Manipulation Techniques of the MEK cult leaders

Child soldiers speak of their nightmares years after leaving the MEK

Last week, some former child soldiers of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) spoke about their nightmares, which still torment them years after leaving the group. The pain that seems to be common to all the traumatized children of the MEK. Some have been able to recover from these sufferings, and some still have nightmares or at least remember them.
Mohammad Reza Torabi, a former child soldier of the MEK, shared this on his X account on August 14, 2024:
“I used to have nightmares of Mujahidin two or three nights a week. Of course, not only me, but all the children who escaped from this cult have these dreams. All our dreams are similar. I open my eyes and with the mentality I have now, I am again in the Mujahidin. I tell myself no! It is not possible, I ran away and I was outside, how did I come back to this hell again? I try to escape and get out and find a way out, but the Mujahedin and Rajavi officials don’t let me stand in front of them. They tell me that it is here and there is no way out. I wake up and my heart is pounding on my chest and I am afraid. Then I slowly come to my senses and realize that it was just a dream.”

Definition and causes of nightmare

Nightmares, like dreams, are the product of our brains, and their terrifying vision originates from inside us. Nightmares should not be confused with bad or unpleasant drteams. Nightmares are actually long, vivid and frightening dreams that usually threaten our survival, physical integrity, safety or self-esteem and fill us with fear. They can also cause intense feelings of fear, anger, sadness, confusion, and even disgust.
Some researchers call nightmares “repetition of threats”. The meaning of this term is that most people repeat the threats they have faced in real life in their nightmares. This is why most people remember the images and content of their dreams well when they wake up from nightmares. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022), the causes of nightmares are as follows:
– Anxiety and stress
– Trauma (physical or mental impact) or distressing events such as the death of a loved one
-Disordered sleep, lack of sleep, fatigue from long-term air flights, illness and fever
– Side effects of a specific drug or treatment
– Medicines or drug withdrawal such as sleeping pills
– Drinking or quitting alcohol
– Breathing disorders during sleep such as sleep apnea
-Sleep disorders such as narcolepsy or sleep anxiety disorder
-Eating shortly before bedtime

The causes of nightmares of the MEK child soldiers

According to the large number of memories, documents and evidence about the prevailing atmosphere within the Cult of Rajavi, it seems that at least the first three are the most true causes of nightmares regarding the child soldiers of the MEK. Of course, as he says, Mohammadreza has gotten rid of this suffering due to the beautiful life he has built for himself outside the cult. He attributes the end of his nightmares to the birth of his young son Ryan:

“But since Ryan Azadi was born, those nightmares have ended. I don’t know what the mechanism is, but what a blessing. These days, I am very proud of myself for having the courage to escape from that hell. Life is beautiful.”
But another child soldier of the MEK, who is active on the X social network with the username Aylin Moghadam, said in the comments to Mohammad Reza’s post about his endless recurring nightmares:

“I also have nightmares almost every night, they hold meetings for me, previously by Masoud Rajavi, now Maryam Rajavi has entered the scene, with her scary face looking at me with anger, and in my dream, I say ‘why am I here while I had gone out, how did I come back?’ and I scream asking for help Everywhere I go there is barbed wire…
“Another recurring nightmare of mine is that they forcefully tell me to get on a tank and fight. In my dream, I say that I don’t want to fight anymore. I’m tired. I don’t want to ride an armored car. They say that no one asked you if you want to get on and… I wake up crying again.

“In my dream, I don’t have anything, they have thrown away all my things, they force me to wear boots and tell me that you have to clean this whole desert of grass and… they regularly hold meetings for me and yell at me, I wake up with tears still on my face and after that most of the time I can’t sleep anymore I don’t know how long I’m going to have nightmares.”
Even reading Aylin’s nightmares is heart-breaking, let alone knowing that Aylin and people like him and Mohammad Reza experienced these fears in the MEK camps. Being isolated in the deserts of Iraq, participating in self-criticism and inquisition meetings for long hours, forced participation in military operations and conflicts, are all real and tangible experiences for the child soldiers of the MEK.

Aylin, who doesn’t want his real identity to be revealed and seems to be still trapped in the atmosphere of terror created by the MEK leaders, has a lot to say, but he avoids revealing:
“Unfortunately, I avoid saying many things for some reasons, because the MEK agents are very much looking for who I am, and I want them to fail.”

