Hadi Negravi, a former member, participated in the operation under the command of Samira Shams. He witnessed the obvious violence the MEK forces committed against Kurdish villagers. He recalls that not even in one case Kurdish civilians shot a bullet against the MEK’s army, “but the MEK raided the Kurds their various arms brutally”.
According to Negravi’s testimonies, the MEK tanks shot at cars that carried Kurdish civilians. He states: “I saw with my own eyes that the MEK Kascavel shot a Land Rover full of innocent civilians on Kefri crossroad.”

Hadi Negravi who was shocked to see such violence against civilians complained to his commander, Shams: “They were civilians. There were a few innocent people in that car!” but he was encountered with anger. “Stop advocating them otherwise you will be punished too. We are at war and we will execute you right here!” Samira Shams replies.

Negravi was deeply devastated by the Mujahedin’s conduct towards the Kurds and, driven by his awakened conscience, once again protested to Samira Shams: “You had said that Khomeini’s guards were planning to attack the Mujahedin in Kurdish clothing, but we have not yet been attacked, nor have we seen any guards!” But he received an extremely harsh response that assured him that the death sentence that Shams was talking about was not far off.

“My commander and several members of the organization who were with me suddenly went crazy upon hearing my words and rushed towards me. They took me behind one of the IFAs and several people started punching and kicking me. It was as if they had captured one of the Kurdish rebels and not as if I was one of their members! I knew that if they wanted to, they could easily kill me and put the blame on the Kurds in that chaos. I had no choice but to remain silent and pretend that the matter had been resolved for me. But that was the beginning of my dissent with the MEK.”

Yousef Jurfi is another defector of the MEK whose commander was Samira Shams at Camp Ashraf. He has some heart-breaking memories of daily meetings for forced confession and self-criticism. He was exposed by one of his so-called comrades-in-arms, Sirus, simply because he had hidden his daughter’s photo in the Quran and would occasionally glance at it out of homesickness. Sirus and other members of the meeting, led by Samira Shams, beat Yousef. “You coward! You dishonorable person! Instead of putting Brother Massoud’s photo in the Quran, you put your daughter’s picture? Aren’t you ashamed? You scum!” These are the words that were thrown at the subject of the meeting, led by Samira Shams. They wanted Yousef Jurfi to cherish and love Massoud Rajavi, instead of his daughter.

He continued the story of that meeting: “Everyone was shouting at me. I was confused. My eyes were going black. Everyone was cursing and swearing at me and accusing me of betraying the group… Then Sister Samira, who had arranged this scenario for me to first crush and disfigure my character, said: What? Family? Instead of the leader’s photo, you put your daughter’s photo in the Quran? Aren’t you ashamed? Stupid! Filthy! Garbage! We gathered here to sacrifice our lives for Brother Massoud, and then you fall asleep with the love and thought of your daughter and dream about her? Yes, you opened a branch of the Revolutionary Guards in our midst. Let me tell you something. We don’t have a home or a family. The family is top one enemy. Don’t you know, know it right here!”

Moreover, the best picture might be provided by a former child soldier of the MEK, a person named Ailyn Moghadam. She, who escaped the MEK in Albania a few years ago, writes in her description of Samira Shams on her Platform X account:
“He would come… not like a human, but like a nightmare in broad daylight. 360 kilos of anger and hatred. Every step he took would shake the earth, so heavy that the asphalt groaned under her feet. It was as if the earth was tired of her. Her face was sullen, cold and poisonous. Always angry, always demanding. Her voice was like a whip and her gaze was like a knife; she didn’t comfort you; she would tear your heart. No one dared to look her in the eye. She was arrogant, a bully, and no one could get past the extent of her hatred. She didn’t scare people with her gigantic body; she would crush them. She had no respect, no mercy in her heart; she just wanted those around her to crumble under the heavy shadow of her being. She was not ashamed of her behavior; she boasted about it. She was there to command, not to live; to frighten, not to be seen. Yes, her name is Samira Shams. Among us, we called her “Genghis the Mongol.” A nickname that described her better than any other word.”

