Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi The MEK Cult Leader

In 2003, Maryam Rajavi inherited, or at least became de facto leader of, a political mind control cult, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, after her husband Massoud Rajavi disappeared. Fortunately for her, Massoud Rajavi had already spent over two decades creating the cultic conditions inside this anti-Iranian group that have guaranteed its survival: modern slavery based on misappropriated devotion to an outdated, unachievable cause enforced through a punitive regime of isolation, fear and punishment. Phew. This is certainly outside Maryam Rajavi’s competence. She is neither a charismatic leader, nor a political strategist, nor anything other than a face and name to trigger obedience among Rajavi’s followers. However, she has been able to use his formula and foreign money to keep the MEK going.

Maryam clearly learned from her husband how cultic abuse could keep the MEK members obedient, using lieutenant enforcers, loyal devotees and useful idiots. As part of the lessons she learned, she has, for two decades, used the label ‘agent of the Iranian regime or intelligence services’ to denounce and demonise and thereby frighten her critics; the majority of whom are former members who have spoken out since leaving about the atrocious human rights abuses they suffered and which are still being inflicted on the trapped membership. The label, which also applies to non-Iranian critics such as western journalists, has become so widely spread that it is not only ludicrous to imagine that the current MEK is harbouring ‘agents’ who simply haven’t left yet, but also to imagine that the Iranians are so powerful they can recruit thousands of specifically anti-MEK agents whose only goal is to infiltrate then destroy the MEK by leaving, someday – a claim even more ludicrous considering all the real-world problems Iran faces. And they still haven’t been able to destroy the organisation.

So, in this context it is interesting that after all this time Maryam Rajavi has suddenly become upset over the description of MEK as a cult and has published on the MEK internet outlets denials and denouncements that the Iranian regime has created this label to destroy the MEK.

But here’s the thing. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s rulers and media have consistently referred to the MEK only as Monafeqin, a Quranic phrase which translates as ‘Hypocrites’, i.e. not true Muslims. There is no track record of publicly, persistently accusing the group of being a cult. Something else is going on here.

Could it be that Maryam Rajavi felt so safe in her tick box method of cult leadership – defame every critic as an agent of the regime – that she neglected to listen to what her critics were actually saying and the public impact that has had. For years, former MEK members have explained and exposed the internal dynamics to anyone who would listen. Compelling and consistent evidence has led experts in cultic abuse such as ICSA and FECRIS as well as human rights organisations, to recognise the organisation as a cult. Simply put, that means the members are suffering abuse. Investigative media reporting has reflected this reality. This has now reached legal recognition as a German court has determined that MEK behaviour toward underage members amounted to abuse. This has led to the MEK being recognised as a toxic brand in international parliaments and forums.

A quick look into the MEK’s recent history might explain Maryam Rajavi’s dilemma. While the MEK was based in Iraq just off the border with Iran and had weapons and the military backing of Saddam Hussein, the leaders could ignore labels or criticism. Rajavi had the support – financial and political – of various anti-Iran parties not least Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton and John McCain which allowed her to brush off criticism. She had access to parliaments in Europe and North America, she held fancy rallies in which she posed as the saviour of Iran. These have all gone. After its move to Albania, the MEK was reduced to churning out misinformation and false narratives about Iran, swapping guns for clicks, so that the MEK have become the equivalent of porn stars in fuelling the political fantasies of the pundits who consume their political trash.

But the organisation itself is becoming weak and diminished. It is shrinking with deaths and defections, unable to recruit and replenish its ranks. Unable to stop the ageing process of its current members. Unable to hide the obvious fact that after forty years the MEK is no longer a player in the political scene of Iran.

The MEK brand for Maryam also carries an extra burden. She has already appointed her Qajar relatives to leadership roles and sidelined Massoud Rajavi’s family and friends. The continued reference to the MEK as the Rajavi Cult reinforces his name. She needs to have the organisation associated with her family name Azodanlu.

Finally, a home goal by then President Donald Trump – the assassination of general Qassem Soleimani – means that regime change or a colour revolution is completely out of the question. Now with the election of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran is looking East, not West. Raisi’s Iran regards the west as a distraction, not a problem. Russia and China are opportunities for Iran. Now everyone is left with the question, ‘what is the MEK for?’

It’s as though Maryam Rajavi – and or her sponsors – have only recently woken up to this desert of opportunity and paucity of relevance. Her reaction has been to blame everyone except her own cruelty and incompetence.

In the end, the labels and where they originate are not too important. Instead, it is deeds not words which will continue to determine the future of the MEK. As long as it remains on this dysfunctional path the members will suffer. Then they will die. Those who have the power to dismantle the MEK safely and humanely in the short term should choose to do so. If they choose to leave the members to rot and their families to grieve, the reputation of western democracies will be dragged deeper and deeper into the mud. The result will be the same. But just a little hard headed, cost free humanity on the part of western political leaders now would make all the difference.