Only from the content of his nightmares one can understand what fear and anxiety, trauma, sleep disorder and excessive fatigue caused by the MEK system have done to the soul and spirit of this former child soldier.

Is there a remedy for the suffering of the children of the MEK?

Although Azadeh Masoum has left the MEK some years ago, got married and become a mother, the birth of her child has not stopped her from having nightmares, but her deep motherly love and concern for her daughter has affected her nightmares as well. She writes to Mohammad Reza in comments:
“Unfortunately, I still see them, I even dreamed once that my daughter was with me and she was taken from me and given to another sister in an “organizational ranking change”. I was going crazy, when I woke up, I felt very bad.”

A few days later, impressed by the traumatic experiences of the MEK child soldiers, the author came across a post on the Facebook account of Atefeh Sabdani. Although Sabdani has no experience as a child soldier, she has experienced terrible traumas as a child of the MEK. She is now a 38-year-old mother of three children. The experience of a bad dream that her five-year-old daughter had the night before prompted her to write about it on August 16th, 2024.

The scream of the little girl woke her up and she rushed to her room to comfort her. She hugged her and soothed her by saying, “mommy is here”. The child calmed down, but Atefeh was thrown to her childhood, orphaned by the MEK, separated from her mom, left with feelings of helplessness and lack of security, and the experience of sexual assault by her foster father, who was a supporter of the MEK, and he had taken Atefeh and her two brothers and two other children under his custody in order to receive the social aids that the Swedish government pays children.

It is in the midst of night and Atefeh Sabdani, a successful Swedish citizen, influencer and author of a best-selling autobiography, is suffering from anxiety and shortness of breath from recalling bitter childhood memories. She had nightmares from the age of 5 to the age of 10 and 15 with no one to soothe her, she is still not completely healed from her traumas. She writes about this:

“Although I am actually 38 years old. And no matter how much I have walked through the path of healing and distanced myself more and more from my past, it still sneaks up on me. At night, as if to remind me of who I am and where I came from. Don’t forget. My five-year-old daughter sleeps peacefully. Now, I have to comfort myself.”

Mazda Parsi

August 19, 2024 0 comment

news on the attack on the MEK’s office in Berlin

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

Investigating news about the attack on the MEK’s office in Berlin based on media literacy

The recent attack on the Mujahedin-e Khalq’s office in Berlin can be analyzed from different points of view. However, the wave that the group’s media creates after such incidents requires careful investigation from based on media literacy. Media Literacy is a practical technique and a special skill that is very important to learn. Media literacy helps people to have a proper analysis of the content published in various social networks and media.

Consider that all the MEK-run media immediately after the attack — before the German police gave a report and analysis of the investigation of the incident– claim that the attack was carried out by the agents of the Iranian government. Regardless of whether the truth of this claim is finally confirmed by the German security institutions or not, the publication of such news is included in the category of false news, which is defined by terms such as fake news, misinformation or disinformation.

We know how propaganda works: by repeating what experts call the “big lie.” For example, American experts consider the claims of former US President Donald Trump as such. But when you are faced with a large amount of information in social networks and media every day, it is difficult to distinguish lies from truth. Every day we read false “facts”: misinformation or false news that deliberately mislead us: disinformation.

Why do people believe such information, which is generally called fake news? American psychologist David Rapp, who studies how people learn through reading, believes that memory plays a key role in this. In experiments, he finds that when people read incorrect information, even about trivial subjects they already know, they often become confused and remember the inaccuracies. Subsequently, they answer questions using the incorrect statements.

“You can build memories for the things you’ve read that can then get resuscitated or recalled later in your decision making,” he said, especially when people are not carefully considering what they read. This ability or disability of human mind is exactly what the MEK leaders exploit a lot.

Repeating false information over and over again—such as that the 2020 election was fraudulent that Trump claimed or the nuclear weapons of Saddam Hussein that George W. Bush claimed prior to invading Iraq in 2003— can lead to building memories for the information.

Repeated information is often easy to retrieve, which can lead to problems, Rapp explained. For the MEK, they have been repeating that Iran is building nuclear bomb for decades. They have repeated this fake news over and over since 2002 while no evidence has been found by the inspectors of the international bodies to prove it.

