The stories of other victims of the Mujahedin Khalq, Mehran Gholami and Bahman Atiqi, were published in the previous parts of this series of articles.
Ahmad Tavakol was from Mahshahr, Khuzestan Province, Iran. He was married and had two children. He was not a political person and had no idea about the Mujahedin Khalq before he was recruited by the group. As his wife was a relative of Masoomeh Rabiee –a female member of the MEK who was forced by Massoud Rajavi to divorce her husband– Ahmad got familiar with the group.
Ahmad Tavakol; victim of the MEK
The cult of Rajavi promised him to transfer him and his family to Europe after a short stay in Iraq. The group’s human smuggling team took Ahmad, his wife and their two kids to Iraq.
He was first employed in the reception unit of Hanif Camp in Abu Ghraib region and then he was transferred to battalion 3 under the command of Parviz Karimian (Jahangir).
Ahmad was an emotional person; he was very emotionally attached to his children who were very young at the time. He was always counting the minutes for Thursday, the day that he was able to visit his children.
In the early days of his presence in the MEK, he was so cheerful and energetic. He had a great sense of humor. He made us laugh so much in our gatherings. The sound of his laughter often filled the eating place. His sweet accent of southern Iran while talking of memories of his home town, Mahshahr, reminded us all of our life before joining the group, and, that made the authorities very angry with him. Ahmad’s fault was that he reminded members of their family and their previously normal life.
Ultimately, the commanders of the battalion gave him a serious warning to leave all non-organizational relationships and to become a flawlessly serious and organizational person. The next time I saw him in the eating place, unlike other times, he was so silent. I asked about the reason. “They punished me severely,” he told me using an expression in Mahshahri accent. Jahangir the commander of the battalion 3 had warned him to leave the normal culture and relations of the society and become organizational.
Since then, Ahmad was no more as energetic as before. He looked depressed. He had been trained as an RPG shooter of battalion 3 so he was often made to participate in military maneuvers. Battalion 3 was the newest battalion of Hanif Camp and was famous for is diversity of ethnic groups. It was known as nomad battalion in the MEK. The battalion 3 was the first to get prepared for the operations called “hitting hills”.
As he was getting closer to the time of operation, he was getting more and more depressed. He had not visited his kids for the past weekend and he was really desperate. His kids also missed him too much. They were more attached to their father than they were to their mother.
A week before the operation, I saw him with his kids in the eating place. Both of them were sitting on his knees. He was kissing them. I am not sure but I think it was Ahmad’s last visit with his kids.
It was a sad day when Ahmad and his comrades in battalion 3 said good buy to go for operation. Every one wondered if it was their last visit. Ahmad was very quiet. There was no sign of vigor in his face. He looked back several times. Perhaps, He was looking for his kids to have the last farewell. But his kids did not come. He said goodbye to everyone and it was my turn. He hugged me warmly and told softly in my ear, “Pray for me and say hello to my wife and kids for me. I really wished they were here now.” Taking his RPG bullets, he smiled bitterly and said, “See you, maybe on Doomsday.”.
Ahmad was finally killed in the operation in Meima region at the age of 32. He was one of the victims of Rajavi’s ambitions. He might have dreamed of his kids, deep in their memories, in the last moments of his life.
Shame on Massoud Rajavi who deprived Ahmad, and hundreds of people like Ahmad, of having their family and children and saved his own invaluable life. By going into hiding, he continued his underground scandalous lifetime.