Mazda Parsi

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Numerous reports from former members, human rights organizations, and investigative journalists detail a highly authoritarian and cult-like environment within the MEK, directly contradicting the democratic and human rights principles espoused in Rajavi’s public agenda.

The following are examples of the contradiction between Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan and what is actually being done within the MEK, extracted from non-Iranian sources. Therefore, the documents – which are included at the end of the article

– do not provide any evidence that Rajavi is implementing the provisions of his ten-month plan within his organization.

–Former members have consistently described mandatory participation in ideological sessions, self-criticism rituals, and adherence to strict dress codes, including forced hijab for women, even outside of Iran.

–The policy of forced celibacy, implemented by the MEK leader Massoud Rajavi in the late 1980’s and continued under Maryam Rajavi’s leadership, requires members to divorce their spouses and abstain from sexual relations, ostensibly to focus solely on the “revolution”.

Based on Massoud Rajavi’s doctrine, “revolution” refers to “ideological revolution” which is a cult jargon in the MEK that requires members to dedicate their entire being to the cause of the group.

–Gender segregation is also widely reported within MEK camp and facilities, further contradicting any claims of gender equality or individual freedom.

In a quite brief review, it is detected that the above-mentioned practices stand in stark contrast to the principles of freedom of religion, freedom of choice, and gender equality outlined in Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan, which advocates for a democratic, secular and non-nuclear Iran.

Mazda Parsi

Sources:
1.Human Rights Watch. “No Exit: Human Rights Abuses inside the MKO”
1.RAND Corporation. “The Mujahedin-e Khalq in Iraq: A policy conundrum.”
3.Goulka, Jeremiah, et al. “The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)”
4.Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “Cult of Personality: The MEK’s abuses of Its Own Members.”
5.Maryam Rajavi. “Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for Future Iran.

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In a recent article titled “The Complex Intersection of Sex and Cults,” American researcher Stephanie Elias argues that cult leaders often use sex as a tool for power and control, presenting themselves as divine or clairvoyant figures with whom sexual contact is essential for spiritual or personal growth. This manipulative tactic is often framed as part of a broader mission, whether that mission is to bring followers closer to “enlightenment” or fulfill some divine purpose. The leader becomes the ultimate arbiter of sexual relations within the group, determining who sleeps with whom, when, and why.
Documents and accounts from women who defected the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) indicate that Massoud Rajavi, as the leader of the cult, also used sexual exploitation of women as a means of exerting power and control and creating dependency.

By focusing on sexual relations within the group structure, as Stephanie Elias writes, cults create an environment in which members come to believe that their emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being is tied to following the leader’s rules. Members may become conditioned to believe that abstaining from sex with the leader will lead to spiritual or personal failure. This creates a dependency on sexual “privileges” granted or withheld by the leader.

Sima, Another Witness to Rajavi’s Sexual Corruption

Batoul Soltani was the first woman to speak out after fleeing Rajavi’s destructive cult about Massoud Rajavi’s mass marriages with women of the leadership council, the “Liberation Dance” sessions, and the sexual relations of these women with Massoud Rajavi. Batoul Soltani’s horrific but courageous revelations were only repeated in quotes from other male defectors, such as Siamak Naderi, Iraj Mesdaghi, and Mohammad Reza Torabi, who they likely heard in private conversations with other former female members of the MEK.

Until the publication of the famous Intercept article in 2020, in which two journalists named Murtaza Hussain and Matthew Cole interviewed six former members of the MEK, no other female former member of the cult had spoken out openly about Massoud Rajavi’s sexual abuse of women and the practice of sterilization. Sima is the second female ex-member of the MEK to speak out in this investigative report about Massoud Rajavi’s sexual corruption.

In the Intercept article, “Defectors Tell of Torture, Forced Sterilization in Iran’s Militant Sect,” published on March 22, 2020, the authors state that their report contains the following: “Interviews with six defectors, including several who held senior positions, provide the most detailed account yet of life inside the MEK.”

