Ahmad Razani was a member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization (MEK), whose family of four fell apart in the cult-like structure of the group. He, who loved his wife and children, and during his years of captivity in Rajavi’s cult, the grief of his wife and children always made him against the leaders of the group. Under the pressure and accusations, he finally committed suicide.
Motherless children after Forough Javidan
Ahmad Ali Razani was from Lorestan, Iran. In 1367, on the eve of Forough Javidan operation, leaders of the Cult of Rajavi brought Razani and his family, like many other supporters from all over the world, to Iraq to take part in the operation. In a very short period of time with minimal military training and without the necessary physical and mental preparation, a large number of MEK suporters were sent to cross the Iranian border. Razani his wife and two children, Bahram and Shahnaz had joined the MEK from Germany, Europe. Batul Soltani, former member of the Cult of Rajavi, says about this family:
“Ahmad Razani is one of the thousands of unfortunate victims who were transported to Iraq and Ashraf by the organization along with his wife and daughter Shahnaz Razani and his son Bahram Razani. I remember well and I saw his wife in the meeting before Forough operation. He was crying and saying that he loves his wife, and she doesn’t even know how to use an arm. He complained that why the organization wants to send her to the operation. After the operation, I saw Ahmad Razani with tears in his eyes and he said that his wife was killed and his children became motherless. He said only one word that his wife was sent to the operation against his wishes and said that he felt the sadness of years on his shoulders and said that he wished I had died earlier and was not in this world. He considered himself guilty of his wife’s death and said that I dragged her along with me, and he was also crying, and the memory of his wife did not leave him alone for a moment.”
MEK members at the grave of Ahmad Razani
Thus, Ahmad Razani’s children lost their mother at the age of five. After Forough Javidan’s operation, the forced divorce order was issued by Masoud Rajavi. Eventually, family life in Ashraf camp was practically prohibited. Bahram and Shahnaz lived in the Mujahedin Khalq children’s team house under the supervision of Mujahed women. They were allowed to visit their father only on weekends. Qader Rahmani, a former member of the Cult of Rajavi, writes about Ahmad Razani:
“Ahmed was the one whose wife was killed in Forough Javidan without showing any desire to participate in this war, so he was angry with the organization on this issue. His two children Bahram and Shahnaz in Ashraf were considered his only spiritual support and gave him hope of a new life. Ahmad Razani’s children were almost 5 years old. They used to come to our unit on Thursday afternoons. Children were only allowed to see their parents on Thursdays. I remember that Bahram, the son of Ahmed always insisted on playing hand football with me. Not long after, the organization did not show mercy to the children and denied their parents and children two hours of visitation. Bahram and Shahnaz were also among the other children who were smuggled to Europe (Germany), under the order of the organization and not their parents.”
Bahram and Shahnaz, child
Bahram and Shahnaz were separated from their parents and smuggled to Europe and North America along with seven hundred other children of Mojahedin Khalq in 1369. Ahmad Razani’s children left Germany again, and this time without their parents, they continued to live an organizal life inMEK’s orphanages in German cities.
Eight years later, in 1996, Razani’s children were sent to Iraq from Germany under the pretext of meeting their father, and like other child soldiers of the MEK, they were recruited in the MEK’s army. At the age of 15, Shahnaz and Bahram were organized in the so-called National Liberation Army, wearing military uniforms and carrying guns.
Due to the sufferings that the organization had imposed on Ahmad Ali Razani and his family, he was not happy with the organization and despite having a high organizational rank (MO rank), after his complained about the fate of his wife and children he was humiliated as a low-ranking member. He was always under supervision. After his children returned to Ashraf, his visits with his children were very limited and then completely stopped. Batul Soltani remembers how angry and sad Ahmed was at the time because of his children’s recruitment in the MEK army:
“Massoud Rajavi sent his daughter and son out with a lot of other children who had tricked their parents and dragged them out of Iraq. And again one day I saw him as if he was not in this world. And I asked, are you good brother Ahmed? He said, ‘what we thought and what happened…’ After his children were tricked and brought to Iraq to see their father, he felt that the organization had taken them as hostages. One day, in 1985, I saw him disappointed, and I asked him how he was doing. Ahmed said that there was no way forward or backward. He said that the sorrow he feels for his daughter and son does not leave him alone for a moment and he said, ‘they were brought to Iraq the pretext of visiting me here and first they tricked my son on the pretext of visiting and then by taking advantage of my son they also tricked my daughter’.”
Bahram and Shahnaz Razani did not easily cope with captivity in Ashraf. Batul Soltani says: “Shahnaz, his daughter, always had disagreements with the organization and did not accept the organization and its leadership and wanted to leave and was always under the influence of the organization’s officials.” And Bahram, according to Rahman Qadri: “He disagreed with the group and its leadership and wanted to return to Germany, where he was deceived and sent, and for this reason he was always under pressure from the authorities.”
Qader writes in a memory of Bahram Razani’s criticism on the leaders of the MEK, especially Mohammad Mohadesin, for deceiving child soldiers in the presence of Masoud Rajavi: “Bahram son of Ahmad revealed in the public meeting how Behnam (Mohammed Mohadesin) deceived them. Behnam told the children; I promise you will return to Europe and continue your education after meeting your parents in Ashraf. Bahram told him in the public meeting where Masoud Rajavi also participated: “Brother Massoud! Brother Behnam deceived us.”
Ahmad Razani’s mental breakdown
Ahmad Razani’s and his children’s criticisms against the cult leaders caused them to no longer be allowed to meet each other in the organization. Ahmad Razani was marginalized in the lower ranks. In the last years of his life, he was assigned to work in the kitchen of Ashraf Camp, where he finally hanged himself or maybe they hanged him at dawn on November 27, 2009.
At that time, the families of members of the MEK were protesting in front of the gates of Ashraf and demanding to meet their loved ones. They witnessed that the body of the victim was taken to the hospital at the exit door of the camp by several members of the organization. Then it was announced that Ahmad Razani hanged himself with a rope in the kitchen. After the initial examination, the Iraqi doctor of the hospital announced that the cause of his death could not be suicide. According to reports at that time, the doctor refused to issue a burial permit and the body of the victim was taken to Baghdad for an autopsy. The families protesting in front of Camp Ashraf, who were waiting to meet their loved ones, were moved and upset after hearing the news.
Razani’s children are still taken as hostages in the MEK. Bahram works for the propaganda machine of the group in the Internet. It is hoped Bahram and Shahnaz, like many other former child soldiers of the MEK, could manage to leave this destructive cult and return to the free world.
By Mazda Parsi