Articles

Suspicious Deaths at Ashraf 3: Unanswered Questions for the MEK Leadership

In recent years, multiple reports have emerged of repeated and suspicious deaths among members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) at their camp in Albania, known as Ashraf 3. These reports raise serious concerns about the health, human rights, and transparency within the organization.

The consistent use of vague explanations, the refusal to release updated photographs of the deceased, and the absence of autopsy reports or independent investigations all point toward a troubling lack of accountability.

Here is a documented list of individuals whose deaths remain unanswered:

1. Mohammadreza Khaleghi Amir (2024) – Cause of death listed as “cardiac arrest,” with no exact date or forensic evidence.
2. Abdolmalek Alavi (2023) – Officially reported to have died of a “heart condition,” without any updated images or substantiating documents.
3. Mehdi Javdan (2025) – Reportedly died in January 2025 due to “respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.”
I knew Mehdi personally. He lived in our home during my childhood, and years later, I saw him again at Camp 7 (Habib). His death is not just a report to me; it is a personal wound and a deep question.
4. Abdolrahim Ahrari (2023) – Died in May 2023 of “cardiac arrest and respiratory issues,” again with no additional information or medical documentation.
5. Mojgan Koukkabi (2021) – A central council member who died in 2021 due to “brain cancer.” No images were released from her final years, and her burial site remains unknown.
6. Maryam Hejbarian (2025) – A veteran member who died in 2025. No cause of death was given in the official statement, only referring to her as a “companion in resistance.”
7. Abdolvahab Farjinejad Jahromi (2023) (aka Ali Moshtari) – A senior military figure of the MEK who died during an Albanian police raid on Ashraf 3 in June 2023. The exact cause of death remains disputed between MEK and Albanian authorities.
8. Mohsen Negahban (2022) – Born in 1960, reportedly died in December 2022 from respiratory issues. He had previously been injured in clashes with Iraqi forces in 2009.
9. Mahmoud Barisami (2024) – A former Marxist and POW from the Iran–Iraq war who died in 2024 after months of illness at Ashraf 3.
I also knew him personally. He was transferred from a prisoner-of-war camp to Camp Ashraf, a case that illustrates how vulnerable individuals were recruited into a closed and unmonitored structure.
These deaths, routinely attributed to general causes like “cardiac arrest” or “illness,” without any forensic or independent review, demand international scrutiny.

We call for the following:
•Independent autopsies under international supervision
•Transfer of deceased bodies outside the camp for forensic examination
•Unrestricted access for independent observers to Ashraf 3
•Installation of surveillance systems to ensure minimal human rights compliance

The MEK cannot escape responsibility. Transparency, accountability, and respect for human rights are the absolute minimum obligations of any political or ideological organization.

Amir Yaghmaei

April 19, 2025 0 comments

Alireza Jaafarzadeh and other MEK agents

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Who are the MEK’s lobbyists in the US government?

In September 2012, the Mujahedin-e Khalq was removed from the list of foreign terrorist organizations of the US State Department. This was the outcome of the group’s heavy lobbying campaigns. However, the MEK lobbyists are still actively lobby in favor of the group in the US government. The mechanisms are complicated and fraudulent.

In 2017, a former CIA counterterrorism officer, Philip Giraldi of the American Herald Tribune newspaper, warned about the relationship between the MEK and American politicians and the increasing rise of the formerly-terrorist designated group in the United States. Giraldi ironically stated that if you are a terrorist group and have a history of carrying out terrorist operations against Iran and the United States itself, you can easily pay and spend money in Washington, even having a lobby office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

This law is actually known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which was passed in 1938. It requires lobbyists and representatives of foreign entities in the United States to register their activities and expenses with the Department of Justice, and its main goal is to provide transparency about foreign influence on American policymaking and public opinion.
As a terrorist group, the MEK also used this mechanism to survive in the United States. The group was registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). According to documents and data registered on the OpenSecrets website, the MEK’s expenses for lobbying with American institutions reached about $516,000 in 2017, about $440,000 in 2018, and $60,000 in the first quarter of 2019!

