Ali Asghar Zamani is a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and the current member of the Nejat Society office in Albania called Nejat Albania.
He managed to escape the group camp on Thursday, September 14th, 2023.
Zamani joined the MEK in 2003, together with his family –his wife, son and daughter—because the MEK agents had promised him to transfer them from Iraq to Europe and help them find a good job and a happy life there.
But soon he realized that he was deceived; the MEK did not provide them any possibility to go to Europe and get asylum there. Instead, all the family were separated from each other. They could hardly ever see each other.
News 24; the Albanian 24-hour news television channel has recently interviewed Ali Zamani on his experiences with the MEK. The Albanian Balkan Web also published a report on the interview. The
report reads:
Ali Asghar Zamani
“I escaped from the Manza camp after 20 years”, the confession of the former mujahedin: Here’s what happens inside
The Iranian Mujahideen, otherwise known as the “Iranian opposition”, have been in exile for a long time.
The Iranian People’s Mujahideen Organization (MEK) was founded in Iran in 1965 by a group of radical students who combined Marxism and Islam.
Although there are no exact official data, the number of Mujahideen sheltering in the Manza camp is thought to be 3,500.
Ali Zamani is a former Mujahed who was able to escape from the Manza camp after 20 years of being in the MEK.
In an interview with moderator Çenkuela Hasa, he revealed how he became part of this organization, his escape and his new life in Tirana.
He told FitStation on News24 all the experiences of these years.
“In the beginning, I joined the MEK with the idea that our path alongside this organization was towards Europe or America, but I soon realized that this was not true.
I entered the MEK with my wife and two children, they forced us to separate because for them family did not exist, the men lived separately and the women separately. For 20 years, I watched the boy only from afar and could never speak to him inside the camp, while I never saw my ex-wife again after we entered the camp. It still continues to be there. MEK controls everything, psychological pressure was the hardest part, to control thoughts, actions. I am happy that I was able to escape after 20 years” – said the former Mujahedeen.