According to anti Rajavi sources, MEK is trying to provide and send fake letters to UNHCR and other International Organizations
An Ex high ranking MEK member and human rights activist living in Europe, Mr. Behzad Alishahi has told MojahedinMonitor that MEK has been using identities of Iranians as well as non-Iranians to send fake letters and provide false information.
He mentioned, "MEK has been trying to approach families and friends of its hostages in Iraq and asks them to sign a letter.” He adds, “The MEK`s letter is nothing but the will of the cult leaders who are sitting in France and willing to keep their prisoners."
Alishahi Also described how MEK uses identities of different people to fake letters. He described that in the recent years the cult like organization has turned to asylum camps and labors to provide people for its gatherings in France and elsewhere. He says, “Iranians living abroad hate this group, therefore they gather people in need with a free trip to Paris and free food and accommodation.” He added that every individual has to provide MEK officials with his name, address, email and tell number in order to be qualified for the free tour. The information gathered in such way is later used for signing mass letters which are written by MEKs. In other words Rajavists write letters and just use name and information of those who have enjoyed from a free ride and tour of Paris.
MEK has a notorious reputation of violating human rights and terror. According to Human rights watch , members of MEK ( also known as Rajavi`s Organization) who are not willing to continue their cooperation with the group, have been imprisoned and tortured
Defectors of Mujahedin khalq
International Women’s Day on 8 March is rooted in women’s demands for better working pay and conditions, and for voting rights, and has expanded to encompass women’s global struggle for equal rights and equal participation in social, political and economic processes.
In spite of considerable progress, continued vigilance and action are required to ensure that women’s equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life all over the world.
In this context what are we to understand about Maryam Rajavi’s claim to feminist credentials?
Rather than take Maryam Rajavi’s words and image at face value, let us examine her actions and behaviour toward women in her own organisation. The best people to help in this respect are the women members of the Mojahedin. Understandably, current female MEK members cannot speak freely about their experience of being in this organisation because they must only iterate the MEK’s public stance.
However, those women who have recently left the MEK are certainly free to talk about the situation for women inside the MEK. Even so, their courage must be acknowledged. Not only is it difficult for women to break social taboos to talk about sexual abuse, but like whistleblowers everywhere, they are subjected to enormous pressure to keep quiet.
Indeed, just a glance at the difficulties faced by these women in recent months speaks volumes about the MEK’s real approach to women. Since making public statements in a conference held the Autumn of 2012 about sexual abuses committed by the MEK leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, against them and other women members, the following incidents have taken place against these women.
Batoul Soltani previously spoke out about the abuse of women in the MEK in both Baghdad and now in Europe where she lives. She was recently attacked in front of her house and her neighbours had to come to her rescue. The MEK have published indecipherable false documents on their websites alleging that while she was a member of the Mojahedin’s Leadership Council (the highest rank after the Rajavis), she was working for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. Batoul joined the MEK with her husband and two month old baby when she was barely eighteen years old. She had been a member for over twenty years.
Nasrin Ebrahimi, who now lives in Switzerland, was fourteen years old when she was taken to the MEK’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq. She was only able to escape after the American army forced the MEK to disarm in 2003. Nasrin was invited to the European Parliament to testify about her experience as a woman in the Mojahedin. After that she suffered such severe harassment by the MEK that she changed country twice to escape them. Police have had to protect her for some time against the MEK. Recently she has again been approached and threatened in Switzerland for joining the group of women exposing the abuses.
Zahra Bagheri crawled combat-style over a kilometre for hours in the dark to escape Camp Ashraf. Her body was so lacerated and bleeding that the Iraqi soldiers who found her wept on seeing her injuries. She spent several weeks in hospital recovering from this ordeal. In addition she has had to undergo various operations in Germany because of neglect of her medical conditions while she was in Ashraf. She also joined the other women in the Autumn 2012 conference. The MEK are currently using her two sisters and her brother who remain in Camp Liberty to perform on their TV to swear at Zahra and their mother.
