MKO former members
Sweetness of Freedom
It is almost two years that Mojahedin.ws has suggested the necessity of reviewing the content of Masoud Rajavi’s so-called ideological revolution making its best to obtain its fulfillment which has been accelerated by means of communicating with the organization’s ex-members. Following the statements made by Batool Soltani, of the ex-leadership cadre of MKO, with the Sahar NGO on different aspects of MKO cultic relations including the ideological revolution, it seems necessary to have a further reference to the suggestion mentioned before. Among the statements on the personal, organizational, and political aspects of her life in MKO, that of ideological revolution is of utmost importance as she is the first female Mojahed ex-member paying enough attention to this fundamental issue.
In addition, her recruitment in the leadership council of MKO leading to close relations and intimacy with the organization leadership, Masoud Rajavi and Maryam Azdanlu, has made her statements trustworthy and reliable. We do really appreciate her precision and sensitivity in this subject paving the way for other MKO ex-members to elaborate on various aspects of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin. Even her seemingly repetitious statements manage to clarify some untold truth on the real nature of MKO and its leadership.
Another factor highlighting the significance of her statements is that they may work to persuade other MKO members to break their silence on the critical issue of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin. Before, some factors like resorting deliberately to passivity and refraining to pose challenges to the organization in order not to be put under the attack of terror of personality were stated on the reasons why MKO ex-members have kept quiet on the issue of the ideological revolution while the fact is that merely grabbing at biography writing is of no effect and fails to present a challenge for Mojahedin; on the contrary, it is welcome by Mojahedin who aim to cover the facts on the real nature of their cultist relations the uncovering of which is a terrible nightmare coming true for them.
This issue is of a significance for Mojahedin that they have refused to show any reaction to their being accused of having cultic relations since they are well aware that even their common procedure of using bad language in this matter may be destructive since in that case they are obliged to elaborate on some cultic indices pertained to them leading to the subject being updated and widespread. Therefore, instead of taking an aggressive stance and offensive position toward this accusation, they have kept quiet even on the report of the US state department in April 2007 in which MKO was referred to as a cult of personality. Taking these facts into consideration may give us a better understanding of the significance of this issue and the necessity of disclosing the content of the ideological revolution of Mojahedin.
It is a fact that Mrs. Soltani’s disclosing statements have a wide variety of functions. First, the silence of Mojahedin on her separation shows the considerable importance of the subject for them. Second, disclosing facts on the relation of Rajavi with female Mojaheds by a detached female MKO member may pose a challenge of a high cost and many negative consequences for Mojahedin. Third, it is unbearable for Rajavi that females on whom he has made so much investment leave the organization. Mojahedin’s keeping silent proves that they are truly accused of censorship and banning the release of news in camp Ashraf among rank-and-files. In fact, in practice they prove their controlling and filtering of news spread lest Ashraf residents become aware of the separation of a member of leadership council.
Here it is worthy to refer to some major points on the consequences of Mrs. Soltani separation and the covert reactions of the organization to it underlining the importance of the subject. First, as she claims Masoud Rajavi has once asserted we have no separated female member so he dares not confirm the separation of Mrs. Soltani not to be accused of giving false promises to members as previously done.
Second, Mrs. Soltani claims that her separation is of great significance for the leadership of Mojahedin to the point that they hold grab to sending secret message asking her to go wherever she wants refraining to publicize her separation from MKO. However, her separation as well as the secret message of MKO leadership has been publicized at a high cost for Masoud Rajavi and MKO.
Third, Mojahedin are not willing to acknowledge the fact that despite all the controls exerted on members willing to separate and developing the hegemony of women on men, they failed to meet the desires and inclinations of members and women in particular and all the efforts made by Rajavi to stabilize the presence of women in MKO relations proved futile to the point that many female members leave the organization upon getting the least opportunity to do so. In addition, the way Mrs. Soltani has escaped from the organization reveals the amount of her frustration over the conditions of the organization.
Anyway, contrary to what Mojahedin leaders are after, Mrs. Soltani is expounding on the tragic and disastrous facts of the internal relations of MKO to which Mojahedin make no negative and public reaction. The fact is that despite her children being at the hands of Mojahedin as hostages and attempts to use them as blackmail for her keeping silent, she insists on revealing the real nature of MKO and Rajavi due to her years of suffering and pain inside MKO. Although her efforts are just for humanistic causes, she is to be appreciated and sympathized for the costs she has paid in the past and is likely to pay in the future.