Reza Sadeghi, Batoul Soltani, Issa Azadeh, Ghorbanali Hosseinnejad, and “Sima” were the five who allowed the Intercept to record their experiences in the MEK. Sima is the only person whose real name is not given in the Intercept report for ethical reasons, and is introduced as follows:

Another female member of the High Council at Camp Ashraf, whom The Intercept agreed to identify only as Sima, said she joined the MEK in the 1980s and left it in 2014. Unlike other former members, Sima asked that her real name not be used because she feared retaliation from current MEK members. She now lives in hiding in a European country and agreed to meet privately in a place where other local supporters of the group were unlikely to see her.

Sima explains her fear of the MEK to The Intercept: “You must know the organization and the psychological warfare that they start against you. They assassinate your personality and you will lose your closest friends; even your family wouldn’t trust you. This is the reason that these people are scared.”

According to the Intercept, Sima’s background in activism is that she joined the MEK in Iran after becoming disillusioned with other leftist movements that seemed hesitant to confront the Shah or the Islamic Republic. But unlike other interviewees, she said she never felt fully committed to the MEK ideology, and it was very difficult for her to find a way back to her old life after being caught up in the organization.

She moved to Camp Ashraf in Iraq after marrying another MEK member, where she realized she had nowhere else to go. At that time, caught up in Rajavi’s cult, the world outside of Rajavi’s control seemed both unreal and frightening.

Like other members of the MEK, Sima underwent years of military training at Camp Ashraf to prepare for what she saw as an imminent attack on Iran and the installation of Rajavi as the country’s leader. They carefully studied maps of possible attack routes and received weapons and intelligence training. Sima was also aware of the large amounts of money flowing to the MEK from Saddam Hussein’s intelligence services.

She was among those who managed the group’s finances in the years leading up to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. “I was managing the money for the hundred people in my section,” Sima said. “We received sacks full of Iraqi dinars every month.”, Sima told The Intercept.

Over the years, she began to clash with the group. In response, they monitored her and forced her to attend grueling self-criticism sessions that she described as psychologically challenging. Around 2000, Sima was nearing breaking point. She and another woman plotted an escape from Camp Ashraf. They mapped out their escape in meticulous detail, but the other woman betrayed her to the leaders of the MEK. Sima was not only punished, but also severely ostracized and subjected to psychological torture.

For most of the next 14 years, Sima was confined to a section of Camp Ashraf, unable to move freely. Like Batoul Soltani, Sima spoke of an intense form of psychosexual manipulation by Rajavi, which she said had become an integral tool in controlling the female cadres. Sima recounted that years earlier, in 1998, “Rajavi gave every woman in the organization a pendant and told us that we were all dependent on him and no other man.” She was eventually forced to divorce her husband and, like Batoul Soltani, eventually was coerced to sleep with Rajavi.

The Sterilization Project

The Intercept reports on a more shocking directive that Rajavi gave to the organization’s female members, based on testimonies of Sima and Batoul Soltani. “I see some obstacles which have prevented us from reaching our goals and achieving victory,” Rajavi told members of the group, Soltani recalled. “That obstacle is hope for the future. We want to eliminate any kind of hope for the future from your mind. You are either with us or not!”
Sterilization was a tool to capture the full mental focus of women. “They said that this organ of the body, the womb, has made women want to be mothers someday and return to domestic life,” Soltani told the Intercept. “And so, meetings with women began, to get them to go in groups of 20 or 30 to have a hysterectomy.”

The women were to be examines at the MEK hospital in Camp Ashraf. The procedures were to be performed by a female MEK member trained as a physician, with the assistance of a local Iraqi doctor. At first, Soltani resisted. But eventually, “the pressure was so great that it broke my resistance and I too, should make an appointment. In other words, they gave so many and varied arguments for me to go to the hospital that I had no choice.”

Rajavi later asked at a meeting, referring to what he called “women who have abandoned the last vestiges of their sexual world and have undergone surgery,” “How many women have reached the peak?” The doctor replied that there had been 50. Soltani eventually left the MEK in 2006, before the operation could be performed on her.

And here’s Sima’s story in the sterilization project: After much insistence from the MEK leaders, Sima finally agreed to have her ovaries surgically removed in 2011. “When you’re brainwashed, you do anything. You would do any military operation, you would go and have sexual relations with your leader, you would sell information and intelligence. We were under constant control by the leader,” she told The Intercept.