The closure of hundreds of user accounts related to the MEK in order to stop publishing fake news on the Facebook and Twitter platforms, was officially announced by both platforms. This is another proof for the long history of the group in publishing misleading news. At that time, the closure of the user account of a fictional character named “Heshmat Alavi” as the leader of the spread of fake news, was very enlightening for those who sought to learn media literacy.

By Mazda Parsi

December 6, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

In the Cult of Rajavi, Shopping is a Disaster

As a destructive cult of personality, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ Cult of Rajavi) has isolated its members in its headquarters in Albania, called Ashraf 3. Members of the group are subject to entrapment, isolation from friends, family and the mainstream culture. The rare times that they are allowed to get out of the camp are for shopping. According to the defectors of the group, shopping turns to a disaster for an MEK member.

Rafigh Dehghan and Reza Mazginezhad left the MEK a few years ago. Living in Tirana, they are now members of Nejat Society Albania. In their memoirs about the suppressive atmosphere ruling the Cult of Rajavi, they talk about shopping as an activity that was a tool for mind control and manipulation.

Better not going shopping

In a video message, Reza Mazginejad, a former member of the MEK, talks about the strict structure of confession and self-criticism meetings in group. He, who is now a member of the Nejat Society Albanian branch, remembers that when he was trapped in Ashraf 3, leaving the camp and shopping in the streets of Tirana meant for him to count the facts that were in the MEK system, were known as the “Jim” facts, an MEK-built term referring to sexual thoughts. With bitter humor in his words, he explains that sometimes his mind was so busy counting and remembering Jim moments that he forgot to shop.

Reza Mazginejad; MEK former member in Albania

Every night, members of the Cult of Rajavi should report in self-criticism meetings, the cases that they experienced “Jim moment” during the day. This means that every moment they think of the affairs of normal life such as an opposite sex, they should confess it as a sin before their peers, because according to the group leaders, these moments are considered “sexual” and so that person should be punished.

In the MEK, self-criticism sessions are held seriously, persistently and regularly every night at Ashraf 3. The atmosphere of repression and peer pressure in these sessions is so intense that the members try to have something to say among the crowd every night in order to get out from under the blade of repression as soon as possible. In order to get cleansed they should be suppressed, verbally and even physically abused.

Women wearing pants dangerous for Mujaheds

Rafiq Dehghan, the other former member of the MEK, talks about his distressful memories for a simple shopping trip outside Ashraf 3. He, who is now an active member of Nejat Society, talks in a video message with a sad and frustrated tone about his strange memories of brief appearances in the free world.

According to the testimonies of this former member of the Cult of Rajavi, every time going shopping for MEK members is equal to a flood of questions about the “Jim” moments they might have experienced. Dehghan, who is nervous of recalling these memories, mentions some examples of the questions that the commanders would ask him after returning from shopping:
“How many women did you see? How many moments? Tell me who wore pants?!…”

Rafiq Dehghan

These questions are repeated every night in the self-criticism sessions called “Night cleansing”, which distort the memoirs of the isolated space of Ashraf 3 every time. Members are forced to have answers to these questions, to confess their so-called sexual moments. To bear the criticism and oppression of the commanders and peers and finally to express regret for what they have seen and thought about.

Actually, destructive cults disregard life and even harm life. They use isolation, and phobia indoctrination to overwhelm cognition of their members. In Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality, the commanders control who you talk to, who you see in the streets, what you read and what you watch. They victimize ordinary life in favor of their bizarre cult activities like daily self-criticism sessions called Night Cleansing. One of the MEK’s darkest practices is aimed to control sexual thoughts.

Members of the MEK are constantly under an abusive, manipulative and suppressive controlling system. The international Human rights bodies and Albanian authorities must take urgent action to stop the group leaders from violating the human rights of those who are residing in Ashraf 3 as the group’s hostages.