In fact, this American law had led to the formation of multi-million-dollar contracts between Rajavi’s terrorist organization and lobbying companies in the United States in those years, and it had gone so far that many American politicians had united in their advocacy on behalf of the MEK. Before 2012 and their removal from the terrorist list, the fee for a speech in favor of this terrorist organization was $15,000; but according to the latest report by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Randall in 2017, the latest fee for each speech in favor of the MEK was $150,000.

Who is the leader of the MEK’s lobbying team in the US?

Farzaneh Yazdanpanah, the main agent of the MEK’s intelligence headquarters, is responsible for communicating with US parliamentary officials. She has been in contact with Secretary of State Mark Rubio in the past and has pursued numerous lobbying projects with this American official.

Farzaneh Yazdanpanah, the main agent of the MEK’s intelligence headquarters

Farzaneh is not the only member of the Yazdanpanah family involved with the MEK. Her brother, Parviz Yazdanpanah, was also a member of the organization. He fled Iran in 1986 and he now lives with his wife, Ensiyeh Hosseini (under the organizational name Ensiyeh Yazdanpanah), in El Sobrante, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Parviz Yazdanpanah

According to a report published in 2016 about Parviz Yazdanpanah, he works as a florist in San Francisco undercover. Parviz also had another sister, Parvaneh Yazdanpanah, who was killed in the MEK’s cross border operation against Iran in 1988.
Of course, Farzaneh Yazdanpanah is not the only MEK lobbyist in the United States. Hedayatollah Mostofi is also another agent of the MEK who, in cooperation with Yazdanpanah, is a member of their lobby. Mostofi has established many connections with Mark Rubio through Senator Margaret Dougherty and is considered Yazdanpanah’s correspondent in Rajavi’s lobbying projects.

Ali Safavi

Ali Safavi is another influential element of the Cult of Rajavi in the United States. Safavi is the spokesman for the MEK’s office in Washington. He has spent some time at Camp Ashraf, Iraq, where he underwent terrorist training and ideological indoctrination.

He has also participated in organizing and creating terrorist teams at Camp Ashraf and sending them inside Iran. After receiving individual military training and succeeding in ideological induction courses, he was called back to the European office of the group. He has also served as a representative of the National Council of Resistance (the political cover of the MEK) in the United States.

Safavi is also a member of the organization’s Foreign Relations Committee and manages the MEK Economic Network, which is supported by wealthy firms based in Europe and North America. This network, under the guise of charitable donations, provides financial resources for the MEK’s actions against Iran.

Through the income from this network, Safavi has connections with the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States. Safavi was one of those who organize the MEK’s rallies against Iranian government, in the United States.
Another lobbyist of the MEK in the US is Alireza Jafarzadeh, who is the representative and versatile of the group in the United States.

He joined the MEK in 1981 when he was a student in the US and served as one of the spokespersons in the group’s diplomatic relations department. In June 1986, when Massoud Rajavi was expelled from France and transferred to Iraq, the French government expelled a number of MEK members to Gabon.

Following these expulsions, the MKO terrorist organization’s organizations went on strike, and many of its members and officials from different countries called for suicide and self-immolation operations. Alireza Jafarzadeh was one of those officials who announced his willingness to perform self-immolation.

After the MEK was listed as a terrorist group in 1997, it was unable to continue its previous activities. So Jafarzadeh continued his service as a columnist for the Huffington Post since 2006, and the, he was recruited by the warmonger’s media group, Fox New, where he appeared as a commentator and analyst of international relations.

In addition, Jafarzadeh was the one who allegedly disclosed the Iranian nuclear sites and scientists.

Sona Samsami is another high-ranking member of MEK who is in charge of the organization’s Washington office. She was in Camp Ashraf for about a year in 1986 and was sent to the United States after receiving espionage and terrorist training.

Sona Samsami

Sona Samsami, along with Alireza Jafarzadeh, played a role as the person in charge of the case of exposing the nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. She is now the organization’s representative in Washington, responsible for lobbying American political retirees for speeches worth several hundred dollars in support of the MEK.