By Anne Khodabandeh (Singleton)

February 20, 2022 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Push Back Against Maryam Rajavi Succeeding

America’s failure to bully Iran into submission in Vienna during the JCPOA talks has enraged the Israeli government, which is now threatening some kind of biblical annihilation in revenge. A futile threat. Instead, small grubby gesture politics has had to suffice. One of the anti-Iran coalition’s more irrational beliefs is that if it shakes the stick labelled ‘the MEK’ at Iran, the Iranian leaders will lose their minds and cave in to all kinds of demands. Thus we discover that the MEK’s de facto leader, Maryam Rajavi, was chosen as the face of this gesture politics when she was sent to Paris last week to visit a church – the kind of move which appears inspired by the need to annoy Iran. Rajavi, of course, was deported from the EU in 2018 and has not been allowed back in until now. And now, the anti-Iran coalition has presumably put enough pressure on the French government to partake in a charade that suits the Israelis’ and Rajavi’s agendas.

Rajavi has her own reasons to partake in this show. Always ready to prostrate herself in the service of empty gestures and symbolic acts if it gives her the kind of publicity that proves to the MEK members that she has the support of the west, Rajavi would have no hesitation in paying a smirking visit to a church at Christmas. Since her deportation Rajavi has been desperate to find a way to get back into the EU. What she doesn’t understand is that smirking in a church does not equate to political leadership or an actual policy move.
At the start of December, we revealed that Maryam Rajavi had pretended to her Farsi speaking audience – such as it is – that she had visited the French Senate to make a speech. This was a lie. She tried to pretend in her Farsi sites that she had actually been there, but the English sites could not disguise the fact that she had addressed the rally from Albania.

This time Rajavi was allowed into France only to visit the church (not Paris), and then return to Albania. It doesn’t matter, however, that she shows her face. What is important is that she is not allowed to remain or work in the EU. She cannot undertake any activity there which might be construed as political. Her appearance in a church in Paris is a purely face-saving exercise. A show of weakness not of strength.

Another example of the push back against the MEK is the sudden reappearance of a damning article in the Albanian media outlet EXIT. On 4th December, the article reported that two high ranking MEK members had been arrested in Albania on charges of human and drug trafficking. However, the article was quickly removed from the site giving an Error 404 notice. Apparently the MEK don’t like having their crimes exposed. At that time, Iran-Interlink wrote that the MEK’s mafia like behaviour in Albania dates back to its arrival in that country. Intimidation and bribery of media owners and editors was not new. Indeed, the MEK have a pattern of criminality that encompasses not only the media but includes the police, security services, judiciary and politicians from all parties.

However, it appears that this message has got through to the right people in the country. The EXIT article has been restored. Some honest, patriotic elements in the Albanian establishment have gained control and the MEK and its mafia collaborators are being pushed further and further back. Perhaps it’s only a matter of months until the organisation finally collapses like a hollow chocolate Christmas confection.

December 29, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi Enemy of Diplomacy

The Mojahedin’s fake Twitter account ‘Heshmat Alavi’ has surfaced again. This time to attack Representative Ilhan Omar and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) advocacy group. The MEK (through the Heshmat Alavi account) accuses Omar of “appeasing” the Iranian regime by advocating for diplomacy over war as a policy aim. The MEK claims that former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is feeding her, through various individuals linked to NIAC, narratives that “push Iran’s talking points”. But Iran’s talking points are not hidden or obscure; ‘don’t threaten us, lift sanctions’ appears to be the nub of it.

In January 2020, when Joe Biden was sworn in as president, we warned that he must act swiftly to establish a diplomatic route to differentiate his administration from the Trump administration in relation to Iran. He failed to do any such thing and US policy toward Iran has not changed, it is all sticks and no carrots. But Iran is not the same country it was even two years ago. There is no sign that Iran wants or needs to engage with the US. President Raisi is looking eastward for allies and is ‘diplomatically’ ignoring the US in real terms. Calls for diplomacy are an acknowledgement of this new reality.

Initially, in 2020, the MEK tried to attach itself to the Democratic Biden administration. However, Biden has proven incapable of either making new policy or taking any decisive action on Iran. In response, the MEK recently hitched up with Mike Pence. An indication that the MEK’s backers believe the Republicans are still the safe bet in confronting Iran.

The Mojahedin’s fake Twitter account ‘Heshmat Alavi’

The Heshmat Alavi attack on Rep. Omar is characteristically wrong footed in that it completely fails to understand the irony of its own position. After what it believes to be a clever ‘whodunnit’ to join the dots of people Omar has been in contact with – all people who live out their professional lives in the full glare of public notice and accountability – Alavi demands that NIAC be investigated as a lobbying arm of the Iranian government.

Instead, the NCRI (aka MEK) should be investigated. In June BGR Group registered the NCRI (aka MEK) as a foreign principal (agent) in the USA. BGR Group was to provide public relations services for their annual conference. The document describes the NCRI as neither a state nor a political party, it claims instead to be a political organization acting as a “parliament-in-exile”. In section 10. The NCRI claims not to be owned, directed by, controlled by, financed by or subsidized in part by a foreign government, foreign political party, or other foreign principal. This flies in the face of all available evidence that in fact the NCRI (aka MEK) has been funded and directed by a variety of the above, from Saddam Hussein to the Saudis, Israelis and elements in the US itself for decades.

There is only one reason why the MEK, through disinformation, character assassination and false accusations, would need to totally reject any move toward increasing diplomatic relations with Iran. That is because the very existence of this group depends on conflict, violence and enmity. Unfortunately for Maryam Rajavi, the world has moved on without her.

