Maryam QajarAzdanlou was 26 years old when she married Mehdi Abrishamchi, 32, in 1979. Mehdi was a high-ranking member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO, MEK, PMOI, Cult of Rajavi) and Maryam was an ordinary member. The first years of their marriage was coincident with the group’s violent acts in the streets of Iran and the escape of the group’s leader Massoud Rajavi to France.
The newly-weds lived in safe houses of the group together with other members. A former member of the MEK who lived with Maryam and Mehdi and their little girl Ashraf, recalls the quarrels between the couple about joining Massoud Rajavi in France. Maryam urged her then-husband to move to France as soon as possible.
Finally, the family fled to France where Maryam became Massoud’s office manager. Former security official of the MEK in Paris, Massoud Khodabandeh states that he witnessed that Maryam was once taken to hospital by Saleh Rajavi, Massoud’s brother in order to have an abortion.”She had Masoud Rajavi’s baby,”says Khodabandeh.
It did not take Massoud Rajavi a long time to declare his third marriage with Maryam QajarAzdanlou. The controversial marriage that took place in 1985 was called by the leader as”The novel ideological revolution”. The so-called marriage was the start of the eventual bizarre actions in the group.
Mehdi Abrishamchi and Maryam Rajavi divorced under the order of Massoud Rajavi and soon Rajavi married Maryam. The luxurious wedding ceremony of Massoud and Maryam was held in Paris. Maryam took off the wedding ring of Mehdi and immediately put on the ring offered by Massoud Rajavi. She was called”Maryam Rajavi”since the novel ideological marriage.
Mehdi Abrishamchi shook hands with Massoud Rajavi and congratulated his ex-wife’s marriage with the leader Massoud Rajavi. He then addressed the audience in the hall:”As a Mujahed Khalq and as a child of the Khalq (people), I congratulate Massoud and Maryam with each and every cells of my body and I am full of ideological happiness.”
Therefore, Ashraf Abrishamchi, the three-year-old daughter of Mehdi and Maryam was the first child left behind the ideological divorce. Later, Mehdi married the seventeen-year-old Mina Khiabani, under the leadership order. Mina was the sister of Musa Khiabani, a high ranking member of the group killed in a clash with the Iranian government.
The outcome of the novel ideological revolution were ideological divorces. Consequently, hundreds of Mujahed families collapsed. Normally Mehdi and Mina divorced too. The only marriage that survived the alleged revolution was that of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. Furthermore, it was developed and expanded by the mass marriages of Massoud Rajavi with women of the MEK’s Elite Council.
Mazda Parsi