Sima in the Free World

When Sima finally left the MEK, she said, “I felt like a lost person.” The United Nations arranged a meeting between her and her brother, whom she had not seen for 30 years. At first, Sima was reluctant to hug or kiss her brother, because she had become so alienated from her closest relative. Her brother taught her how to shop and use money. Sima said she told her brother, “I haven’t seen anything like this in about 30 years. I have completely forgotten what real life is like outside the MEK.”
“They destroyed my life,” she says quietly.
According to The Intercept, when she first spoke out against the group, current members requested a meeting. They offered her several thousand euros not to criticize the group, which Sima says she declined. “I told them, ‘You cannot return what I lost, my family, my husband. You cannot return that.’”

Mazda Parsi

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The group was founded in the 1960s with a blend of Islamic and Marxist ideologies, initially opposing the Shah of Iran [1] [4]. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the MEK clashed with Ayatollah Khomeini’s new regime, leading to a period of assassinations and bombings against Iranian officials [1] [2]. In the 1980s, the MEK relocated to Iraq and allied with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, fighting against Iran [1] [4]. This alliance is a significant reason for its widespread unpopularity within Iran, as many Iranians view their collaboration with an enemy during wartime as unforgivable [1] [4].

Several former high-ranking members and human rights organizations have described the MEK as a cult. Masoud Banisadr, a former MEK representative to the UN and US, who left the group in 1996, now dedicates his work to understanding cults and terrorism, explicitly labeling the MEK a “destructive cult” [2] [3]. He highlights the presence of a charismatic leader (Masoud Rajavi, and later Maryam Rajavi), a black-and-white worldview, enforced isolation from family, and mind manipulation as key characteristics [2]. Banisadr recounts how members were encouraged to hate their family members if they were perceived as enemies and how he himself had to go into hiding after leaving the group [2].

Human Rights Watch and a 2007 US State Department report have documented allegations of severe mistreatment of MEK members, including forced divorces, lengthy solitary confinements, severe beatings, and torture for those attempting to leave the group [1] [4]. Banisadr himself was forced to divorce his wife, a common practice within the MEK where celibacy was enforced for all members except the Rajavi leadership [2] [3]. This control over personal relationships and the suppression of individuality are hallmarks of cultic behavior [2].

The MEK’s internal structure is far from democratic, despite its public portrayal as a democratic alternative to the Iranian government [1]. Critics argue that the group uses human rights concerns to obscure its past and present practices [1]. The group’s influence in Western political circles is often attributed to its significant financial contributions to speakers at its events, with estimates ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 per speech [1]. Despite its efforts to rebrand itself as a democratic force, analysts and former members assert that the MEK has little to no visible support inside Iran [1] [4].

Sources:
[1] Kamali Dehghan, Saeed, Who is the Iranian group targeted by bombers and beloved of Trump allies?, The Guardian, July 2, 2018.
[2] Adam Forrest, A Former MEK Member Talks About the Extremist Iranian ‘Cult’, VICE, September 2, 2014.
[3] Potter, Richard, The Cult in the Shadow War: An Interview with a former member of Mojahedin-e-Khalq, Mondoweiss, November 26, 2013.
[4] Lo, Joe, UK MPs attended rally for Iranian group whose leader is still banned by London, Middle East Eye, January 30, 2018.

Mazda Parsi

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In one of the darkest chapters of the history of terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), led by Massoud Rajavi, an incident revealed that the power of family bonds is stronger than any brainwashing tool. Families who came to the gates of Camp Ashraf to see their loved ones encountered a plot not aimed at emotional reunion, but rather at propaganda in order to recruit family members. However, these plans unexpectedly led to the weakening of the cult’s internal structure.

Behind Ashraf’s Closed Doors

During the years the MEK was located at Camp Ashraf , Iraq, hopeful families traveled to this heavily guarded and isolated compound seeking a short visit with their children, siblings, or spouses. Social and emotional pressure from these families forced the organization to react. Rajavi and other leaders temporarily allocated houses—formerly used by couples before the so-called “ideological divorce”—to families.