Memoirs of Batoul Soltani – Part 6
I believe if you have not been a member of the MKO cult, it is too hard to 
understand what the “systematic control” is. I will mention some aspects of it which I myself used to control members with. I name them one by one:
Current Operations Sessions:
that is to speak out mind contradictions and to do self-criticism in front of a large gathering. In these sessions one has to severely self-criticize oneself and be harshly humiliated by others. This a technique used for mind manipulation of the members.
Group Works:
contacting families with the presence of a third person; working on the internet in groups of two or more; scheduled work plan without any spare moment; the minimum sleeping time; hard physical works, and so on.
Divinity:
the guru and the members of the leadership council and some elements close to the leader have a divine kind of ruling authority and a powerful mental influence over the ordinary members. The first rule is to express mind contradictions. That is the individual is persuaded to approach and express the contradictions of his thoughts compared with the instructions of the organization.
What do they mean by “Contradictions”? In the first phase of a person entering into the MKO or during a period of time after that, they indoctrinate the person to know what the criterion of each period is. For example, they indoctrinate that the “criterion of this era is to divorce the spouses”. So the member who enters the organization and its internal relations is supposed to describe the moments when he or she faces contradictions against the valuable phenomenon [divorce] in the ideology of the organization. Or in another example: suppose that the value in the MKO is that the men should keep away from the women. If an individual views a contradiction in such a value, he is encouraged to write them and hand them over to the officials. For instance if he saw a film and liked a woman in it or if he saw a woman in a gathering in Iraq and the woman recalled his wife to him; or if a woman saw a man and she thought of her husband, they would confess them all as their thought contradictions.
They convince the individual that expressing the contradictions is something that might cost any price. They talk about “any price” because the individual should expect insults and maltreatments following expressing his contradictions. A lot of time and effort is used for this issue.
They say that the principals of our doctrine are devotion and honesty. You should be so honest that you should confess all the moments of your feelings contradictory to the organizations’ values although they result to a disaster for you, or in the organizational terms: “You should pay any price” for being honest to the organization.
They want to control the members at any time during the day. They say that being a “Mojahed” is a valuable object. If a person, in one moment, thinks of family or social life or wishing to have a wife and home …, he or she should tell all the thoughts to the officials of the cult so they will be aware for the threat they feel from the side of that person and he/she will be under a higher control after that.
In the organizational hierarchy when an official who is responsible to control a low ranking member, doesn’t notice his problematic situation which ends him defecting or escaping from the group, that official will be deposed from his rank.
The worst punishments are enforced on the officials who are not aware of the problems of their forces who are about to defect. Rajavi even expressed in his message to the Leadership Council that: “It is much better to have two defectors everyday rather than having a runaway every year.”
See, how crucial it is for them. Now, what is the difference between a person who runs away and a person who comes to the groups’ leader asking to leave them? There is a big difference: Someone who escapes had so many contradictions in his mind that he eventually leaves the cult. He costs a high political price for the MKO. On the other hand, allegedly the future of this person has not been burned and he will be used by the enemy. Therefore it is very important for the leaders that if you want to leave, you should come and say so. They can find out when the member expresses his contradictions. They will focus on him. They put too much mental pressure on him in order to manipulate him, torturing him mentally, so as he might admit his regret and show his willingness to remain. If the person is a woman, they will bother her so much that she says “I was wrong”. If the person is a man and they finally find out that they can not keep him in, they will operate the process of “Burning future.”
It means that they have the defector to sign some engagements to allegedly burn his future. I remember a woman (whom I don’t want to tell her name) who wanted to leave the MKO, the officials told her “You want to go to cooperate with Iranian regime, to become a revolutionary guard, a torturer.” She said “No”. They said: “so if you do not want to be used by the regime you should be interviewed.”
They told her that the organization had helped her a lot and she must say it in the interview otherwise they wouldn’t let her go away.
They had dictated her interview. She had said “I am in complete health. The organization has helped me a lot. It struggles for its people’s freedom. It is so good …”
For the MKO leaders, it is not important what the defector wants to do. The only crucial thing is whether she will or won’t talk against the MKO. Only her silence matters. They want the defectors to leave, keep quiet and die…
Translated by: Nejat Society
Mujahedin’s Machiavellian approach towards the US administration today and the US administration of 1970s
SFF: would you please explain the contradictory approach of MKO towards the US administration today and the US administration of 1970s and describe the way the group deals with the American forces in Iraq?