She is also one of the coordinators of the self-immolations of MEK members abroad. Samsami is one of those MEK high-ranking members who is mostly detested by former members of the group. She has played a major role in suppressing female members of the MEK, both at Camp Ashraf and abroad.

Hassan Soltani

Hassan Soltani is another of Farzaneh Yazdanpanah’s associates in lobbying with American officials and senators. He is also the MEK’s agent for money laundering in the US territory in order to pay American politicians. Until recent years, these funds were paid directly, but after a while, in order to evade money laundering charges and being traced, he pays them in form of expensive watches and small gold bars.

Documents on MEK lobbying and money laundering

April 13, 2025 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

CIA analyst: we funded and trained the Mujahedin-e Khalq

As the United States and Iran are at a critical juncture, worries on a military conflict are increasing. Tensions have escalated under President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign meant to deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program. In response Tehran’s policy is to not engage in direct negotiations with the United States while Iranian nation is under the US’s maximum pressure campaign and military threats. Sponsoring the formerly designated terrorist group, Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) is considered a proof for US’s illegal stance against Iran.

Many analysts think that invading Iran would be the gravest mistake in U.S. foreign policy since the Vietnam War. Sixteen years ago, the George W. Bush administration manipulated intelligence to scare the public into backing an aggressive war against Iraq. The so-called weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that he warned against didn’t exist, but the invasion long desired by neoconservatives and other hawks proceeded.

Ironically, one of the pretexts that George W. Bush declared in his pre-war speech was the presence of the MEK in Iraqi territory, funded and supported by the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The outcome was: Thousands of dead Americans, tens of thousands of wounded and maimed U.S. personnel, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, and millions of Iraqis displaced.

Dialogue Works is a YouTube channel hosted by the Brazil-based Professor/Podcaster Nima Rostami Alkhorshid. Dialogue Works believes that there’s nothing more unstoppable than dialogue. The topics discussed on this podcast are dedicated to dialogue and peace!

CIA analyst: we funded and trained the Mujahedin-e Khalq

Therefore, the guests of Dialogue Works are mostly selected out of those analysts who criticize the warmongers in the United States in particular Donald Trump. Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and Scott Ritter, a former intelligence officer of US marine courts discussed “Why War with Iran Would Be America’s Biggest Mistake” on the episode published on April 1st, 2025.

On the US’s fabrications about Iranian nuclear program and the American terrorism against Iran, Larry Johnson stated:
The United States doesn’t have any right to be the final arbitral since it drops bomb on people and kill them. The problem I have with the US’s position is that so many false wrong assumptions about Iran, about its capabilities and about in fact what Iran is doing.

The only country over the last 20 years that has been carrying out terrorist attacks against the other is the United States that has been carrying terrorist attacks against Iran.

It’s not been Iran that has been carrying out terrorist attacks inside the United States, or against US targets.
In the United States we complain that the Iranians provide assistance to Shias of Iraq during our invasion, our illegal invasion, I will add.

And that they provide military support to guys carrying out attacks against military units. That’s terrorism? That’s not terrorism.

Our terrorism was when we funded and trained the Mujahedin-e Khalq who we used to declare as a terrorist organization. They were carrying out attacks against civilian targets inside Iran.

The same with aid to the Baluchestan area in South East Iran.

So, the United States has fabricated this narrative about “Oh, my God! We’re gonna stop Iran at all cost!”

April 7, 2025 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

The most recent illustration of MEK’s Cult-like nature

As a religious Marxist group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) mixes the traits of both ideologies. However, the rituals of the group is a pivotal representation of cult-like behavior.

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

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

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

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

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

April 5, 2025 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Why are the MEK’s blatant money laundering documents being ignored?

After Maryam Rajavi’s lavish stay in hotels and spas was exposed by Le Canard Enchainé, the other French media focused on uncovering more details about the Cult of Rajavi.