Note:
The ‘ideological divorce’ was a policy imposed by Massoud Rajavi that forced members to sever all emotional and familial ties, so that their emotional dependency would be entirely eliminated. Based on this policy all married members were coerced to divorce.

The Real Goal Behind Family Invitations

Though it appeared to be a gesture of goodwill, the real purpose was to deceive public opinion, recruit younger family members, and emotionally drain the families through strictly monitored visits. Rajavi also aimed to build a sociable portrait for his group attracting individuals among the visitors who would portray a supportive image of the group and promote the cult’s official narrative. These efforts, however, failed, as the emotional atmosphere and truth-seeking spirit of the families prevented the manipulated narrative from taking hold.

Cracks in the Cult: The Voices of Mothers

Rajavi’s plan failed. Not only did those who met their families consider escaping or leaving the group, but even other members—present in the meeting halls or who merely watched over the visiting parents—experienced deep emotional impact. These meetings, orchestrated for the first time with specific propaganda goals, unexpectedly led to emotional awakening and internal doubt. Even those who weren’t allowed to meet their families were affected by witnessing these emotional scenes or hearing families’ stories. The cult, despite its extensive psychological isolation efforts, could not sever the deep-rooted human connections.

Testimonies from Former Members

Mohammadreza Yazdanpanah:
“When I heard my mother crying at the camp gate, everything collapsed inside me. For years they told us that family was the enemy, but that day I realized who the real enemy was.”
Sara Nouri:
“The moment I saw my father, I froze. They didn’t let us speak, but that one look was enough to make my decision final.”
Hamid Davari:
“Even those who didn’t meet their families were shaken by the sound of mothers crying. That was the voice of truth, not propaganda.”

Conclusion

The MEK, under Massoud Rajavi’s leadership, attempted once again to mask the truth using emotional manipulation and staged propaganda. However, the presence of families at Camp Ashraf’s gates not only disrupted these plans, but also triggered widespread awakening and defections. The story of Ashraf proved once again that the strength of familial bonds surpasses any fabricated ideology or forced isolation.

Ali Mohammadi

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The most recent image that was depicted by the group’s media proved the fact that the MEK is a cult. The image of residents of Ashraf 3 in Albania saying the prayers of Eid al-Fitr.

Eid al-Fiṭr is an Islamic celebration. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-dusk fasting (sawm) of Ramadan.

Eid al-Fitr has a particular prayer that is generally performed in an open field or large hall. It may only be performed in congregation. Like many other Muslims around the world, the MEK’s rank and file perform the religious ritual near their newly-built mosque at Ashraf 3.

Nevertheless, the images of the Eid’s prayer at the MEK’s headquarters in Albania illustrates a sexually-segregated population wearing uniforms, repeating the same rituals with pale, dull faces without a hint of emotion in them.

Hamid Atabay, former member of the Cult of Rajavi testifies about Eid al-Fiṭr prayer saying that it took the group members a long time to get organized in the rows and they were forced to wear uniform clothing even for their socks.

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Zhina (Zeinab) Hosseinnejad, a former child soldier of the MEK who spent her childhood and youth in the organization, although she is now a staunch opponent of the Islamic Republic, tries to inform Iranian public opinion about the nature of this destructive cult by occasionally publishing accounts of her time as a member of the cult. She is one of the former child soldiers of the MEK who testified against the MEK in the Hamburg court in Amin Gol Maryami’s case. She was also interviewed by some journalists and filmmakers in Europe.

In a recent post on her Facebook account, Zhina wrote about the concept of “constructive criticism” in the MEK. Reading this section of Zhina Hosseinnejad’s memoirs make it clear that criticism, even constructive criticism, is forbidden in the MEK’s ruling structure. Criticism leads to torture and harm to the critic, and this is proven repeatedly and in various situations in Zhina’s post.

Zhina’s account of constructive criticism within the MEK can be considered credible evidence to make any political force that thinks it can interact with the MEK reconsider. This is a part of her post on constructive criticism:
Whenever I hear the word “constructive criticism” about reactionary opposition groups, I recall the events in Albania, the days when I still believed in the change of the Mujahedin.