Batoul Soltani: when the US government was fighting with Saddam Hussein the MKO planned its strategy on sending Maryam Rajavi and a few hundreds of the group’s officials to Europe in order to guarantee the future of the organization in the West and the group could be directed by Maryam and her aides. Therefore when the war started, Maryam was residing in Europe and Masud Rajavi was apparently out of sight and the control of Camp Ashraf was granted to Mozhgan Parsaiee. In 2003, after the fall of Saddam, I remember the day the American forces surrounded the camp and they shot at the camp on some occasions.
When the American forces came, we were shocked to notice that the Organization called all the members and sent the women to the gates of the camp to welcome the American soldiers who were surprised wondering what was the MKO up to?
Suddenly the organization changed its strategy and sat at the negotiation table with the US officers. The US general who had come to seize Ashraf, ordered to cease-fire to the American tanks and helicopters, he called his high officials and then the warfare scene turned into the negotiation table. The MKO used its tricks to function the hegemony on the members. Then Mozhgan came happily and said:”we won”. The leadership council had told them that “the MKO’s rank and files are like Indians and they didn’t shoot a bullet when the Americans were bombing their camps.”
We pretended to have enough control on our members and the Americans accepted saying that:”Ok, you deal with your own forces and we deal with you.”
Therefore the leadership council could maintain its control on the camp and then Masud sent a message saying “Ashraf is our strategic location.”
The forces considered the message as serious saying that if Ashraf resists the world will resist. Then they launched a new process to use Ashraf as an instrument that they claimed to be the centre and heart of MKO in order to gain more and more supports in Europe and also to maintain Ashraf as their headquarters. Since then they have spent large amounts of money to receive the Iraqi tribal leaders who had financial problems. I swear to God that some of them who came to Ashraf base were only promised a lunch in Ashraf; MKO abused them politically as much as they could.
The situation in Iraq is not secure nowadays. There are financial problems; the youth are out of job, so the MKO has misused the opportunity recruiting the Iraqi youth, training them as its mercenary forces. The organization is exploiting the post war, critical situation of Iraqi Society. I remember they bought a gold necklace for a doctor to recruit her so as they can enter the Iraqi society and use their maximum exploitation from the Iraqi community. This was the status which was created after the fall of Saddam. Now the members who reside in Camp Ashraf are just like babies who are in their mothers’ womb and have no idea of the outside world to which they have no contact. They listen to no news except that of the Resistance TV or Freedom TV [MKO channels].
In order to respond the allegations on the lack of MKO members’ access to the news, the organization used a funny trick; they filtered some news of Aljazeera and CNN and recorded to show in MKO’s eating places. In fact, Ashraf residents listen to no news expect to those filtered by the group. It’s definitely forbidden to have a compact radio otherwise you would be interrogated in so many meetings. The members’ minds are blocked by a pretext: security. But they panic their own functions.
Now, imagine that these members find a possibility to open their eyes to the outside world. They find out that their Master who has always disgusted the Imperialism and even after the explosion of the Twin Towers on September 11th cheered saying “this was the reactionary Islam, Now lets see what the revolutionary Islam will do?! You have a lot of potential inside you and you should release it” now is negotiating with the Americans. But for how long can they tell their lies to deceive people?
I remember when a member had committed suicide, I heard myself that Masud Rajavi said: "in case of any attack against us, we will go towards Iranian borders.” The question is that: why didn’t we go towards the borders after the invasion of Americans when they attacked, bombed, shot at MKO bases including Jalula, Ashraf …? This means that MKO’s baseless strategy is based on deception which results in contradictions that caused a lot of defections after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The defections among women members were less than men due to the high level control on women. Once Masud Rajavi said “we have no female defector” so the control over women is very crucial and serious. Also, the public, health and organizational considerations on women are more serious to prevent their defection. I know all tricks they use still a lot of women succeeded to leave the group. They are either in the way to return to Iran or wandering in Iraq; and in Sahar Family Foundation we are looking for them to help them. A part of MKO forces count on European helps especially the French government. They are expending billions of dollars to European parliament members to remove the MKO from the list of terrorist organizations. They have good lobbies in European parliaments; however Maryam Rajavi’s base in Auvers-sur-Oise was raided on June 17, 2003 and she was arrested. Then, the self-immolations began. The bizarre point is that the members must set themselves on fire for the organization’s benefits. I remember how they were proud of the self-immolations. But how can they justify the fact that a person kills herself for Maryam Rajavi’s cause. When the Rajavis’ benefits are in danger, suicide is acceptable; the terror teams should chew cyanide pills in case of being arrested!