France’s TF1 Info began with a controversial headline: “Is Maryam Rajavi, leader of the MEK, skilled in thalassotherapy?”
Thalassotherapy (from the Greek word thalassa, meaning “sea”) is the use of seawater as a form of therapy. It also includes the systematic use of sea products and shore climate. It refers to a variety of treatments that use saltwater and seaweed, each designed to cleanse, soothe and revitalize the skin and body. And so far, according to documents obtained by French media, it has cost Maryam Rajavi over 130,000 euros.

TF1 Info then introduced the MEK and Maryam Rajavi’s background, referring to the “terrorist” status of this cult by the Iranian people and the European Union, and gave an overview of the group’s terrorist background and actions in France, then Iraq, and again in France.

The report implies the cooperation of the MEK with the French government. The TF1’s report was published after claims by the leaders of this terrorist group that they had protested against French politicians and media, calling them accomplices of the Iranian government.

While residents of Ashraf 3 are rationed for food and hygiene products and are constantly criticized for the costs they impose on the group, Maryam Rajavi, with a dozen bodyguards, rents a five-star hotel for her private stay. She enjoys fancy medical services under the flamboyant name of thalassotherapy, while just a few months ago the group asked Mehdi Javedan’s family outside the organization to cover the cost of his heart surgery. Mehdi Javedan, a longtime member of her organization, died two months ago.

Days after the publication of the reports of French media, the organization is still busy responding, or in better words, accusing. The responses are full of generalizations, repetition of the usual statements, and slander and libel.

Documents on money laundering

By the way, the MEK cult is currently in a very weak position vis-à-vis the French government. It is very likely that after France, the governments of Canada, the United States, and other countries will purse the MEK’s financial resources and the group’s money laundering network.

The story of the baths and massage therapy with ocean mud and sediments to rejuvenate the skin of the self-proclaimed president of the resistance, Maryam Rajavi, the payment of large tips and numerous bribes to keep her and her companions’ identities secret, prompted the French government to make sure whether the financial resources for these expenses were provided by the MEK.

The French judiciary is reportedly investigating the matter, as between December 2024 and February 2025, two reports under Article 40 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the possibility of money laundering were submitted to the prosecutors of Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France.

The reports point to companies that appear to be operating as financial fronts for the MEK. Front companies and institutions play a significant role in the MEK’s money laundering and revenue-generating network.

The organization was classified as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union between 1997 and 2013. The group holds annual fundraising campaigns from its members and supporters. Last year alone, more than 7 million euros were raised in this way, some of which was spent on skin rejuvenation for Maryam and other high-ranking members of the organization, and the rest was spent on inciting Western governments through paid speeches and signing declarations against the Iranian government.

France’s relationship with the MEK

It seems that the MEK is a tool for France to gain concessions from the Islamic Republic regime. This rule has always been true for traitors who are tools in the hands of rivals or opponents. On March 18, Le Canard Enchainé exposed Maryam Rajavi’s luxurious life and her money laundering through front companies, probably under the guidance of the French intelligence and security agency DGSE.

Many believe that the recent article in Le Canard Enchainé was the prelude to an exchange between the two governments. 48 hours after the article was published, François Macron announced the release of a French citizen in Iran. In this way, France, for its own economic interests, is gaining some of the Islamic Republic’s consent by putting pressure on the MEK.
The DGSE is aware of the money laundering and fake identities of the front organizations and Rajavi’s dirty nature, but it is not taking any practical action. Which group with such a track record in France is allowed to commit these violations, such that they are constantly in the squares of Paris defrauding Parisian citizens for fake charities to cover the cost of Maryam Rajavi’s thalassotherapy? It seems that France is always monitoring the MEK, but it also needs a weakened version of it.

Mazda Parsi

March 30, 2025 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Where are Mujahedin-e Khalq Schoolchildren?