Mazda Parsi

September 26, 2023 0 comment

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 comment

Sarfaraz Rahimi former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was interviewed by the Albanian MCN TV

Former members of the MEK

MEK ex-member: I could not talk to a female member for a minute

Sarfaraz Rahimi former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was interviewed by the Albanian MCN TV. He spoke of 17 years of isolation and suppression under the dictatorship of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

Sarfaraz who is a member of the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) attended the show along with Erisa, his Albanian wife. Erisa Rahimi was there as an interpreter.
During the interview, Sarfaraz talked about the restrictions and prohibitions created by the leaders of the Cult of Rajavi such as prohibition of contact with family, prohibition of marriage and even prohibition of contact with the opposite sex. He considered the MEK’s strict ideology and its manipulative mind control system as the basis for violation of human rights and in particular sexual abuse of female members of the group.

to download the video file click here

July 16, 2023 0 comment

MEK Cult current operation - one of the groups self criticism sessions

The cult of Rajavi

Qassem Salehi, an example of coercive membership in the MEK

Families of members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ PMOI) believe that their loved ones are taken as hostages by the group leaders. They are not allowed to contact them. They are isolated from the outside world and they are under a manipulative ruling structure that coerces them to stay in the group. Qassem Salehi is a defector of the MEK whose story gives a comprehensive account of how a recruited young boy turns into the hostage of Maryam and Massoud Rajavi’s cult.

Qassem Salehi was so determined to escape the Cult of Rajavi that he would kill the man who was his teammate in the terrorist operation that they were supposed to launch in Iran. Salehi was interviewed by Victor Charbonnier, the author of “The people’s Mojahedin of Iran: A struggle for what?”, published in 2003.

In this part of the book, titled “the day I turned my gun against my fellow- soldiers”, Qassem proves that families of the MEK members are right to be extremely concerned over the fate of their loved ones who are banned behind the bars of Camp Ashraf 3, in Manez, Albania.

Camp Ashraf 3,Manza,albania

Read the story of Qassem Salehi’s involvement with the MEK:

Now 30, Qassim Salehi was recruited to the organization by a relative. He recalls “I had just finished my military service. I was 24 and I had no money. I was trying to find my bearings. A member of my family suggested that I join the movement in Iraq. He held out the possibility that they would help me find work in Europe or the Gulf States.”
A native of Masjid Suleiman, in Khuzistan (Southern Iran), the young man, with two others, illegally crossed the border into Iraq. Now under Mojahedin command, he began to see their hidden side: “Before becoming an official member, the candidate goes through an initiation period which can last several weeks. Isolated in a locked room, all his outside contacts are kept to an absolute minimum. to keep him busy, they order him to fill in forms which he must give a detailed account of his whole life. during this period, the organization’s members based in Iran investigate his past. The leaders are afraid of taking in spies from the Iranian regime.”

The second stage is accepting the movement’s ideology. This can last from one month to one year. The candidate learns the movement’s basic philosophy by stuffing the writings of its wo leaders: Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Trained instructors provide additional explanations.

The third stage is military training.

Two phenomena fascinated this candidate Mojahed. First, most of the movement’s leaders are women. Second, throughout his training, organization members spoke to him constantly of Maryam Rajavi, even reciting poems in her praise. He explains: “this was to test my revolutionary commitment”.
Qassem Salehi quickly understood that the organization was based on lies and double-talk. He recalls:” They repeated over and over again that the power structure in Iran was religious and despotic. It barred all opposing opinions, even points of review somewhat different from the regime’s.
But inside the organization, we were no better off. We were forced to give up any personal ideas, to melt completely into the group and to stop asking any questions. Is there any dictatorship worse than that?”

you came here by your own free will, but you cannot leave by your own free will

Qassem remembers Hassan Rezai, a man in his fifties who had immigrated to the United in 1974. He joined the movement in Iraq in 1997. shocked by what he saw in the camps, He asked to return to the United States. They replied: “you came here by your own free will, but you cannot leave by your own free will.” he told them: “you tell us that the Iranian regime puts school boys on the front line. But you are not better. You attract young people to the organization, turn them into terrorists and send them off to be massacred. what’s the difference between you and the regime you claim to fight”?

They answered:” you are crazy because you can’t control your sexual instincts and they gave him a public beating. Most troublemakers were treated the same way.
To avoid the bullying, the punishments and prison, Qassim Salehi was outwardly submissive and obedient. He wrote daily reports in which he described his heroic fight against his sexual drives, avoided discussions with his comrades and worked so hard that he almost fainted from fatigue. But he was waiting to make his move.