Translated by: Nejat Society
Nejat Society congratulates Mr. Jamil Bassam and his wife on their wedding.
Family is the first shelter and marriage is the sign of being rid of organizational and cultic relations.
It is not something strange if you want to return to your country where you were born and grown up.
Nothing is more beautiful than your mother land. A former member, of Mujahedin-e-Khalq , an Iranian dissident group, has repatriated. Please notice the report of his repatriation:
About 3000 members of MEK are still abroad.
Some of the defectors of MEK are trying to convince the others to return home and enjoy the granted public amnesty. The cries of wailing families who have been expecting such a day, their anxiety will end in a few minutes that last as years. The eyes of the relatives show how they have been waiting for their beloved ones for twenty-nine years now without having any news of him. And this expatriation was not for education or building a future.
Sedige Yousei, Mohammad’s sister, the MEK defectors:
We haven’t had any news of him for 28 years until by a phone call, we found out he was released 40 days ago. His return is based on his honest internal feelings and emotions for his country.
Because Mohammadi had lived far from his family for years, he has lost many things.
Mohammad Yousefi (the former member of MEK):
I got shocked after I found out the real nature of the MEK but returning to the country was impossible. It seemed that they possessed the members; all members were forced to submit daily reports to their officials. Once I committed suicide, I committed phlebotomy .
There are too many people like Mohammad in the MEK. The number mounts to 3200. Since the foundation of Nejat Association which is in charge of helping the repatriation of MEK captives, a lot of them have succeeded to return home after the Iranian government declared the amnesty for those who hadn’t committed assassination and also they even granted amnesty to those who don’t have any private appellant.
Arash Sametipour:
We have tried to release the MEK member since 2003. The number of the current captives is 3200 who have 3200 mothers who are grieving due to their children. I’d say there are a lot of families who suffer the separation of their beloved children.
Esmat lost his father, a tailor working in his shop, in a terrorist operation. Edalat Association was founded to air the voices of hers and the ones similar to her, to the world saying that terrorism will end up some day.
Esmat Sepehri:
We don’t want to revenge and we don’t want the other countries to pay the price we paid by the blood of our dear ones. We want to present a solution to the countries that were harmed by terrorism. We want to fight terrorism.
More than 500 defectors have repatriated and they are now living a normal life. When the man is forbidden of any contact, he feels lonesome, defeated and terrified.
But the love for country is routed in the hearts.Download Nejat Society on MBC
Hassan Atash Afzun, MKO former member, tells his memories of the 18 years he spent in the group.
I was born in Bandar Abbas in 1968. I didn’t know the MEK just like most
Iranians, however those Iranians, who know them, hated them due to clear reasons but I wasn’t even interested to know about them.
In 1983, I traveled to UAE illegally to find a Job. After 6 years of working there, when I was likely to be able to get citizenship, in 1989 I met Majid Shekouhi, he suggested working in Europe and I accepted the suggestion ambitiously. In the late 1989 he took me to Dubai airport to board the plane with a false passport! At the airport when I was boarding, I found out that there was no trip to England and the plane was supposed to take me to Baghdad. So my fate was going another way.
In Camp Bagher Zade I heard of Mujahedin Khalq for the first time! I was not able to communicate with them at all so I complained asking for leaving the camp but they began to threaten me saying that “Because you entered Iraq illegally, we have to hand you to Iraqi forces who will send you to Abu Qoraib prison.”
They recommended that after a three-month period of military training! I would go to Europe. Once I saw Majid Shekouhi in a ceremony and complained to him because he had deceived me, so he promised that I would go to Europe in thee months.
They tried to convince me to stay in Iraq. They even resorted to methods to control my mind, for example they would let me watch Indian films if I was ready to watch the films of their suicide operations. I was controlled by threats, alluring, terrifying, so I stopped complaining. I always had a question in mind: why do they urge on recruiting some one by deception and then keep him by force? A question I could find answer for when I entered MKO’s relations: the MEK seriously needed to show Saddam Hussein that their number is everyday on the rise in order to prove their legitimacy and also they could get more facilities due to their new recruitments.
I was organized in NLA which was in fact a complicated part of Saddam’s army and, in 1991, I attended the operation that ended with the death of Kurdish people in Touz-Kefri road. I could personally see five Kurds who were killed by the MEK.