When we arrived in Albania, the atmosphere of suffocation had become a little less than in Iraq, so I was able to write explicit internal criticism reports regarding censorship, repression, psychological torture, and forced confessions in women’s meetings, and I demanded that the officials of the organization be held accountable to the public.

One of the so-called bright and “good police” officials told me; “Our apparatus still does not have the capacity to respond to criticism, since we are not the government, our system will collapse and weaken.”

But I still do not understand why at the time of repression, torture, corruption, and violation of people’s rights, they were the government, but when it came to accountability, they were not the government… Let’s move on.

After months of psychological pressure sessions, which finally led me to leave the organization, one day I told an MEK agent who was visiting my controlled apartment in Tirana; “I want to open a Facebook page and write the reason for my departure from the organization and post my criticisms publicly and constructively.”

As if the official was struck by electricity, she said; “No, no, don’t do it! Let me ask the higher officials.”
In short, from that day on, every night and every morning, sometimes even late, they came to me, saying things, threatening and tempting, that I was shocked, but all they did was to prevent me from opening a political page.

And the more I asked; what’s wrong with “constructive criticism”? The more they said; “Absolutely! Don’t write even a single comment! Go and live your life.”
“life” that from years until that moment before leaving Ashraf was a taboo. Life was shame, it was disgrace, it was betrayal and it made you deserve trial! All of a sudden it became good, it became important, it became necessary, it became gold!
And you know very well what criticism will turn into when they don’t let you make “constructive criticism” in time… and it did.

When the issue of some of us was brought to the European media and the German courts, some MEK accounts came to my direct message and wrote: “Don’t step on the blood of your mother and uncles! If you have criticism, make it constructive criticism! Why did you bring the issue to the media and the court?!”

I said; Oh No! what happened? Constructive criticism became good? You came a little late! Sweet Heart!
In short, we, the new generation of MEK, were not given the space and the right to even the slightest “constructive criticism” until the issue was brought to the media and the court.

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What was the fate of us 800 children? No one will fully ever know because no one kept track. But many of us were transferred to foster families and homes where in many cases we were raped and abused. Sharing our stories is not easy, but a handful of us do because we found the courage within us to do so. A few hundred of us, including myself, were eventually lured back to Iraq “to find our parents” and ended up being recruited as child soldiers by the MEK, where we spent almost two decades within their ranks. I escaped and today I share my stories.

But the MEK will argue that their goal in doing so was to “save the lives of the children” and that they took them out of a war-torn Iraq during the first Persian Gulf War. And that they were sent to safe countries.
Then you should ask them:

– Why didn’t at least one parent accompany their child?
– Why didn’t the parents join their children after the war ended?
– Why are most of these children still separated from their parents after almost 35 years?

That is when you will come to the real answer that the MEK is an Islamic cult that has stripped its members of the most basic human rights and emotions. To the point where a mother, like mine, has no love for her son anymore and chooses loyalty to the cult and leader over family.
I will not we forgive. I will not forget. And I will continue writing and sharing my stories so the world can wake up to the evil the Islamist MEK cult represents.

Ray (Mohammad Reza) Torabi

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Most ex-members of the group post their photos by the side of a Christmas tree on their accounts in the social media writing a caption of the restrictions they suffered when they were a member of the Cult of Rajavi.

In the destructive cult, celebrating, having party, hanging out with friends is forbidden. Residing in Albania, as European country, does not mean that MEK members can ever enjoy the New Year’s atmosphere.

Living in a remote camp, named Ashraf 3, which is guarded by security agents and monitored by CCTV cameras, has turned them into hostages who are punished on a daily basis because they have once been joined the MEK.

MEK hostages are deprived from any type of joy and happiness while New Year celebrations and Christmas are two of the most significant events of the year for Europeans. The festive atmosphere with its shining lights, colorful and musical celebration spreading across Western countries is a taboo for members of the Cult of Rajavi because it reminds them of life!

