Mr. Varshi defected the Mojahedin- e Khalq group and managed to run away the Cult after 27 years.
Ashur Varshi now resides in a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. As soon as he stepped the free world, Ashur called his brother; Ghorban. He introduced himself and said that he was free, living in a hotel in Baghdad. His brother was shocked and couldn’t stop crying. The Varshi family were really happy they could hear Ashur’s voice after nearly three decades.
Ashur asked to talk to his parents. He said that he missed his mother a lot. Unfortunately his parents were dead while he was captive of MKO Cult.
Varshi joined the MKO 27 years ago. As a 19–year–old teenager his ideal was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic through armed struggle. But ultimately, the totalitarian and manipulative system of the group made him leave it. ”After 27 years of companionship with the group, I was threatened to death (by Alireza Budaqchi under the pseudonym of Ahad) just because I had said that the leader’s arguments were not realistic,” Varshi writes. “He [Ahad] used to pressure me to praise the leader’s words.”
Ashur who was labeled an anti-leader agent, was eventually supervised all the time. ”There was an absolutely suppressive atmosphere,” he recounts.” I was repeatedly summoned by them; and I was faced with mental torture in order to stop criticizing the group.”