Masud Rajavi said about “Pearl Operation” :
“we are defending our landlord – Izat Ibrahim commands over the MEK and if he wasn’t here, they would not give the tanks to us- we paid the price of the donated tanks by Kurds’ blood.”
Saee’d Manouchehri, Mohammad Reza Tari, Mohammad Reza Pour Daghi, and many other MEK members who participated in the operation told us quoting from the Rajavis:
”Take the Kurds under your tanks ,keep the bullets for revolutionary guards.”
During the first Gulf War, when the Iraqi forces left Baghdad ,Izat Ibrahim was in charge of the MEK ( in fact he was ,after Saddam, the main supporter of the MEK). It seems that at the present time, the MEK is trying to stay in Iraq in the hope of Izat Ibrahim’s supporters and the return of Baath remnants.
I had challenges in the organization where I was punished due to the least complaint; in 1993 when Mahmoud Qaem Shahr saw my insistence to leave the group told me to write down and sign that I was regime’s agent , then I would be allowed to go!
In fact, this was a way to prevent forces’ defection and the other way was to threaten the members that they would hand them to Iraqi government and imprison them in AbuQoraib. Once more I wasn’t in doubt, so I was sent to “Traffic control” section to serve as the guard for authorities of MEK. Mostly I was with Ozra Alavi when she wanted to go to Habib base in Basra.
At the time, they showed too much concern for me and even Masud Rajavi sent a message to me that :
” you should become Shiite due to the organization and your ideological leader and you should declare that you are not a Sunnite anymore and you have converted to Shiite religion!” but I didn’t accept.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the MEK had a hard time because their main supporter in the world was overthrown, they were disarmed and controled. Mozhgan Parsaiee was so afraid of the time when the American forces figure out that the Mujahedin cheered and celebrated the September Eleventh attack so their problems increase. I remember that I got the news of Sep.11th attack when I was in the soccer field.
We started cheering and chanting. They announced to go indoors so as the American satellites cannot notice us! In a meeting that was held after September 11th attack, Masud Rajavi told to Maryam Rajavi:
”if your forces had revolted, they would have launched such an operation” and he also addressed the pilots :”Dear pilots, you must be prepared for such operations.”
The situation was so disturbing after the fall of Saddam Hussein and American’s settlement. Also some members were complaining so the organizations officials had to deal with both internal and external problems. Mozhgan Parsaiee said in the meetings:
”we will not stop the armed struggle but we have to postpone it because of our preferences.”
For their maintenance in Iraq, after Saddam, they used any trick including paying large amounts of money to people to sign petitions asking for MEK’s stay in Iraq. I was transferred to this section because I knew Arabic. I was in charge of gathering signatures and paying money to the signatories. Hamid Mausavi and abu Heidar (Iraqi) were also recruited by MEK to collect signatories in Iraqi tribes. For each signature 150,000 Dinars were paid. I was supposed to revise the signatures and divide the money. The problem was that out of the 400 signatures, 390 were the same. This reminded me the time when the members were marching in Camp Ashraf and each member had to pass in front of the scene several time but in different forms so as the number of members seemed more!
When I was working in MEK’s social headquarters (The meeting room for their visits with Iraqis), I had a TV and I could receive Iranian channels. When I saw the film “wolves” [which was made by Iranians on MEK’s relations with Saddam Hussein] and I found out the close relationships between Saddam Hussein and Masud RAjavi,I was deeply decided to escape towards TIPF but my decision was denounced. Since that time I started disobeying the organization’s orders. Finally I could come to TIPF where I immediately contacted my family whomI was not allowed to contact with for many years.
Since I came to Iran, I have been assured that the MEK have been spending their time in a cave called Ashraf for two decades. The MEK’s world is a dark, tight world where everything is black and white and iced. This is a fact that you can not find out unless you face the Sun. Now I am under a sun named Iran.
Memories of Batoul Soltani – Part Four
SFF: Mrs. Soltani, we would like your mind to get back to Ashraf where you had difficulty to escape from. We would like you describe the internal relations in MEK that caused you run away?
Batould Soltani: I was actually in the MEK for two decades so I know about the MEK’s internal relations very well. When in 1986 I entered the organization,
the most convenient houses and hotel were dedicated to the families. It was the time when Masud and Maryam Rajavi came to Iraq from France. The MEK had used all its strength to recruit members and all IRI opponents from all over the world. There was a tension among supporters in abroad. Rajavi was using his entire wisdom to get the supporters out of their normal life and bring them to the organization and of-course the prison of Ashraf. They used any practice to bring the people to the cult in Iraq. For example they managed to send smugglers, financing them, to take the people out of their families and bring them to Iraq.