By Ann Singleton

November 9, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi Unelected President-Elect

Without a trace of irony, the MEK this week is advertising its democratic credentials by celebrating the fact that Maryam Rajavi has been their ‘president-elect for a future Iran’ for the past three decades. Since 1993 not a single election has been held to affirm or reject her in this role. Many dictators have not served unopposed for so long and without even the pretense of an election. As someone involved in the process of Maryam Rajavi’s appointment to this position by her husband Massoud Rajavi, I can confirm that her situation is just as phoney now as it was then. Her role is entirely superficial.

In 1991, after losing western support by remaining in Iraq during the First Gulf War, Massoud Rajavi devised a plan to put Maryam centre stage as his pro-west advocate and to task her with re-gaining this support. First, he had to convince the handful of non-MEK members of the NCRI that she was up to this task. Although Massoud was acknowledged as an intelligent and charismatic leader, Maryam was held in such low esteem that it took two years of persuasion and bargaining before Massoud could convince the other NCRI members to accept her as the ‘interim president-elect of a future Iran’. That year, Rajavi also announced that the NCRI membership was increased from a dozen to 500 – 99 percent were MEK members, including myself – thereby diluting any challenge from the original members.

MEK leader Maryam Rajavi has a popularity problem both at home and in exile.

Since Saddam Hussein would not allow Massoud to leave Iraq, the aim was for Maryam to get out and emerge publicly in the west as the soft face of the ‘Resistance’ to announce the imminent toppling of the regime in Iran. Her role was to re-engage western politicians and gain their support for what Massoud described as the ‘only alternative’ to the Iranian regime.

Although Massoud’s mission for Maryam was serious, unfortunately her personality and capabilities were not up to it. Looking back over the years it is clear that her primary understanding of ‘doing politics’ was to simply pose and perform as if in a theatre show. A role she is still performing today in her every public appearance.

In 1993, I brought Maryam to Paris with a false passport. Massoud allocated her half the monthly allowance given by Saddam to fund the National Liberation Army and about 300 personnel, chosen by Maryam. This was supposed to be a new start for the NCRI, similar to when Massoud Rajavi escaped to Paris from Iran in 1981.

However, as soon as Maryam arrived in Paris she asked Mohaddessin to talk to his CIA contact and ask for visa to the US. Mohaddessin warned her they wouldn’t issue one. They didn’t and that door was firmly closed. The CIA contact told them that for the time being no other MEK were allowed to travel to the States, not even Mohaddessin himself, and that if they tried to go with false passports, they would be severely punished. Of course, Maryam later blamed Mohaddessin and shunned him for a few months.

After arriving in Paris, Maryam’s limited capabilities soon became clear. Instead of undertaking political work – contacting politicians, networking and lobbying – about which she had no clue, Maryam focused on recruiting Iranian exiles. She poached famous music stars from the diaspora and had the MEK members trawl refugee populations to create ‘supporter numbers’. She used Massoud’s money to fund dinner parties to which she would invite western feminists to listen to her talks. Maryam, in her headscarf, lectured American, Scandinavian and European feminists in why they couldn’t be considered real feminists until they accepted Massoud Rajavi as their ideological leader.

I could see that this was not what Massoud Rajavi had envisioned when he tasked her to reinstate the MEK in western political circles and began to argue with Maryam. She must have complained to Massoud because I was soon recalled to Iraq. I was told that I was needed to sort out some technical problems in the underground nuclear bunker. But I soon realised Massoud wanted to check my loyalties. I played nice until he sent me back to Paris. Then I immediately travelled to London where I surrendered my French, Iraqi and Jordanian identity documents and announced my separation from the MEK. I got identity documents in my real name and went about reintegrating into society.

By 1996 it became clear Maryam was to be deported back to Iraq. She asked for one last face-saving event before going back. The UK granted her a 3-day visa, backed by a guarantee from France that they would take her back afterwards. The MEK announced a concert for the famous singer Marzieh at Earls Court in London with free tickets. At the last moment they changed the advertising pictures of Marzieh outside to pictures of Maryam. It didn’t help. When she returned to Iraq at least half the people who had come to Paris with her didn’t go back – including myself, Dr. Massoud Bani Sadr (NCRI Rep in USA) and Dr. Bahman Etemad (NCRI Rep in UK).

By 1997, the loss of so many key members led to Massoud bringing as many as possible back to Iraq. Massoud even called me and tried to persuade me to return to Iraq as an NCRI member not as MEK. When I told him I had been too close to him and knew exactly why he was asking me to come to Saddam’s lawless land, he got angry and started swearing at Maryam who was sitting alongside him. Clearly, Massoud was furious with her for not only failing to get political support, but also losing many core members too. I had credible fear for my life.

Once outside the MEK, over the next year and a half it became clear to me that Massoud and Maryam were sending people into Iran not to kill but to get killed; to add to the blood bank that was already swelled by operation Eternal Light. Terror teams were being intercepted and arrested or killed at the point of entry from Iraq to Iran. Many died. It was obvious there was either a mole in the top level of the MEK or the top themselves were informing the Iranians. When the Iranian security services realised this they stopped killing MEK members and began to arrest and rehabilitate them. Members of these terror teams spoke out about their experiences: Arash Sametipour, Babak Amin, Marjan Malek. They became part of a movement of other ex-MEK members, inside and outside Iran, along with a nationwide association of families of those still inside MEK (Nejat Society), that began actively campaigning to expose the real nature of the MEK, NCRI and Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. The MEK was listed as a terrorist entity by major western countries.