In September 2000, he was ordered, along with three other fighters (an Iranian and two Iraqis) to kill a local official. As soon as he was on Iranian soil, near Abadan, the Mojahed turned his gun on his three fellow soldiers, killing the Iranian. He explains, without the slightest remorse: “Anyhow, he would have killed me. he had the same intentions”. He also wounded the two Iraqis before running away and turning himself into the Iranian authorities.

Qassem Salehi spent 25 days in jail. He told all he knew about the organization to Iranian intelligence: names, places, ties to Iraq, etc. once freed, he started his life over again. Married, he is the father of a baby: Amir Mohamamd.

The people’s Mojahedin of Iran: A struggle for what?
Victor Charbonnier
Translated by dr. Thomas R. Forstenzer. RSA

June 7, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

How Ahmad Heidari was tortured to death by the MEK commanders

Former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Samad Nazari recounts the story of Ahmad Heidari, a victim of the group who was tortured in its prisons.

Samad Nazari was a former member of the MEK who defected the group more than three decades ago. He returned to Iran where he later founded Nejat NGO. His autobiography titled “Footprint of the Evil” was focused on the years of his membership and imprisonment in the MEK and defection from the group. Nazari passed away in the Fall of 2014.

In 1991, at the time of the first Gulf war, Samad Nazari was jailed in solitary confinement in the MEK’s Debes prison (Askarizadeh camp) near Kirkuk, Iraq. He was punished for his decision to leave the Cult of Rajavi!

Samad Nazari

During his breath-taking process of defection, Samad witnessed imprisonment, torture and killing of many of his peers. In a part of his memoirs, he writes about a man named Ahmad Heidari. He was jailed together with 5 other members. He recalls that Ahmad Heidari was brought to the cell in the weekend:

“He was badly beaten, with wounded and bruised head. His clothes were torn and his mental condition was not normal. He was Ahmad Heidari who had been irritated by Rajavi’s ideological revolution and since then he had started dissent against Rajavi.”

In the meeting that he was told to divorce his wife, he was so shocked by Rajavi’s order that he cried insults against Massoud and Maryam Rajavi and Fahimeh Arvani.
Nazari writes, “Ahmad had committed a huge crime, so he was attacked by some of the commanders. He was beaten and jailed in solitary confinement. He went on a hunger strike. In that mental state, he constantly cursed Rajavi, Maryam and Fahimeh.”

After a week Ahmad was brought to the office of Majid Alamian –the notorious torturer of the MEK. “Ahmad was so disgusted by the commanders that again started shouting insults,” Samad Nazari writes. “Majid beat his fist on Ahmad’s head. Ahmad was shocked and eventually silenced. Majid went out and Ahmad walked through the corridors around the office. He soiled the building and the sleeping equipment there.”

The torturer, Majid Alamian, comes back at lunch time and throws Ahmad in solitary confinement again. Ahmad pooped and pied all over the cell. “Majid tied his feet and hands and beat him harshly,” Nazari recounts, “He kicked Ahmad’s chest so much that she lost consciousness and fell into a coma.”

This was the daily routine of Ahmad for a few days. Nazari writes, “When we opened his arms and legs, he was shaking for an hour and could not stand.”

Majid Almaian and other commanders presumed that Ahmad had no mental problem, so they put pressure on him to confess his sins (insults against the leaders of the cult). Samad Nazari does not know much about the fate of Ahmad. He was taken out of the camp a few days later and nobody could know about his whereabouts anymore.

May 20, 2023 0 comment

The MEK leaders force members to perform religious rituals

The cult of Rajavi

MEK, a religious fanatic cult

The Mujahedin-e Khalq is by every definition of the term a religious cult. The same as other religious cults, the MEK is committed to perform religious rituals. Rituals would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, fasting, sacrifice, vowed offerings, processions and construction of monuments. Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for a cult to be enacted, to be practiced.

The MEK has all the criteria that other religious cults have. They have a unique group language, they require intense work schedules of members, their leaders will often deliver endless sermons, and they will restrict access to media. Members are directed not to ask questions, and professional help or healthcare and outside information are restricted.

