{"id":2282,"date":"2009-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/2009\/02\/03\/ex-member-says-mek-is-like-a-cult\/"},"modified":"2021-11-21T11:03:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T07:33:19","slug":"ex-member-says-mek-is-like-a-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/2282","title":{"rendered":"Ex-member says MEK is like a cult"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-member says MEK \u2018is like a cult\u2019
\nAnne Khodabandeh, a former member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation at her Leeds home. Lorne Campbell \/ The National\"\"
\nWhen the European Union removed a militant Iranian opposition group from its blacklist of terrorist organisations last month, it drew not only protestations from Iran but also the contempt of a former member who claims the group is little more than a cult.
\nThe Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK, or the People\u2019s Mujahideen of Iran, and sometimes known as MKO), a leftist Islamist organisation that has vehemently opposed the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, was taken off the EU\u2019s terrorism blacklist on Jan 26 at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the culmination of intensive lobbying by the group and its European supporters.
\nBut Anne Khodabandeh, n\u00e9e Singleton, a former member of the group for 20 years, was sceptical.
\n\u201cWell, at least this shows the EU blacklist for what it really is \u2013 nothing more than a list of friend and foe,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cBut realistically I don\u2019t think it will make any difference to them in Europe. They will continue to carry on with their propaganda and fund-raising activities. They will continue to have their base in Paris where they hold their own members captive in isolation.\u201d
\nMrs Khodabandeh, 49, now a computer programmer, runs Iran-Interlink, an organisation that aims to inform the public about what she says is the reality of the MEK and provide assistance to former members, as well as current members who want to leave.
\nMrs Khodabandeh said the group enforces strict segregation of men and women \u2013 even forcibly separating or divorcing couples \u2013 and employs psychological manipulation and mind control. She pointed to the practice of self-immolation at MEK demonstrations in Europe and the United States as further evidence of the group\u2019s \u201ccult-like\u201d characteristics.
\n\u201cThe MEK is a cult, with every implication that has,\u201d she said. \u201cThe leadership is unelected, unaccountable and perpetrates abuses against its own members.\u201d
\nThe MEK was established in the 1960s by a group of radical students in violent opposition to the US-backed shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and took part in the 1979 revolution.
\nBut it soon fell out with Iran\u2019s new ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the the country\u2019s religious establishment and many members were jailed and executed. Most fled the country for Europe and the United States while thousands of others set up a base in northern Iraq at Camp Ashraf, which is in the process of being closed down.
\nVarious estimates put the group\u2019s membership at anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000.
\nFor its part, the MEK describes itself as a secular, democratic organisation that wants to bring democracy to Iran and enjoys significant support in Europe and the United States.
\nBrian Binley, a member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom, hailed the decision to remove the MEK from the EU blacklist and said descriptions of the group as a cult were \u201ccompletely untrue\u201d.
\n\u201cI am delighted the battle has been won,\u201d Mr Binley, a Conservative member of parliament, said of the EU ruling. \u201cThis is a perfectly legitimate group that opposes the medieval theocracy of Iran.
\n\u201cI have found them to be good people, to be democrats who want a free and democratic Iran.\u201d
\nMrs Khodabandeh first learnt about the MEK in the early 1980s through an Iranian boyfriend while studying at Manchester University.
\nAn idealist \u201cwho wanted to change the world\u201d, she began attending the group\u2019s campus meetings and gradually became more involved with its fund-raising and awareness activities.
\nBefore long she was a fully fledged member, espousing the group\u2019s militant opposition to the theocratic regime in Iran and calling for its overthrow.
\nBut the MEK\u2019s demands on her grew and through such techniques as peer pressure and \u201cpsychological manipulation\u201d, Mrs Khodabandeh said, she came ever more under control of the group.
\nBy the age of 30 she had lost touch with most of her friends and family, given up her job as a computer programmer and handed over her house, car and savings.
\nShe left her home in Leeds, Yorkshire, to live with other members at a number of \u201csafe houses\u201d belonging to the MEK, first in London and then in Sweden, and was put to work in the \u201cdiplomacy section\u201d, monitoring the news and writing press releases for the group.
\n\u201cWe were like children. We took all our orders from the leaders \u2013 we wouldn\u2019t so much as leave the building without their permission,\u201d she said.
\nSince 1985 the MEK has been led by the husband and wife team of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi \u2013 the latter a leading figure in the recent campaign to have the MEK removed from the EU\u2019s terrorist list \u2013 both of whom, according to Mrs Khodobandeh, embody all the traits of \u201ccult leadership\u201d. Their authority within the group is unquestionable, she said, and Massoud Rajavi is proficient in mind-control techniques.
\nA number of rights groups support Mrs Khodobandeh\u2019s claims.
\n\u201cWe have documented serious human rights abuses that the MKO was inflicting on its own members in their camp in Iraq,\u201d said Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe organisation \u2026 has shown that criticism of leadership is certainly not tolerated.\u201d
\nIt was in 1993, at the height of her devotion to the MEK \u2013 \u201cI was willing to die for them,\u201d she said \u2013 that Mrs Khodabandeh began to have doubts about the group.
\nThe Rajavis and other leading members had begun introducing bizarre rules, including the banning of marriage and compulsory divorces so that members could dedicate themselves fully to the cause.
\nShe walked out on the MEK, though it took her another three years to finally cut her mental and emotional ties to the group and return to normal life.
\nIn 1996 she met Massoud Khodabandeh, another member who had doubts about the organisation and who left at the same time. They married soon after and moved to Mrs Khodabandeh\u2019s native Yorkshire, where they have lived since.
\nAs a former member and current director of a support group for former MEK members, Mrs Khodabandeh is concerned about the inhabitants of Camp Ashraf in Iraq who will be evicted when the camp is closed in the coming months.
\nThe group has been used by the EU over the years, she said, for a number of purposes, including as a propaganda tool against Iran and as a bargaining chip in nuclear negotiations.
\nAnd now that the MEK has been removed from the blacklist, there is no barrier to giving them refuge in Europe.
\n\u201cEU countries have benefited from their existence for years. If you use them, take responsibility for them,\u201d Mrs Khodabandeh said.
\nTelephone calls and e-mails to the MEK for comment went unanswered.
\nJonathan Spollen, Assistant Foreign Editor – February 03. 2009
\njspollen@thenational.ae
\nhttp:\/\/www.thenational.ae\/article\/20090203\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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We have documented serious human rights abuses that the MKO was inflicting on its own members in their camp in Iraq,\u201d said Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe organisation \u2026 has shown that criticism of leadership is certainly not tolerated..When the European Union removed a militant Iranian opposition group from its blacklist of terrorist organisations last month, it drew not only protestations from Iran but also the contempt of a former member who claims the group is little more than a cult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[14,197,112,145,52,104,15,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[568],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-rajavi","tag-defectors-of-mujahedin-khalq","tag-family-rights-mek","tag-hot-topics","tag-manipulation-techniques-mko","tag-mujahedin-khalq-destructive-cult","tag-rajavis-and-cult-leadership","tag-hypocrisy_mko","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story","blog-the-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}