In 2003, with the US invasion of Iraq, Maryam once again emerged on another passport in Paris. She was arrested under terrorism laws. However, some deal was done to free her as the MEK was restored to western favour and began to be used by an anti-Iran coalition of Neocons, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Eventually the MEK was removed from the terrorist lists and deployed in propaganda activity. The MEK members transferred from Iraq to Albania were set to work in a click farm, attempting to influence the narrative on Iran through social media. Maryam continued – increased even – her performances and shows. Her annual Villepinte event became a lucrative holiday trip for many politicians and former officials.

Throughout all this time, I don’t believe it has mattered to Maryam or the members that the fortunes of the MEK were dictated and paid for by foreign powers. Her role, after her husband disappeared in 2003, was to simply maintain the group as an entity; a feat she failed back in the 1990s.

Now, after three decades, Maryam Rajavi is still putting on performance and shows which she, probably sincerely, believes demonstrate her credentials to lead Iran in some mysterious future when it is liberated somehow from its demonic leaders. The problem is, to be a leader, you need followers. The only followers Rajavi has are the enslaved members in Albania, along with some paid supporters and paid advocates. She hasn’t the ability to lead or to learn. Just as when she arrived in Paris in 1993, Maryam still doesn’t know or understand how to ‘do politics’. The tragedy is she also doesn’t see herself as the useful idiot in the fight against Iran, or that the MEK is a merely sideshow, at best an irritant, in the west’s interminable mission to defeat Iran. Performance is all. All hail the unelected president-elect of Iran.

The Many Faces of the MEK, Explained By Its Former Top Spy Massoud Khodabandeh:. to listen to the full conversation click here

October 28, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Qajar Replaces Rajavi Dynasty

The worst sin that an MEK member can commit is to ask questions about Massoud Rajavi. Rajavi disappeared in March 2003 when the US invaded Iraq. It was assumed he was still holed up in Camp Ashraf – perhaps in the nuclear bunker – surrounded and protected by a hundred loyal followers. After 2011, when Camp Ashraf was emptied, his disappearance became the subject of intense speculation for many. But when Prince Turki bin Faisal delivered the coup de grace on Rajavi’s political life by offering condolences to Maryam Rajavi on his death, the question almost became irrelevant. Whether alive or dead, Rajavi’s public leadership of the MEK ended. Maryam became the de facto leader. But the dismay she showed at this announcement revealed that she wasn’t prepared for this change to be made public at this time.

Now, five years later, we can understand why. Maryam Rajavi has performed a coup to take over control of the MEK and completely eliminate every trace of Massoud. The nature of this coup became clear when Zahra Merikhi, who was re-appointed for two more years as Secretary General of the MEK, named three women as co-leaders with herself – Mahnaz Meimanat (62), Narges Azdanlou (40) and Rabiah Mofidi (39). Narges Azdanlou is Maryam Rajavi’s niece.

Narges Azdanlou (40) Rabiah Mofidi (39) Zahra Merikhi (62) Mahnaz Meimanat (62)

In addition, Merikhi named six deputy leaders – Sepideh Pourtaqi (40), Azar Akbarzadegan (39), Ashraf Abrishamchi (39), Shiva Mameqani (40), Maryam Rezaei (30) and Vahideh Nabavi (34). Ashraf Abrishamchi is Maryam Rajavi’s daughter, Azar Akbarzadegan is the daughter of Jamileh Abrishamchi, her former husband Mehdi Abrishamchi’s sister. The other women are from families loyal to Maryam and Mehdi. The ages of nearly all these women reveal that Maryam is handing over control of the MEK to a younger generation of women groomed specifically for this purpose. Individually none of them have any qualification to lead the MEK other than being appointed by Maryam Rajavi. Of course, Maryam will remain in control of the whole membership of the organisation.

Vahideh Nabavi (34) Shiva Mameqani (40) Maryam Rezaei (30) Zahra Merikhi (62) Sepideh Pourtaqi (40) Azar Akbarzadegan (39) Ashraf Abrishamchi (39)

The fact that Maryam has appointed members of her own family and trusted women to take over leadership of the MEK can only be because she is confident of controlling the finances of the MEK and because she is confident there will be no threat or challenge from any family, friend, associate or ally of Massoud. Looking at events from this perspective it is clear that Maryam, her former husband Mehdi Abrishamchi and her brother Mahmoud Qajar-Azodanlu have spent the past four decades plotting and building up to this moment. The moment when the Qajar Dynasty led by Maryam Qajar-Azodanlu replaced the Rajavi Dynasty led by Massoud Rajavi in the MEK.

What I hope to reveal in this piece is the slow – perhaps surprisingly slow – but relentless process which inevitably led the MEK to this point.

When, after a failed coup, Massoud Rajavi fled to Paris in 1981, he could not have anticipated this ultimate betrayal. At that time, he was confidently gathering together a National Council of Resistance, led and controlled by himself, in anticipation of returning to Iran and forming a government. At this time, it was clear Rajavi had support from the CIA. The MEK was still led by a polit bureau of leading members, with Massoud as the spokesman. Mousa Khiabani, member of the polit bureau, later described as Rajavi’s ‘right-hand-man’, remained in Iran to lead the internal resistance. Although there was speculation that Rajavi wanted Khiabani dead, this is countered by the fact he also left his wife Ashraf Rabbii, his soulmate, and their infant son Mohammad (aka Mustafa) in Iran. On February 8, 1982, they were killed in a shoot-out with government forces in their safe house. It was later discovered that somebody had tipped off the officials. By chance, baby Mohammad survived and was sent to live with his grandparents, and later allowed to join his father in Paris.