The other activity they were also busy of, was to found National Liberation Army and the deals with Iraqi Regime like the meetings with Iraqi ministries or deputies and then with Saddam Hussein who offered them bases, weapons, military trainings. The focus was on recruiting members for the so called NLA. At that time the Iraqi military organs were launching intelligence operations together with the MEK elements to succeed their attacks against Iran. The MEK was taking care of such affairs. Everyday there was a new crisis, a new adventure. So the supporters were busy enough.
After some time they spoke of NLA and military uniform and boots and things like that. Later in 1989 the second phase of Ideological Revolution (after the first phase which was operated in 1985 when the couples were forced to divorce.) was started by MEK that claimed that the first phase was not completed and the divorces should be perfect for ever; this time the divorces should be real and there is no return and anyone who wants to enter the organization must divorce. Since that time divorce became a condition for membership in the MKO.
They named this revolution as “whirl-wind” in which they filtered the devotees from the opponents. Several meetings were arranged by Masud and Maryam Rajavi who brought members group by group there; where they set the situation so artificially that the members became obliged to take out their wedding rings and divorce their spouses. I was in the last group of MKO members who divorced.
They held the meeting for a group of members. From the beginning moments the members were so worried of being called, then they called a person who went to deliver all his responsibilities… then we saw Maryam and Masud cheering made an atmosphere and asked the person:” Ok, now what must you give?” Or “what have you hidden?” they pressured the member mentally and at the end he was prepared for divorce. The person had to write and sign the feature of his dependence on his spouse, his problems and thoughts. Then he had continual meetings so as he can ideologically divorce the marriage in his mind. Thus the leaders could have a better control on the members’ emotions and feelings. The next step was to cut the remaining emotional point: children.
I remember they used the opportunity of war in 1991 and said: “Due to the war, we can not keep the kids here”, so they arranged another chantage and separated the children from their families. That was a treacherous plan that was executed. They even said themselves:” That’s a good pretext to get rid of children.”
The evil Masud had calculated everything; he knew that the presence of children would take a lot of energy. Now they had members who were completely and professionally at Masud‘s service. They sent the children to places, they know themselves, and for example they sent my son to a country and my daughter to another one and I had no idea of where they were.
I couldn’t ask, in any case, where my kids are. They would punish me using their manipulation techniques …
Then, they determined a criterion which was ‘’Maryam ‘’who divorced from her husband for Masud’s sake, married him ideologically and her whole existence has become Masud! In a new scenario, she came said:” I leave all my organizational duties” and Masud said the same thing and introduced Maryam as the first authority of the organization because she was the only one who was joined to Masud and all the others had to be dissolved in and dedicated to Maryam, if not they were called anti-woman, non-revolutionary … this was their new story to seize the members soles and minds.
The bottom line of the story is that Masud is only the ideological leader. If you want to analyze the MEK, you should work one two dimensions; one: the strategic and military dimension and two: the ideological and organizational dimension. The strategic aspect included the departure from France and arrival to Iraq to from NLA. The ideological aspect began with the ideological revolution in 1984. Following the defeat in the “Eternal Light” operation, they concluded that the failure happened because the ideological revolution hasn’t performed perfectly so the fighters haven’t fought well. The discussions on the ideological revolution ended with the divorces saying that the emotions are illegal.
After Maryam Rajavi became the first authority of MEK, Masud left all his organizational responsibilities. They wanted to open their way to European countries, so they established “Presidential Offices” in European countries. A new series of stories began with the name of “President Elect” ( Maryam Rajavi),calling for opposition groups to come under MEK’s hegemony and form National Council of Resistance to abuse them.
Then they continued with equipping their NLA by Saddam Hussein’s aid. Rajavi always was proud of the gifts granted to him by Saddam Hussein. For any operation they launched inside Iran, Saddam praised them with his offered weapons and tanks.
Translation: Nejat Society
Open letter of the Sahar Family Foundation to Dr Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, Vice President of the European Parliament Regarding the members of the European Parliament Visiting the base of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq called the Ashraf garrison.
Dr Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca
Vice President of the European Parliament
Brussels, Belgium
Sahar Family Foundation
Baghdad
November 2008
Dear Sir
Please accept our warmest regards as well as those of the families of the members captured in the terrorist cult of Rajavi called the Mojahiden-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq.