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MKO) craves legitimacy. It pays retired politicians and government officials five- and sometimes six-figure honoraria in exchange for endorsements at rallies whose crowds it inflates by paying random students to attend in exchange for a free trip to Paris. Many of the American officials attending MKO rallies are ignorant of the group’s ideology, its history of terrorism against Americans, its support of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, its anti-American indoctrination, its embrace of Saddam Hussein, and the opacity surrounding the true source of its income, if not outright tax evasion.

Iranians deeply resent the group for its continued embrace of terror, as well as its cult-like behavior. That its leader Maryam Rajavi has held her position for 40 years hardly builds confidence in her supposed commitment to democracy. There is an irony, too, that her spokesman Ali Safavi will cast wild aspersions against critics who question the group’s democratic credentials and outlook, but then refuse challenges to identify even a single time when he criticized or differed in policy with Rajavi.

Iranian Americans have contributed disproportionately to American society and the American economy. Iranians are overrepresented in medicine, engineering, and in academe. They serve in the U.S. military and across the U.S. government. While these Iranians are Americans first, grateful for the protection the United States gave them when they fled religious dictatorship, they care about the country from which their families came and have strong opinions about its politics. Some lionize Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah. Others come from families associated with the Tudeh, the left-of-center party that rallied around former Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Still others are constitutionalists or republicans. Those Iranian Americans who join the U.S. government submit themselves to ordinary and even enhanced security clearances without difficulty.

Here, though, the Mujahedin-e Khalq is an outlier. The FBI, which handles most senior security clearances, does not clear Mujahedin-e Khalq members. The members of the cult refuse to face polygraphs and, when they do, reflect deceptiveness.
MKO behavior is strange in other ways. The MKO may talk a good game in its Paris rallies, but how many MKO members who are U.S. citizens or green card holders actually serve in the U.S. military? If the MKO is as pro-American as they say and has nothing to hide, why such a strange omission? Indeed, of all immigrant and political groups who come to America, the MKO may be alone in eschewing such service.

Other elements of the Mujahedin-e Khalq reality should also raise red flags among those considering accepting its cash. Safavi can vehemently deny that the MKO is a cult, but he distracts from the simple fact that few if any children of MKO members—they seldom marry outside their political movement—attend public schools or broader multicultural schools. Cults thrive by isolating members. The isolation that MKO children endure is extreme.

By this metric, there appears to be little difference between the Mujahedin-e Khalq’s American wing and Branch Davidians, Unification Church, or People’s Temple. Each may have had the right to their beliefs and politics so long as they did not contravene U.S. law, but in each case, the rhetoric of public-facing leaders reflected less the groups’ reality than did the internal isolation their children suffered. American officials should be very, very cautious when signing onto the MKO’s talking points or accepting their claims. Sometimes an honorarium is not worth the embarrassment sure to follow.

Middle East Forum, Michael Rubin

March 29, 2025 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

The Lavish Lifestyle of Iranian Opposition Figure Maryam Rajavi

An Iranian opposition figure exiled in France, Maryam Rajavi reportedly enjoys a lavish lifestyle, ranging from spas to five-star palaces, according to reports from Le Canard Enchaîné. Prosecutors in the Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France regions have been informed of money laundering.

This information will cause a stir among activists of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Le Canard Enchaîné reveals in its Wednesday edition the lavish lifestyle of Iranian opposition figure Maryam Rajavi, exiled in France. According to information from the web-footed bird, which Europe 1 can confirm, she and her inner circle spent €130,000 last year alone on thermal spas, spas, and five-star hotels.
Biarritz, Deauville, Evian, and Vichy… Since at least 2005, Maryam Rajavi has stayed in these upscale seaside resorts several times a year. She is systematically surrounded by around ten people.
The bills are paid in cash for astronomical amounts: €65,000 in December 2023 in a five-star hotel in Vichy, or €38,140 last spring in a palace in Biarritz.

Suspicions of money laundering

These proceeds could come from the PMOI. In any case, according to information from Europe 1, this is what the French justice system is currently investigating, since between December and last month, two reports under Article 40 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure for suspected money laundering were sent to prosecutors in the Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France regions. They concern front companies affiliated with the PMOI.
The movement was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union between 1997 and 2013. It organizes an annual fundraising campaign for its activists and supporters. Last year alone, more than €7 million was reportedly raised.

