Traveling abroad presents an ideal opportunity to master a foreign language. The immersion process facilitates communication in a diverse world. However, for members of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) who have lived the longest part of their life in foreign countries learning the languages of that country is forbidden.
In today’s world, learning a new language has a lot of benefits. The experts believe that learning a foreign language improves your memory, makes you a better multitasker, encourages cultural appreciation, makes you a better communicator and encourages creativity. But, as members of a cult-like system, the rank and file of the MEK are not supposed to gain these benefits.
Former member of the group, Mehdi Soleimani told Mardom TV, in his recent interview on the life of child soldiers in the MEK, “The MEK leaders do not allow members to learn English. As soon as they see someone speaking a few English words they accuse him or her of being a mercenary or of being willing to leave the group to join a bourgeois life!”
In fact, anything that opens the windows to the outside world for the members of the MEK is a taboo. The leaders of the MEK know that learning English improves and widens employment opportunities for defectors. A person who masters in English is able to explore the world with confidence and access world-class education systems and establishments. And eventually knowing English increases his or her cognitive ability which can be paraphrased as brain power.
Brain power is what all destructive cults do not want for their members. Destructive cults are considered as being dangerous and harmful, as their practices can be manipulative and can have a detrimental effect on the mental and physical well-being of members. Many members who have left the MEK report practices of physical and mental abuse, both of adults and children.
As a matter of fact, most members of the Cult of Rajavi resided in Iraq for about three decades but the scandalous fact about them is that the majority of them hardly ever know Arabic, the official language of Iraqis. Having been isolated in the Iraqi deserts at Camp Ashraf which had almost all facilities of a city, MEK members were not allowed to leave the camp and to communicate Iraqi people.
After the group’s relocation in Europe, Albania, the same restrictions were made for the rank and file of Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality. Members who are kept as hostages in camp Ashraf 3 in Manez, in north of Tirana are deprived from the proper self-confidence to enter the foreign community of which they do not know the language and culture. Furthermore, the group has confiscated their ID documents, their money and other properties as well as their brain power. Thus, those who dare to leave the MEK are really brave and respectable people.
Mazda Parsi