According to the news released by the websites of the MKO, some MEPs as a delegation headed by you visited the base of the organization called "Ashraf" and expressed some opinions relating the garrison of the terrorist cult of Rajavi in Iraq.
The Sahar Family Foundation which consists of the former members of this organization and the families of mental and physical captives in the Ashraf garrison in Iraq would welcome such actions provided they are not one-sided and they do not intend political purposes. We do hope that such visits would continue and would also end to the savior of the captives in that cult and rejoin them with their families who are anxiously waiting to see their beloved ones for over two decades.
Referring to your expressions as well as those of other MEPs reflected in the MKO sites; obviously this visit was aimed for fact-findings about the cult garrison of the MKO in Iraq. Such action is of course welcomed; but we would like to ask you that: shouldn’t a representative of those separated from the organization and those who have been subject to abuses or a representative of the families of those confined in that garrison and have no way to the outside world be present in such a visit?
Recently in a meeting in the European Parliament, Ms Nassrin Ebrahimi a former member of the MKO, talked about hysterectomy and castration of women. Surely this has drawn the attention of yours and that of the delegation that companied you in Ashraf. Also Ms Batool Soltani a former member of the leadership council of the MKO who is based in Baghdad and is the spokesperson of our foundation has listed the names of nearly 150 individuals (%10 of the total number of women in the organization) who have been castrated in the cult of Rajavi. Shouldn’t a physician be present in your delegation to examine these miserable women for fact-finding? It is worth mentioning that Ms Soltani in Baghdad has announced several times that she is ready to visit the Ashraf garrison along with any international delegation in order to find the truth about the MKO.
Your visit and that of the delegation along with you from the Ashraf garrison in Iraq is merely used as a propaganda tool in the hands of a cult to further manipulate its captive followers, since no representative from the opponents, critiques or defectors of the organization were present. Cults do need to justify their inhumane actions and that is why they try to whitewash their faces using well-known people. Our expectation from European politicians was that they act more rational and more reasonable.
For your information it is worth mentioning that the garrison that the MKO calls the "Ashraf city" has the following characteristics:
1. Lacks any families or offspring. Children do not exist there. Women and men live on two opposite sides of this so called city separately and have no contacts with each other what so ever. That is sex apartheid is imposed severely in there. Even gas stations are separated for men and women.
2. The inhabitants of this garrison do not have the right to love anyone but the spiritual leader i.e. Massoud Rajavi. Any kind of expressing love or emotions towards any other person is prohibited and is considered as committing a sin.
3. Followers must regard the members of their families as their main enemies and therefore hate them. Reminding of spouses, offspring or parents is considered as treason to the cult. This cult regards family as the "nest of corruption".
4. Those based in this cult garrison are deprived from facilities such as telephone, cell phone, post, radio, television, internet, satellite, daily papers, gazettes or any form of connection with the outside world and do not have the least of ideas to what is happening outside the garrison. They are only fed with the information provided by the MKO media. It is interesting to know that the organization is even showing its own television programs with delay and after being censored for these practically hostages in the Ashraf garrison. This is done for preventing pictures of the normal life be shown to the captives in order to avoid the awakening effects on them.
5. Members have no right to criticize the actions and the policies of the leader of the cult and the followers have no right to even doubt the political and strategic lines of the organization.
6. Individuals have to attend inhumane sessions called "current operations" and be damned for their deeds and thoughts and even their night dreams. In these sessions which are the most immoral methods of psychological pressures over people, the natural mental and emotional defense of one is shattered in such a way that one submits oneself to any unsound demand and has not the power to say "no".
7. Finally the MKO under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi and his wife Maryam is an established cult according to modern scientific psychological and sociological definitions which utilizes mind manipulation methods in order to recruit, preserve and control its forces. This organization is using brainwashing techniques to restore a kind of modern slavery where individuals are both mentally and physically captives. Cults do need an isolated remote place in order to impose their mental methods over their followers and the Ashraf garrison in Iraq has provided such facilities for over two decades for the MKO first under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and then under the protection of the US forces. In other hands the isolated European garrison of the MKO called the Maryam garrison in a suburban area in the north of Paris called Auvers-sur-Oise is used to theorize new mental implementation methods and is used to produce human robots.
If the politicians visiting the Ashraf garrison in Iraq have the least knowledge about the actions of a cult, they definitely know that what they did is to help a destructive terrorist cult to gain justification against its members which are its prime victims in order to brainwash them more and exploit them more.