William Molinié – europe1.fr

March 25, 2025 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Concerns over MEK’s potential Influence in Congress

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) has renewed its efforts to position itself as a credible opposition movement to the Islamic Republic. The recent outcome of the group’s lobbying activities has been a resolution submitted by 160 congressmen. However, a comprehensive new report from the Congressional Research Service critically assesses these ongoing efforts, underscoring significant concerns regarding the MEK’s extremist ideological origins, historical involvement in terrorism, documented human rights abuses, and notably weak popular support among Iranians both domestically and within the diaspora.

These serious issues about the MEK’s background indicate that endorsing the group not only contradicts democratic values but also undermines the genuine democratic efforts of the Iranians.

The Key Point

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) details the MEK’s tricky history and its current lobbying efforts in the US, including:
The organization was founded on extremist ideologies combining Marxism with radical Islamism.
It has a documented history of violence and terrorism, including assassinations of American personnel in the 1970s. Historically, the MEK actively supported Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power and endorsed the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.

The organization functions under a highly coercive, cult-like structure that enforces strict obedience to leader Massoud Rajavi through physical, psychological, and financial coercion.

The cult-like totalitarian structure enables extensive lobbying campaigns aimed at deceitfully legitimizing the group as a viable alternative to the Iranian government, despite minimal popular support among Iranians domestically and abroad.
U.S. officials who support the MEK claim their goal is to promote democracy and foster the emergence of a new, representative government in Iran. Yet aligning with the MEK directly undermines this objective. The group has cultivated a strongly negative perception among Iranians, who view the MEK as terrorists and traitors who sided with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war.

The Cult of Rajavi Lobbying in the West

The MEK operates with a strict, hierarchical, cult-like organizational structure led by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, imposed through highly coercive measures.

Members are reportedly subjected to forced family separations, including mandatory celibacy. The organization is also particularly cruel to females, conducting hysterectomies on them and repeatedly subjecting them to be raped and sexually abused by the leader, Massoud Rajavi.

Numerous credible reports detail systematic physical and psychological abuses, including allegations of torture and coercive control mechanisms. Dozens of members have been killed due to the mechanisms.
The MEK’s lobbying campaign is aimed at legitimizing the group’s leadership and securing political support, particularly in the U.S. and Europe.

These efforts have allowed the MEK to introduce and garner support for some pieces of legislation. The group pays exorbitant speaking fees to lawmakers to speak at their headquarters in Albania and their rallies in Paris, Berlin and Washington.

For example, speaker fees include over $400,000 paid to former Vice President Mike Pence and $180,000 or more to former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

And most recently, The MEK’s lobbying efforts also led to the introduction of H.Res 166, a deceiving resolution that claims to express “support for the Iranian people’s desires for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran,” but actually endorses Maryam Rajavi and her cult-like terrorist group.

Maryam Rajavi has deliberately misled lawmakers by asserting that the MEK would lead a transitional government in Iran, ostensibly restoring power to the people within six months. However, under her plan, this so-called transitional government would oversee the formation of a Constituent Assembly. While the MEK would technically be dissolved, it would still maintain control through the assembly, ensuring its continued grip on power.

Allying with the MEK hurts the interests of both Iranians and Americans

Engaging with the MEK poses serious risks to U.S. diplomatic credibility. The ideological foundations of the MEK, and its totalitarian system is essentially incompatible with the principles of democracy, human rights, and capitalism.
Ongoing documented human rights abuses and internal authoritarian practices severely undermine their claim of representing democratic aspirations.

The U.S. Department of State has explicitly indicated in recent assessments that the MEK does not constitute a credible democratic opposition force representing the Iranian people.

The MEK relies on front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities, as well as American and European citizens. This practice has gotten the MEK in trouble in the past, such as when the FBI arrested seven MEK supporters for raising over $1 million for a sham charity at LAX.