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Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era

Torabi starts from 2001, when after holding meetings for all organizational levels, it became almost impossible to leave Camp Ashraf. According to Torabi, in these meetings, Massoud Rajavi publicly announced that we will not send anyone abroad from now on.

This former child soldier of the MEK describes the 2001 meetings as “very violent” and “anti-human” and “literally brutal”. According to Torabi, the word “Brutal” is the best adjective to describe the meetings. According to Masoud Rajavi’s new instructions, if a person wanted to leave the organization, he should first confess to the camera that he would not fight any more, and secondly, he should announce his resignation in a meeting before the crowd, so he would be subjected to the most brutal attacks. Curses, insults, spitting and even beatings from the brutalized comrades, and if he did not regret leaving the organization during these stressful and oppressive stages and resisted all the attacks, he would have to stay in a section called the exit for 2 years, until his alleged information would be burned and eventually he would be left at the border of Iran and Iraq.

According to Mohammad Reza Torabi, “leaving the MEK is the strictest red line” and if a person announced his intention to leave, all tasks would be shut down in order to convince the person to stay.

Due to such difficult conditions, some members of the group tried to escape from Ashraf camp. Ashraf was a large piece of land surrounded by barbed wire, guard towers and iron gates, in the bareness of the Iraqi deserts, which increases the probability of failure of escape plans. Mohammad Reza Torabi says that people who were caught while fleeing were punished with imprisonment and torture for at least six months.

Iraq after the American invasion

In 2003, after the American invasion of Iraq and the subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the disarmament of the MEK, the American forces took over the protection of Camp Ashraf. According to Torabi’s testimony, the American forces conducted short interviews with each and every member of the camp in the tents they had built around Ashraf, but the intensity of the brainwashing was so excessive that most of the members did not share their willingness to leave, with the Americans. Torabi says that people believed that they were the forces of imperialism and did not tell anything to them for fear of saying the wrong thing.

According to Torabi, since the MEK was under American supervision at that time, they could no longer torture people. At that time, people who wanted to leave the establishment could go to the American temporary settlement camp known as TIPF and stay there for a few years until the conditions for transfer to Iran or a third country were provided for them.
But inside the organization, as Mohammad Reza remembers, the leaders used to tell scary stories about TIPF to people in order to reduce the desire to leave their cult.

The first months in Albania

According to Mohammad Reza, Masoud Rajavi was determined to stay in Iraq, even before 2010, the United Nations proposed a plan based on which all members of the MEK would be transferred to Poland, but Rajavi’s strategy was to stay in Iraq.

Torabi even remembers that Abrishamchi spoke in the meetings about the possibility of Kurdish uprising and Barzani’s arming, followed by the arming of the MEK

But in 2016, under the pressure of the Iraqi government and the support of the United States, the MEK were completely transferred from Iraq to Albania, while Rajavi preferred that people stay in Iraq and more forces were killed in the attacks on Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.

Torabi talks about the atmosphere created after entering Albania: in a short time after entering Albania, when the organizational structure of the group had lost its cohesion, several hundred people were able to leave. Mohammad Reza explains why he did not leave the Cult of Rajavi in those days: “For someone like me, who was brainwashed by Masoud Rajavi, life outside the Mujahideen Khalq was unimaginable.”

Today in Albania

One year after moving to Albania, the leaders of the MEK rented the current location of the group in the village of Manez in the north of Tirana and started the construction of their new stronghold called Ashraf 3. Once again, under the pretext of security issues, they built a fence and gate around their camp, and this time they added CCTV cameras to the protection layer of their camp.

Nevertheless, according to Torabi, the conditions of the members today are not as difficult as the conditions prevailing in Iraq, but people are either so old that they no longer have the motivation to leave and see themselves too old to build an independent life outside the group, or in terms of personality and spirit not everyone has the capacity to endure two years of isolation and repression before being fired, in the exit department of the organization.

Mohammad Reza Torabi says: Imagine living in a place where if you ask to leave, everyone will consider you as a traitor! According to them, the worst sin is to leave the MEK. In this situation, anyone who leaves this cult is really bravely making the most difficult decision of his life.

Mazda Parsi

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