At that time, I was operating from our base in Iranian Kurdistan. Less than a month after Mousa Khiabani was killed, Mehdi Abrishamchi – described by the MEK as Massoud’s ‘right-hand-man’ – left Iran. I was told to pick him up on the road between the cities of Baneh to Sardasht and bring him to our base. From there I passed him through Jordan to Paris. A few months later, his wife, Maryam, was brought to Kurdistan and passed via Turkey to Paris in 1982. Once in Paris, Maryam and Mehdi had a daughter, named Ashraf after Massoud’s dead wife.

Months after his wife’s death, Massoud Rajavi had married Firouzeh Bani Sadr – daughter of former president Abolhassan Bani Sadr who fled with Rajavi to Paris in 1981 – in what was assumed to be a political alliance. Firouzeh was very young and studying medicine at university in Paris. A year later, I was re-called to Paris. When I arrived, I found that Maryam Abrishamchi had rapidly installed herself as head of Massoud Rajavi’s office and had brought two other people in with her. One of these was Sharzad Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi who was the wife of her brother Mahmoud Azadonlou; they had a child Narges Azadonlou. And Hussain Rahimi, brother of Bijan, friend of the Abrishamchi family who died of cancer. I joined this team. It was also immediately obvious to me that Maryam was not going home at all and was staying with Massoud in the same room, pretending to be the housekeeper for Massoud and Firouzeh.

Maryam asked me to be responsible for Firouzeh’s security and to report all her actions. I was brought back to Paris for this task on the advice of Ebrahim Zakeri. (In Iran Zakeri had been responsible for the MEK’s intelligence work. He recruited Mohammad-Reza Kolahi and Masoud Keshmiri.) Eventually, Maryam manipulated and interfered in Firouzeh’s life to the point that she was forced to run away and in 1984 get divorced.

Meanwhile, while I was in Rajavi’s inner circle, Maryam got pregnant and with the help of Massoud’s brother, Saleh Rajavi a GP, we took her for an abortion. Soon after this, in 1985, Massoud announced the first Ideological Revolution. Maryam divorced Mehdi and married Massoud and adopted the name Rajavi to become the joint leader of the MEK. The same day, Massoud arranged for Mehdi to marry Mina (aka Azar) Khiabani, sister of Mousa, who was under his protection. She was under 18 and Abrishamchi was 38 years old.

Thus began promotion of the Rajavi brand. The chant ‘Iran Rajavi, Rajavi Iran’ was used in all gatherings, public or behind closed doors. The name Rajavi became etched into every member’s consciousness. The polit bureau was no more. To establish his leadership, Massoud began to eliminate anyone who he judged to be a threat or rival. He instigated internal court cases in which he was both prosecutor and judge. Members who did not accept his Ideological Revolution and Maryam’s position as his ideological equal were put on trial. Those who still refused to submit were denounced as traitors and condemned to execution. However, because they were in France, this could not be done. Instead, such ‘traitors’ were excommunicated and shunned, sent out of the organisation with nothing, to survive as best they could. One famous example was Parviz Yaghoubi who was one of the original members of the MEK. He was married to Ashraf Rabbii’s sister. Both were thrown out of the organisation and became destitute in Paris, even living in a park for a while. Others who resisted Massoud and Maryam’s leadership were demoted to basic tasks. For example, Mohammad Tohidi and Mohammad Ali Jaberzadeh Ansari, who were top theoreticians in MEK ideology, were demoted to write articles and papers. The only people who were trusted to stay in the leadership cadre were those chosen by Maryam not Massoud. Her former husband Abrishamchi of course, and Mohammad Mohaddessin because he proved himself loyal by spying on other members, particularly Tohidi who was head of the political section before Mohaddessin took over. Also, Ebrahim Zakeri as a trusted person. For Maryam this was not an issue of men or women, she surrounded herself with people she could trust and rely on.

In the meantime, Massoud was intent on eliminating male rivals. Ali Zarkesh, second in command of the MEK at this time, was brought from Tehran to Paris and asked to accept the marriage and leadership of Maryam. He refused and was placed under house arrest until he was sent – demoted to the rank of ordinary soldier – to the Forough Javidan operation in which he was killed. Later, the driver of Ebrahim Zakeri in that operation confessed that Zakeri had ordered him to shoot Zarkesh whenever possible. And he did. Zarkesh was not killed by Iranians but by the MEK. During the Forough Javidan operation, I was in the war room as the communications officer, passing messages between Massoud, the Iraqi command and the field. Maryam was also there and constantly talking privately to Massoud. Eventually, I passed the order to have Ebrahim Zakeri, Mehdi Abrishamchi and two other higher ranking MEK members brought back to the camp. All the others were left to be killed.

After the failed Forough Javidan operation, Massoud instigated the second Ideological Revolution. This involved married members divorcing from their spouse and every member swearing to celibacy in order to devote themselves fully to ‘the struggle’. It also involved Maryam explaining the fiction that Massoud was so far advanced in his ideology that no one in the organisation could understand him but had to go through her to reach him. What this meant in reality was to totally obey all Maryam’s orders. This also began the isolation of Massoud from the organisation. He was untouchable and unreachable. Maryam was the one the members should admire and emulate. This was compounded when Massoud and Maryam appointed Fahimeh Arvani as Secretary General of the MEK. This elevated Maryam even further.