The MEK leaders force members to perform religious rituals

Similar to other religious cults, for the MEK, religion acts as a kind of social “glue”. In times of rapid social change, existing rules, habits and beliefs no longer hold. This produces an environment ripe for exploitation – usually by a charismatic man –who is Massoud Rajavi– with all the answers to members’ problems.

This is the tragedy of cults and in particular the MEK that they exploit freedom of belief, freedom of association and freedom of religion – with often abusive and damaging outcomes. Musa Jaberi, former member of the MEK writes about the religious obligations he endured in the MEK, on his Facebook account. “The leaders of the Cult of Rajavi force you to say prayer”, he writes.

Musa Jaberi, former member of the MEK

Jaberi explains how the group commanders coerced him to perform religious rituals. “I told them saying prayer is an individual issue, but they paid no attention to my words,” he recalls.
The brainwashing sessions were started to convince Jaberi to perform the rituals. “I was forced to attend brainwashing sessions twice a week,” he said. “Not only one commander, but several commanders were supposed to manipulate me, each of them from an aspect.”

Finally, Jaberi began saying prayer but only when commanders could watch him. However, criticism started again. They would say, “We see your changes, and this is good progress but why don’t you say your prayer with your peers?” (Congregational Prayer)

Again, he resisted but he failed. He joined the congregational prayer every night because he did not want to undergo those hectic manipulation sessions once more. “Rajavi’s cult of personality does not care about your personal Individual desires.” Jaberi writes. “They impose their religion which is not a religion. It is a dictatorship.”

April 26, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

A DEMOCRACY IN ABSURDITY!

The MEK was founded as a democratic Islamic movement in September 1965.
The group settled in Iraq in 1986 and built Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border, after collaborating against their homeland with then-president Saddam Hussein.

Washington designated the group as a terrorist organization since in 1997 they killed 6 Americans in 1970.

In 1986 the movement moved its base of operations to Eastern Iraq, but the situation changed with the American invasion to Iraq. US forces attacked their targets but after a while reached a ceasefire and after disarmament, it was decided that they would be held at Camp Ashraf, a former Iraqi military base.

This resistance group was considered a terrorist organization by the US due to the killing of American personnel in Iran during the 70s. But with the withdrawal of Americans from Ashraf in 2011, the acts of violence between them and the Iraqi soldiers began.

CRYSTAL MEDIA 224 on the MEK

A DEMOCRACY IN ABSURDITY!

In 2013, the first group of 210 mujahedin took shelter in our country, while today we count over 3000 people who are sheltered in Manez, in Albania.

The decisions of the Berisha and Rama governments at that time regarding the acceptance of the mujahedin have never been made public, therefore the information about that is minimal and the conditions of their acceptance are not known.

In June 2015, some Iraqi media reported that the MEK was buying or had bought property in Albania to set up a camp like the one they once had in Iraq. According to them, such a camp can be transformed into a base for the training of various terrorist organizations.

But nowadays, from many accounts I have heard from former members of the Mujahideen, I have understood and heard the miserable conditions they live in this camp of Manze in Albania.

Apart from this, the most important thing is that this group believes that it is a democratic organization while falls into a paradoxical contradiction in the conditions that many fundamental rights are not implemented in this camp.

One of the main democratic principles is the right to speech, opinion and dignity. This has not been implemented in the group.

For the mujahedin organization, freedom of speech means that you write down all your opinions on a piece of paper and then all of them are examined by Massoud Rajavi, and a few of them are replies if any. Where is the freedom here?

We call ourselves free and with democratic principles if we could be able to state whatever we think and want.
Is it freedom that they have to get a visa to leave the manza camp to a few meters or kilometers outside the camp?

Is this called freedom?

But the thing that surprised me the most in the conferences and confessions of these former members of this organization, is that the right to have a family is not allowed!

A former member told me that he has his brother very close, only 35 km away, and he hasn’t met, talked or communicated with him in 7 years.

The most absurd find!

The most absurd thing I have heard is the statement that Massoud Rajavi and his wife say that the family is your enemy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How can a parent be an enemy when he mourns for 30 years for his child whom this organization has declared dead for some mothers, while they have seen them in this organization’s own cinema performing live.

That mother mourns and seeks her child, this organization forces its member to call his or her parent an enemy.

