++ Although the Iranian team won the inaugural Asian Women’s Futsal Championship, the MEK couldn’t even bear to mention it. Apparently news from inside the MEK reports that Maryam Rajavi was in a black, jealous mood over it, even though she is over sixty and these are young women. The MEK resorted to repeating what some unknown Saudi papers had first published; that because they wear scarves the footballers are actually men. (The MEK has forgotten that in Saudi Arabia and in the MEK women are forced beneath greater hijab than that of the players.) MEK reporting apparently shows how much hatred they have toward the Iranian people.
++ Saudi newspaper Akaz, owned by the Al Saud family, claimed this week that Iran was behind the deaths in Haj. As proof, they brought a notorious MEK commander called Hadi Roshan Ravan (who is a famous intel officer of Saddam Hossein and the MEK and is known inside the MEK as a torturer), to explain. Roshan Ravan is also infamous for making other false allegations, such as in the Argentina dossier – for which it was exposed that the only witnesses were him and the late Ebrahim Zakeri, both high ranking MEK commanders. For Argentinian investigators it was clear they had been groomed by Mossad.
++ A handful of US Senators have spoken out in support of the MEK. Most Iranian papers have translated in full or most of this news. They have not spoken about individuals such as John McCain, Thom Tillis and Ted Poe who have come out in support of the MEK. Instead most Iranian papers hold up America as a country for ridicule alongside the MEK and say ‘this is what we have reduced them to; the only tool they have to use is the MEK, but they can’t even use them because they are finished!’
++ Iranian media has ‘gone to town’ over all the above news items, treating them as jokes, translating them into Farsi for Iranians to have a laugh.
++ Over 80% of MEK outlets have been swearing at ex members and families last week. That’s not new, but listen to what they have to say. The MEK call them “pigs” and “boars” and say the families “bray like donkeys”. Seriously! Is that the level to which the MEK has descended?
In English:
++ Nejat Bloggers reported from Geneva last week that several members of Iran Zanan (Women’s) Association attended meetings on human rights issues in Geneva. Zahra Moie’ni, Batul Soltani and Homeyra Mohammadnez represented Iran Zanan to meet nations’ representatives. They also staged a picket to protest against human rights abuses committed within the camps of the Mojahedin Khalq in front of the United Nation’s office in Geneva.
++ Mazda Parsi writing for Nejat Bloggers focused on the paradox of Maryam Rajavi, notorious for human rights abuses inside her own cult, talking about her support for human rights in public.
++ Al Monitor and The Washington Times reported on support voiced for the MEK during Congressional committee meetings. (Which the Iranian press gleefully took up to poke fun of.)
++ Anne Khodabandeh wrote ‘‘Who could hang a saint?’ – Maryam Rajavi’s crocodile tears over human rights’. In reaction to the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Maryam Rajavi poses as a human rights advocate, sweeping under the carpet her decades long history of direct responsibility for the deaths and torture of thousands of victims, including her own members. Khodabandeh says her pose is not a result of contrition or a change of heart. Instead it is “a politically motivated fake stance brought about by panic and despair, just as once the MEK’s manufactured nuclear intelligence bought them artificial status brought about by opportunism. Since July, the negotiated Iran nuclear agreement has irrevocably changed the political landscape. The MEK are no longer needed or wanted beyond backing up the efforts of a few regime change pundits clinging to the past.
“And of course, Maryam Rajavi is acutely aware of the fate of her benefactor Saddam Hussein. When he was no longer needed, his former allies handed him over to the Iraqi people for judgement and punishment. He was, as we all know, hanged.
“So, Maryam’s Rajavi’s sudden and specific and uncharacteristic condemnation of the death penalty should be judged in this context. Her underlying message to her sponsors is, ‘who could hang a saint?’”
October 9, 2015