A further phase of Maryam’s creeping control was the introduction of an all-female Leadership Council of six women and six deputies, effectively eliminating all Massoud’s friends and top MEK members by default. Members were told they must ideologically connect to one of these to reach Maryam. Again, this was about submission and obedience. There was no ‘ideology’ as such. Maryam established a regime of rewards and shunning. She gathered women members around her who were totally obedient. It didn’t matter if they were illiterate or had no skills, as long as they were willing to kill or die for her. If they didn’t obey, she would change them immediately. Although there were strong, capable and educated women such as Ozra Taleghani, Soraya Shahri, Fatemeh Tahouri, Fatemeh Ramezani and more in the MEK, Maryam ignored them and chose uneducated rough necks. Among Beheshteh Shadrou, Sedighe Hosseini, Mahvash Sepheri, Fahimeh Arvani, Mojgan Parsaii and Zahra Merikhi, only Parsaii could read or write properly.

Maryam dispensed rewards to these obedient devotees; physical, emotional and material advantages such as having a driver or cleaner; some were awarded with a male member of Maryam’s cortege like toyboys. Maryam began to groom obedient, good-looking women for Massoud to sleep with, instigating the forced hysterectomies to prevent pregnancies. The women Maryam manipulated were so deranged by her treatment that some ended up as actual torturers against dissenting members.

It is significant that although structurally the MEK was led by these women, Maryam kept several male members very close. Primarily her former husband Mehdi who has not left her side since their divorce. It is also interesting that none of Massoud Rajavi’s family were able to stay close to him and the organisation.

In addition to his son, Massoud Rajavi had several siblings who were all sympathetic to the cause. His sister in Iran was executed. His brother Kazem Rajavi, a diplomat for the Shah, had saved Massoud from execution after his arrest in 1971. Two decades later he was assassinated at his home in Switzerland in spite of tight security around him. Nobody claimed responsibility, but indications are that inside information about Kazem was used. Another brother, Ahmad was a doctor in the UK. The MEK annoyed him so much that he left without selling his house in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, escaping with his wife and kids to America. He couldn’t understand why he was subjected to such pressure and harassment. Mahmoud Rajavi, a mechanical engineer in Isfahan, came to live in Belgium. He tried to stay with the MEK but again they did enough to make him vanish and go quiet, never to be seen again. The last time I saw him, he said, ‘I wish my brother luck. Nobody in their right mind would want to be leader of the Mojahedin’.

The brother who stayed closest was Saleh, a doctor in France. Because Saleh was established in Paris with friends and colleagues, he could not be manipulated in the same way as the other brothers. At first, he gave his house and land in Auvers-sur-Oise to make the MEK compound. Then he bought the house beside that. This wooden building burned down, and the insurance paid for a concrete house with anti-bullet windows and glass etc specifically for Massoud and Maryam. Saleh then bought the next neighbour’s house. Later they forced him to give half of this to the MEK as well. By this time his French wife refused to continue to stay with them and left. His son, uncharacteristically, became an addict. After this Saleh became deflated and more obedient. In the early years in France, I remember while building this concrete house we bought a jacuzzi to install for Maryam. But when she came to inspect it she got angry saying, ‘The house is in the name of Saleh Rajavi and after the revolution, when we go back to Iran, this will be his. He has milked us enough all these years. So, I don’t want him to have a jacuzzi.’ So, we had to rip it out and sell it half price. Her jealousy was so obvious she couldn’t hide it from me. At this point Saleh was eliminated, not in person, but was certainly side-lined as a close confidant. If that failed, she would certainly have had incriminating information to use against him as well.

Maryam’s family is from the Qajar dynasty which ruled Iran before the Pahlavi family. While she was in Paris, Maryam was visited from time to time by her extended family. One of these which I remember was Ali Mirza Khan, a Qajar price married to Mihandokht Ghotbi. The family lived in Germany, but he was regarded as the Qajar prince. He visited Maryam and chatted about the return of the Qajar dynasty. He said, ‘We were robbed of our rights twice. Once by Pahlavi and once by Khomeini’. After he died his son Babak, with the backing of Turkic and Azari groups and the support of the west, claimed he was the rightful king and would be taking over Iran. Babak went straight to the source of the money. He is now living in luxury in Germany, trying to annoy Iran. This is the background of Maryam and her tribe.

Perhaps the most significant indication as to Maryam and perhaps Mehdi’s intentions and ambitions can be found in the way the children were brought up. Mohammad Rajavi and Ashraf Abrishamchi were brought up by Maryam’s brother Mahmoud and his wife Shahrzad alongside their daughter Narges Azodanlou. They lived in a big mansion a ten-minute drive from Auvers. They had servants, a cook and two drivers. Whatever was needed, Mahmoud would contact me to provide it as head of security.

After Massoud and Maryam went to Iraq the children stayed in Paris and went to school there. As they were growing up they were regularly taken to Baghdad to visit their parents and then back to Paris. Once they reached their teens, the girls wouldn’t stay, but they insisted on keeping Massoud’s son in the barracks in Camp Ashraf with the ordinary rank and file. Among the rank and file were a lot of low life characters, criminals and perverts who had joined the MEK to escape justice in Iran and elsewhere. Among these Mohammad witnessed a lot of things that shocked and traumatised him. For example, the rape of underaged kids, violent fights and abuses, etc. Clearly it was planned to expose him to these horrors which the girls were spared. They said they were toughening him up but in fact they broke him.

