Ashraf Rabiei is an iconic figure in the history of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). She was Massoud Rajavi’s first wife whose name later became the symbolic name of the MKO’s main headquarters in Iraq, “Camp Ashraf”. The group’s propaganda still uses the term “Ashrafneshan” to glorify its members as “unique fighters”.
Born in 1952 in a politically active family, Ashraf Rabiei was grown up in Tehran. Her brother was a member of the leading council of the early Mujahedin Khalq establishment.
Ashraf was a university student when she joined the MKO in 1972. She was arrested several times by the Shah’s Intelligence Agency (SAVAK) during her organizational activities before the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
She married Akbar Nabavi a religious high-ranking member of the group in the early years of her membership in the MKO. Nabavi killed himself with cyanide capsule in a clash with shah’s security forces in 1976. Meanwhile Ashraf was injured in the explosion of a hand-made bomb that she was making in their safe house; she was then arrested for the third time.
Meeting Massoud Rajavi in Evin
A mysterious visit with Massoud Rajavi in Evin prison turned Ashraf into an ardent promoter of Massoud. Since the alleged visit, Ashraf began promoting Rajavi’s rhetoric as the only leader of the MKO. They got married in 1980.
After the Iranian revolution, Ashraf Rabiei together with some other female members of the group including Maryam Qajar Azdanlou (Maryam Rajavi –the current leader of the group) actively worked for recruiting female students.
In 1980, Ashraf Rabeie was in the list of candidates of the MKO for the Iranian Parliament elections but she was not elected by people as well as other candidates of the group.
By the beginning of the MKO’s armed struggle against the Islamic Republic in June 1980, the clashes between the Iranian newly established government and the MKO fighters broke out. Two months later, Massoud Rajavi fled Iran for France and left Ashraf and their one-year-old son Mostafa in Iran.
After the departure of Rajavi, Mousa Khiabani became the commander of the MKO in Iran in violent operations. He and Ashraf were in the same team house when the Iranian security forces attacked the house on February 8th, 1982. Ashraf and Mousa and eighteen other MKO members were killed in the clash.
Her son, Mostafa survived the battle and was then yielded to to his grandparents by the security guards. Mostafa is reportedly living in Albania now.