but to retreat and seek asylum in his created world of fantasy to escape from the reality. And that is the destiny of people like Rajavi.
Remarks of Mr. Bani-Sadr are opening a new chapter on the subject of sexual relations among the cult leaders, and Rajavi in particular, and the reasons behind such unorthodox behaviors. This is a serious approach through which researchers can bring the subject onto the academic scene to study it from a variety of angles and to enlighten the public opinion about the cults’ threats. The taboo of avoiding such overwhelming plight among the societies must be broken as many western countries have already discriminated the necessity of investigation into the subject. Otherwise, people have to pay a heavy price before they come to know the threats of the cults. A predicament is just before our eyes, that is, we are witnessing one of the most inhuman cultic exploitations of the modern world and sexual enslavement of many men and women within the cult of Rajavi.