With Mohammad living in Iraq in these conditions, Maryam brought Massoud Rajavi to accept that he’s gone mad, and something must be done with him. They isolated him in such a way he couldn’t contact his father until 2003 when they had to leave Iraq. When they brought him back with them to Paris, now a young man, he refused to stay with them and ran away. He went to Norway with the ‘help’ of supporters who are known to be in contact with Maryam. They effectively contained and suppressed him so that even though he began to write against the MEK, they managed to brand him as a ‘useless person’.

The different treatment of these children reflects the different agendas and ambitions of the adults around them. Maryam Rajavi gave responsibility for their upbringing to her brother and his wife, her close associate and sister-in-law, Shahrzad. (The luxury in which they were living reflects Maryam’s own propensity for luxury. Very few people in the MEK knew that Maryam insisted on going on holiday in Europe every year for a few weeks. Each summer I took her to the south of France and Spain with a small entourage of trusted people to look after her, such as Alireza Babakhani, Shahrzad and Mohammad Ali Tashayod. Tashayod was famous in Iran as head of the MEK’s militia after the revolution. He left Iran with Massoud. He had no particular skills but was totally trustworthy, so he was used for cleaning and cooking, etc.)

Now, four decades after the revolution, the older generation of MEK members is dying, ill and ailing. It was only a matter of time before a new generation of MEK members would need to be assigned leadership roles. In retrospect we can now see how, over time, Maryam and her inner circle have not only eliminated Massoud’s family, but they have also purged the younger generation of anyone else who might present a challenge. The sons and daughters of MEK members who were brought back into the organisation after being evacuated during the 1991 Gulf War, have been manipulated and selected for their suitability to serve Maryam’s agenda. She made sure second-generation members lose sympathy or loyalty to Massoud and his family. His picture no longer appears next to Maryam’s but has been put on a billboard along with a series of Iranian martyrs like Mohammad Mossadegh in the new camp in Albania.

Looking back over MEK history after this recent leadership announcement, it is clear that there was a deliberate attempt by Maryam Rajavi to protect and promote her family and friends in the organisation. Whether motivated by jealousy or ambition, she pushed the Rajavi family out. Her control over the MEK became almost inevitable after Massoud disappeared in 2003. The Massoud-Saddam combination became the Maryam-Faisal combination. But when Faisal announced five years ago that Massoud Rajavi was dead, it was clear she was not ready to show her hand. Whether she had not fully groomed her daughter and the other women for this role, or she had not assumed full control over the money, the time has now arrived. In effect, Maryam Rajavi has instigated a third Ideological Revolution – the Qajar Dynasty’s leadership of the MEK.

Massoud Khodabandeh, Iran Interlink,

September 21, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

What is the point of Maryam Rajavi

Three decades ago in 1993, Maryam Rajavi was appointed ‘president elect’ of a free Iran as envisioned by her husband Massoud Rajavi. In a once only election, in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, with Maryam as the only candidate, the electorate – members of the Council of the National Council of Resistance (a pseudonym for the Mojahedin e Khalq) – voted for her unanimously. Turnout was 100%. She has ruled over the members ever since without even a whiff of democratic due process.

The point of Maryam Rajavi back then was to create a feminist brand that would win political support in the west among Iran’s enemies. Massoud Rajavi sent her to France to perform this specific task. Of course, putting aside their diverse politics, we have many examples of strong female leadership. In opposition, Marine Le Pen is a tough, capable woman, able to command attention and attract a substantial following, while withstanding harsh criticism. (Maryam Rajavi treats all criticism as an existential threat.) Jacinda Adern has demonstrated that it is possible to have a baby and lead a country. (Maryam Rajavi presided over forced hysterectomies among the female leadership cadre due to her husband’s whim to have sex with them.)

Over three decades Maryam Rajavi has proven incapable of commanding attention or support. The MEK as an entity has certainly been a useful tool for the anti-Iran crowd. But this was not Rajavi’s doing, rather the MEK simply amplified the agenda, narrative and messaging which already existed. The MEK added to the cacophony of noise rather than create or conduct it.

For three decades the MEK has had to pay for audiences and speakers alike to attend ever more lavish carnival-like rallies to showcase Maryam Rajavi’s ‘leadership’. Year on year under her rule, the MEK has become more and more toxic and indefensible. To the point that now Maryam Rajavi has become persona non grata in exactly those countries she tried to woo. The USA has never allowed her into the country. The UK, allowed her one short visit in 1996. France, under the pressure of a CIA brokered deal (certainly there will be traces of Donald Rumsfeld in this murky deal), was forced to host her and her cult until, in 2018, Rajavi was forced out of the EU and exiled to Albania.
This year, from her headquarters in Albania, Maryam Rajavi will again front this annual event. This time a virtual event due to coronavirus restrictions. One development, however, is that MEK have hired lobbying firm BGR Group in Washington with a $40,000 contract to put on the event. There are several takeaways from this.

The MEK is so reduced and depleted of supporters that it does not have the capacity to organise this itself.

