Memoirs of Ms. Batoul Soltani – Part 19
As I described in previous parts of my memoirs, I felt that Rajavi liked the women to be around him and he couldn’t bear the presence of even one man in his surroundings. But there were apparently other factors to select these women for the leadership council. There were some individuals who were so devoted to the ideas of the leadership and they were so eager to work hard but they didn’t succeed to be a member of the Council due to the lack of some factors. There were too many arguments on these cases. For example they said: ”Although, she (a particular person) has ideologically reached an acceptance level, she cannot be a member of the leadership council because she doesn’t have the skills to take responsibility to carry out the organizational tasks, she cannot manage well or she cannot speak fluently.”
Being a good speaker or having executive skills was prior to ideological competence of the member. I remember when they selected Sediqe Husseini, they always told her: ”we assign you as a member of the leadership council but you have to increase your knowledge and correct your mistakes [remove your negative points] .
I don’t think that appearance is a factor but there are some examples that raise the doubt that personal appearance matters in selection of some female members. For instance in the case of Maryam Rajavi when she was selected as the first secretary of the organization she was actually the most beautiful woman among high-ranking members. Or, about Fahime Arvani who was at that time the prettiest woman in the organization. She was really beautiful. So her selection caused too many accusations and protests. Members were implicitly complaining to the authorities: ”You select the beautiful ones.” This was a question in member’s minds that they stated it indirectly, for example they stated it as if it was an accusation against Rajavi or Mojahedin from outside the organization.
Even Rajavi tried to answer the question saying “we are accused of such affairs”. He emphasized that the selections were not based on beauty or appearance. Then he made some examples including Mozhgan “that she was selected although she was not beautiful.” He tried to prove that sections were just based on organizational rules and regulations. Actually he made the most use of these accusations to condemn the dissidents and he had also his own expression: ”our job is to close corrupt businesses” he meant that people who made such accusations have opened corrupt businesses.
Another accusation was that they select educated people. Rajavi tried to justify it by saying “for example Nasrin was not educated but she was selected as the first secretary of the organization. So these examples challenged the claims. But I think these people were just selected to remove such label inside or outside the organization. Therefore, I can say that at least the selection of Maryam Rajavi and Fahimeh Arvani was based on their beauty. Maybe, when they elected a person who was not so beautiful among 4 or 5 people who were the most devotees to the leadership, they wanted to remove such a label.
About the relationship between Rajavi and women of the leadership Council, I would say that it was so friendly and comfortable that if a stranger came in their meetings, he thought that this guy was all these women’s husband. I mean that the meetings in the level of the Leadership Council, was completely different from regular meetings that were held in the public hall.
Within the Leadership Council, Rajavi talked about the most personal affairs with the women trying to use his sense of humor. He apparently showed a lot of respect for these women and gave them compliments like:”You are all my hopes”,”I only rely on you”. These compliments made the members to become self-centered. The relations in the Leadership Council were totally different. As I said the relation between Rajavi and women of the Leadership Council was so comfortable that the women told him words like: ”we love you, we are your devotees..” such words basically showed the close relationship.
Rajavi sent presents for these women. I remember a few times that he specifically sent some presents for women, they tried their best to get closer to him and tell him that they are in love with him. I remember a woman of the Leadership Council who justified such relations by saying “I have read in a lot of books that the women at prophet Mohammad‘s (peace be upon him) era, in order to draw prophet Mohammad’s attention to themselves, tried to show off in his way or even they tried to marry him in order to wipe out their sins. All prophets’ wives tried to get a better position before him.” In fact, by the comparison that they made between Masud Rajavi and Prophet Mohammad, they wanted to justify their strange relationship with Rajavi. Also through these arguments, they tried to heighten Rajavi’s position to the level of a prophet.
On the other hand, Rajavi’s reaction to the compliments was arranged in a way that no opposition was stated. I remember an example of his reaction to the compliments: Dr. Yahya [Hussein Forsat] who was a dentist, in a meeting flattered Masud Rajavi by saying that: ”what you are saying is beyond our time and the world would see its result in the future” and then he concluded that “You [Rajavi] are Imam Zaman” (Shiite’s absent twelfth Imam). Now look at Rajavi’s response to such a compliment, he said: ”Yahya what do you say? I will pull out your teeth”. So he indirectly encouraged him to continue his compliments. Sometime, he took a special gesture and pretended to disconnecting the person’s microphone.
Indeed he was really happy with the situation. They had succeeded to manipulate the members in order to put them into this illusion. When the members started their compliments, Maryam and Masud Rajavi waited for their words to be listened completely and the atmosphere of the hall be influenced by the compliments. Then they apparently complained that they were not glad with such a compliment. Sometimes some fanatic members interrupted the discussion by saying “You are Imam Zaman yourself; the messiah of our time!”
Translated by Nejat Society