We urge all MEPs who visited the Ashraf garrison in Iraq to ask the MKO leaders that why they do not allow free and without intervention visits of families with their beloved ones in the Ashraf garrison to take place and why they prevent them using all sorts of excuses.
Best regards
Sahar Family Foudation
Baghdad, Iraq
Copy to:
The European Parliament’s Presidential Committee
A number of MEPs
The public media
Memories of Batoul Soltani- Part three
In the previous part, Mrs.Batoul Soltani described her defection process. She is going to explain her first visit within her family and her following activities in Sahar Family Foundation.
Batoul Soltani: out of Ashraf, there was another world. I found the opportunity to meet my family who had come to Iraq. It was so bizarre. The family is a spiritual gift: mother, father, brothers and sisters who are full of emotions and feelings. I realized how badly I had behaved to them, how much they had suffered because of me. I found out that my father had died due to a heart attack, and my mother had suffered a lot of grieves. So I had much motive to help the other families because I have seen that the organization is still capturing the youth of our country by various methods even deception and abuse of emotional relationships. If anyone wants to leave the group, they ruin his future so as he will have no future out of the group, forcing him to stay in the organization for his whole life.
After the defection, I could have had a normal life but I had enough motivation to stay in Iraq to help my ex-friends and those who are likely to be captured by MKO; the ones who are like me and who do not know what is waiting for them in the cult despite their deceitful smile and green lights. I know what is behind the smiles of the captives in Ashraf. They are very tired but they are afraid of complaining because they would be marked. They have no idea what to do. Even those members, who could leave MKO, have their own problems because the organization has functioned so violently that no one accepts the defectors either.
I learned about a foundation called Sahar, I contacted them and I was willing to help them. Then I became a member of Sahar Family Foundation and now I am a spokeswoman of that. My activities included a trip to Turkey to contact some of the defectors who had legal and financial problems there, we had some jobs and interviews there, with Mr. Masud Khodabandeh who is the founder of SFF.
We are trying to pave the way for MKO defectors to be able to live a normal life in a free society. Mr. Khodabandeh and I also had a trip to Karkul,Irbil,Soleimanieh and Dahouk, and we visited various defectors in these cities. I had recently a trip to the North of Iraq to help those ex-comrades. I could have some meetings with the deputies of Kurdish parties and some journals and international communities to provide the conditions to aid the defectors of MKO. I met and talked to many of them, I got acquainted with their life, problems and grieves. Now I am doing my best to aid SFF in order to help the defectors of MEK.
I had to help my husband; it was my responsibility to save him. I know what happened to him finally and what his motive at the beginning was. I asked his family for help inviting them to Iraq. They came to Iraq after some time, we went to camp Ashraf. I will explain the way the organization treated us in detailed in another part. The scenario they had designed was so significant that needs to be discussed carefully in a separate program.
My activities are partly based on my human feelings. I know my children are hostages in MKO where they are manipulated. I got to know that my daughter Setareh has been forced to come to Iraq. I know she didn’t want to come to Iraq at all.
They were so eager to bring Setare to Iraq before I leaved TIPF or Iraq. Unfortunately I got into some troubles and I couldn’t get in touch with my daughter. Later I figured out that they had convinced her to come to Iraq to visit her father. They brought her to Iraq last March and told her to stay there. She was told:”your mother has psychological problems and she wants to take you to Iran.” She was also told other lies to keep her in the camp as long as they can and of-course to manipulate her more and more. The first step has been the interviews against me but my daughter has resisted and hasn’t done it. But they have terrified her so terribly that she doesn’t answer my phone calls turning off her cell phone. Then she was taken to Ashraf to visit her father who has treated her so unkindly- He has not been in a normal condition- Then she was taken to their indoctrination system. They have manipulated her so seriously that she is completely mixed up now; she is in Netherland where my son is living. She was taken there to work on her brother, Miaad who is totally confused now.
Miaad says:” How is it possible? I am sixteen now, and I haven’t had any idea that I have a sister, mother or father. I don’t know what’s happened that now I have a father and I am repeatedly invited to go to Iraq to visit him or now I have founded my sister after years, in another European country.”
One of my tasks is to go to a European country to pursue the case legally to be able to visit my children after 16 years. My son was 6 months old when the organization separated him from me. I haven’t seen them for 16 years. I missed them a lot. I’d really love to see them but what shall I do that the terrorist cult of Rajavi commits any crime against the defectors.Translation: Nejat Society