The MEK still has lots of money. Foreign money. (Although the MEK is perennially coy about the source of its funding, the words ‘Saudi Arabia’ and ‘finance’ and ‘MEK’ are frequently used in the same sentence.) BGR Group is promoting a foreign group using foreign money to influence American foreign policy. Well, at least it’s registered.

The bipartisan speaker list may give the appearance of US support, but these are paid speakers, not affiliates. Not one Iranian will be allowed on the stage with Maryam Rajavi. This is not only due to the fact that no Iranian would be willing to be associated with the blood soaked Rajavi brand. The exclusion of Iranian speakers is down to the impossibility of Rajavi presenting as the head of a political group when she is actually the sole leader of a cult, every one of which’s members exists in a state of modern slavery.

As the theme for her rally, Maryam Rajavi has instructed BGR Group to focus on Iran’s newly elected president Ebrahim Raisi. Not, as the leader of an opposition group, to challenge his present-day policies, but to question his role in events which took place in 1988 at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Rajavi had three decades to pursue this line of enquiry in her role as ‘president elect’. She didn’t. Perhaps it’s only now that Raisi is the real president of Iran that reality has hit home. That reality is that there is not much point to Maryam Rajavi. She does not lead anyone except her own enslaved followers in Albania. She cannot command respect and attention among even the most virulent of Iran’s enemies and has to pay people to attend and speak at her self-promoting events. We cannot fault BGR Group. It’s what they do. But everyone else who is not being paid by Rajavi is entitled to ask: Really, what’s the point of Maryam Rajavi?

July 7, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi struggle to hold on the cult members

The MEK is struggling to hold on to its own members, who have begun to defect in Tirana,Albania. Hundreds of members have walked out – complaining about the organisation’s rigid rules enforcing celibacy, and control over contact with family.
Widely regarded as a cult, the MEK was once designated as a terrorist organization by the US and UK, but its opposition to the Iranian government.

June 3, 2021 0 comment

Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan, why is it unreliable?

Reviewing the record and performance of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO)/ MEK/ Cult of Rajavi/ PMOI) through history, we will find that their alleged intellectual slogans only have an pleasant cover and in fact it’s “a wolf in sheep’s skin”.
Every year, the congratulation message of Maryam Rajavi, head of the Cult of Rajavi to Christians on the occasion of Christian New Year, marks a question in the mind of informed audience that the appearance of this good-looking message does not fit the cult-like violent nature of the group that have no tolerance regarding different religions, believes and political views.

Indeed, recognition of the MEK’s practices towards religious minorities, especially Christians, inside their cult-like system can remove the intellectual mask of the group so that everyone can understand its undemocratic nature.
Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan for the future of Iran is an absolute parody to what she has practically done in her long-life presidentship in exile. But what are particularly considered as very contradictory in the plan are paragraphs 2 and 4 which explicitly refer to respect for individual freedoms and the prohibition of discrimination against religious followers:

“Section 2. In the future of Iran we respect all individual freedoms. And we emphasize the freedom of speech and the complete freedom of the media and the unobtrusive access to cyberspace.”
“Section 4: Resistance of Iran will defend the separation of religion and state, any discrimination against the followers of all religions will be prohibited”
But history says something else:

Massoud Rajavi at the beginning of the “pool sessions” (a title for a series of brainwashing and self-criticism sessions held regularly in the MEK), in 1995, said:
“I want to dissolve the Liberation Army because we cannot overthrow [the Islamic Republic], someone can overthrow the regime that has the support of superpowers, fleet of war and airplanes. I do not have and I cannot have. Because I cannot warm my back to a superpower, we are a revolutionary and liberating force. So, from this moment on, the Liberation Army will be dissolved, you will have to sleep in the street tomorrow.”

Typically, a number of the loyal members of the MKO, begged Rajavi that “brother, do not dismiss the army, whatever you say we do“, and after that, Massoud Rajavi said:
“If you want to be the founding member of the second Liberation Army, you must accept the law book that I am advising you.”

The so-called Book of Law had 76 paragraphs. By the year 2001, the paragraphs were increased. In fact, this book complemented the cult-like drift of the MEK. But among the sectarian rules, there are a few important issues that are relevant to the topic of the article:

“In the relations of the MEK, we cannot have non-Muslims and especially non-Shiite members. Pray and fasting is obligatory. In the relations of the MEK, we cannot have a woman without cover (hijab).”
All Christians and Sunnis are forced to be Shiite, including those who were born Christian. Philip was a Christian who joined the Liberation Army and worked there for many years as a repairman of tanks. Despite his long-time membership in the group, he was not considered an official member of the organization because of he was not Muslim. For him, the increase of level in the organizational hierarchy was conditioned on the abandonment of Christianity.

Edward Termado

After he was coerced by Rajavi’s cult of personality, he converted to Islam and became an official member. While before his arrival, his requests for membership in the organization were rejected promptly because of his Christianity.
Edward Termado was another Christian member of the MEK who had been recruited or was actually deceived by the recruiters. He was forced to say prayers and fast in Ramadan. He left the MEK after 12 years of suffering.
All of the evidences suggest that the MEK leaders’ approach towards religious minorities indicate how unreliable and dishonest is the congratulation message of Maryam Rajavi to Christians on the New Year holiday. Moreover it demonstrates the unreliability of her ten-point plan for future Iran.

May 27, 2021 0 comment