Due to their ideology, harsh treatment of their members, terrorist activities against Iranian civilians and siding with Saddam Hussein against Iran, the MEK has little to no popular support within Iran and among the Iranian diaspora.
U.S. policy on Iran should not harm the interests of either the United States or the Iranian people. In particular, Washington should respect Iran’s territorial integrity and national unity and should refrain from engaging with armed groups or formerly terrorist designated organizations. Members of Congress should clearly distance themselves from the MEK, learn about its affiliates and avoid legitimizing them or engaging with them.

Mazda Parsi

March 17, 2025 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq; A proxy force

Points on the resolution by US Congressmen in support of the MEK

Less than a month ago, following a Congressional hearing addressed by Maryam Rajavi, some representatives of the US Congress announced their support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in a resolution.

According to information available on the US Congress website, the resolution in question was submitted by 160 Cosponsors (106 Republicans, 54 Democrats). This is despite the fact that only three representatives of Congress were present at the hearing on February 26th, 2025.

Zoe Lofgren, Tom McClintock and Brad Sherman were supposedly representing their colleagues to refer the Resolution H.Res. 166 to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Why the remaining representatives supporting the MEK were not present at this meeting is a good question to be asked. The answer to this question lies in the points that follow. Points that show that the resolution is arbitrary and based on false information and is even clearly authored by the MEK, as the financial sponsor of the whole scenario.

Where is the voice of the Iranian people?

Nowhere in the resolution is there a trace of statistics or documents about the type of government the Iranian people want or their level of approval for the MEK and Maryam Rajavi. This is despite the fact that according to the text of the resolution, the signatories have introduced the MEK as a subversive force and Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point plan as a model for the future government in Iran.
It goes without saying that if anyone wants to think logically and comprehensively about changing the government in Iran, in addition to polling the Iranian people, it is necessary to consider other opposition groups as well.

Woman, Resistance, Freedom?!

Even the most ignorant politicians know that the slogan “Woman, Resistance, Freedom” has never been a topic in Iranian society, and the removal of the word “life” from the overarching slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” is solely a fabrication of the MEK, as a cult-like group that openly considers “life” to be the enemy of struggle.

The submitters are congressmen from a country that considers itself the Super Power of the world and sets tasks for regime change for another country and defines the type of government for it. However, they are too ignorant to have heard the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”! How were they able to hear “Woman, Resistance, Freedom”?
“Woman, Resistance, Freedom” was only transmitted in the hashtags of the MEK’s virtual army on social networks from their Albanian base, in the remote village in North of Tirana, Manez.

Paid Advocacy

It is not strange that the submitters are not surprised that the fabricated slogan “Woman, Resistance, Freedom” is claimed to be the demand of the Iranian people while they have never heard it in the streets of Iran, because it is likely that many of those whose names are listed as submitters have not read the text of the resolution at all.

They did not read it and eventually did not object to the text. This shows their extreme ignorance. Nonetheless, the point is something else. This obvious contradiction of the resolution’s text with the reality in the world makes it clear that the donations of the MEK are so compelling that a congressman, without attending a hearing or reading the text of the resolution, would declare his support for an organization with a history of terrorism, extremism and cult-like violence.
Ultimately, American representatives should be asked whether they would accept a foreign force to declare what kind of government their country should have or who should govern it with what intentions?

In any case, this resolution is a politically signaling, not policy making, and according to the estimates on the Congress website, the probability of its approval is 13 percent. However, its wording suggests foreign approval of a specific political outcome – which has led to interventions that ignores the action and will of the Iranian people.

Mazda Parsi

March 15, 2025 0 comments

Zhina (Zeinab) Hosseinnejad, a former child soldier of the MEK

The cult of Rajavi

Former child soldier’s account on “Constructive Criticism” in the MEK

Former members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) are not only familiar with the history and background of this organization through documents and media but also, they provide a first-hand and unmediated account of this undemocratic and totalitarian structure that simply negates the possibility of this organization being an alternative to the Iranian government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 12, 2025 0 comments

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