That mother does not ask for anything more than a phone call!

By Aldo Sulollari Journalist – Crystal Media 224 – translated by Nejat Society

April 25, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

MEK leaders use sleep deprivation as a mind control technique

There’s a reason why sleep deprivation is classified as a form of torture and is a common technique employed by destructive cults. They force members to stay awake for extended periods to reduce their subjects’ decision-making ability and make them more open to persuasion. Leaders of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) use this technique to persuade the rank and file to stay inside the suppressive atmosphere of the group.

Sleep deprivation and fatigue create disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental and physical activity and withholding adequate rest and sleep. Former members of the MEK testify about this form of torture that has been used by the group commanders for over four decades.

sleep deprivation is classified as a form of torture and is a common technique employed by destructive cults

Dr. Massoud Banisadr, former member of the MEK courageously published his autobiography in 2004. The book titled “Destructive and Terrorist Cults, a New Kind of Slavery”, is an inspiring account of his idealistically entry into the MEK, his rise to a high-ranking member of the group, his subjection to brainwashing and his subsequent defection from the group and difficult return to normal life.

According to Dr. Banisadr, sleep deprivation is a tactic that is used in the MEK to interfere with brain functions. He notifies that cult members sleep in public dorms where a large number of people sleep by the side of each other. The places are usually noisy and crowded. Members’ rights to have a private room are not respected. “Members are much more deprived of sleep than what the leaders expect,” he writes.

Based on his scientific studies, “a person with insomnia, is slow in getting conscious about his or her own psychological conditions. His ability of decision making and acting reduces.” Dr. Banisadr clarifies that sleeping gives the brain the opportunity to organize the information it has got through the day and eventually it provides the brain with the ability to analyze and interpret daily issues. Based on his account, members of the MEK are always deprived from enough sleep.

Iraj Salehi; MEK ex-member

Iraj Salehi, a former low-ranking member of the MEK who escaped Camp Ashraf when the group was located in Iraq, presents a meticulous account of the daily routine of an MEK member in Camp Ashraf. The following has been taken from of his account on sleep deprivation inside the MEK:
“Dozens of us (MEK members) would sleep in one single hall. The more members, the more guardians for the dorm. The lights were always on. The doors were opened or closed all the time because there were always some people who wanted to go to the bathroom. Insomnia was a serious problem for the MEK members.
“The daily schedule in the MEK camps started from 5:30 am. We had half an hour to say prayer, make our beds and wash up. We had to shave every morning and it was hard to be fast because there were not enough bathrooms for such a number of people.

“Then, it was time for doing choirs like cleaning the streets and gardens of the camp. Then, we had to attend the morning ceremony which was followed by eating breakfast. We were supposed to do different tasks after breakfast, from working in the kitchen to cleaning the tanks and weapons…
“At noon, we were given an hour to say prayer, eat lunch and relax! But actually, lunch and prayer were public and therefore no time was left for relaxing. The errands would begin again at 2pm and would continue until 6 or 7.

“At sunset, everyone had to attend sports activities even if he or she did not feel well enough to do so. Then, we had half an hour to take a bath which actually would take only five minutes because the rest of the time would be waisted in the line to wait for an empty bathroom.
“The next component of our daily schedule was dinner and then the self-criticism sessions –called Current Operation– were held by commanders in which members had to confess the entire thoughts they had in their minds during the day.

“The sleeping time was 11:30. Before that no one was allowed to go to bed. Even sick members were not allowed to rest earlier.”
Members of the Cult of Maryam Rajavi are definitely in danger. According to many medical experts, quality sleep may be the single most important factor in maintaining long-term health. It can contribute to better mental function such as improved learning ability and decision-making faculty, improved memory, greater alertness and increased mental performance. Quality sleep can also support physical health including resistance to and recovery from fatigue, improved immune system function, better ability to resist premature aging, increased ability to resist stress, and better-regulated hormone production that can help prevent weight gain or obesity.

Due to sleep deprivation and other cult-like attitudes of the MEK leaders, mental and physical health of the hostages of the group are endangered under a daily basis. Human rights bodies must beware of the disastrous outcomes of human rights violations committed by the MEK leaders every day.

By Mazda Parsi

February 28, 2023 0 comment

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