In the last two months, three more women have escaped from Camp Liberty. Seeing this treatment is it surprising that they are reluctant to talk to human rights investigators in Iraq even though privately they corroborate the experiences told by the women above.
They talk about Maryam Rajavi grooming young women and having them dance naked for her and Massoud. They say that after raping them Massoud gives them a medallion with his picture on it. There are 100 names, perhaps more, of women who have had hysterectomies; that is one in ten women in the MEK. They say this is done so that Rajavi can order them to sleep with him or any other man without fear of pregnancy.
It is public knowledge that the MEK instigated forced divorces long before the fall of Saddam so that for twenty years there have been no children in the MEK. In interviews with the BBC they proudly announced it and defended this policy. According to recent escapees, Rajavi has told the MEK the following: ‘According to Islamic rule, if a woman turns against her husband he has the right to kill her. According to the Internal Revolution you are all my wives. So if any of you betrays me and leaves the MEK I have the right to kill you under Islamic law.’ On the MEK websites they have published Massoud Rajavi’s threat: ‘I have evidence about everybody and if they leave I will expose them.’ It is thought he may have film of sexual acts.
(Women "rewarded" with pendants and robes after sexual ordeal)
The MEK have for decades used violence, intimidation and harassment to prevent former members from speaking publicly about the abuses taking place inside the organisation.
News of these activities is suppressed because some people think that terrorism is a useful tool. These women face a backlash of ‘power and money’ to stop them talking, while the same ‘power and money’ grooms the perpetrator, Maryam Rajavi, to talk about the rights of women and criticise marriage laws and say how they should be changed in the favour of women. ‘Power and money’ believe the MEK should not only be removed from terrorism lists but should be paraded in parliaments as exemplars of feminism. ‘Power and money’ are so dishonest that they cast the MEK in the role of victim while condemning the former women members as torturers, spies and agents.
No one expects ‘power and money’ to take the side of victims, but to turn the tables in this way is truly sickening.
Author of "Saddam’s Private Army" and "The life of Camp Ashraf"
http://www.camp-ashraf.com
Nim Negah Website is publishing series of interviews with Ms. Ebrahimi. Nejat society translated excerpts of her memoirs of the sufferings of living in the MKO cult.
Rajavi’s major objective was to maintain members in Camp Ashraf by killing the hope for future life.
Hysterectomy operation verified Rajavi as the most criminal and treasonous person in the history of Iran. In his opinion, the removal of women’s wombs would entirely turn them to Rajavi’s property for ever.
In order to suppress male members, Rajavi used female members over them. To show their superiority over men, women had no pity for others, they pretended to be rough. The more they imposed pressure on male members, the more they were praised by Massoud Rajavi. This was the sign of connection with Massoud. Hard labour didn’t let members think. Rajavi had deceived a bunch of womenwho were victims who in their turn victimized male members. You might have heard of Ms. Batoul Soltani’s revelations about sexual abuse by Massoud Rajavi. I was not a member of MKO’s Elite Council (Leadership Council) but when I got to know about Ms. Soltani’s memoirs, I realized the histories about “Leadership’s Bounds” and meetings with Maryam Rajavi in which she told us,” We are all Rajavi’s wives.”
According to Ashraf regulations, all women are in “Rajavi’s Bounds” so no one had the right to look at them or think about them.
We were given necklaces by Massoud that meant that we were connected to the leadership. As we were going ahead in meetings, new subjects would emerge. For example, after we got the necklaces, the subject “4 walls” [chardivari] was proposed; the meaning of the new subject was that we had an owner, named Massoud Rajavi. Maryam Rajavi typically told us:”You have the most handsome and the best husband in the world. How a married woman let herself think of another man?”However, at that time I supposed that her words were absolutely ideological arguments not anymore…
After compulsory divorces, the situation in Camp Ashraf was not like a normal community and the events that took place in Ashraf never take place in an ordinary community so it’s not easy for female defectors of the MKO to talk about it.
In my idea we shouldn’t be scared or ashamed to reveal what happened to us there, instead Massoud Rajavi should be ashamed because he caused all these problems for us.
Psychological researches indicate that the suppression of sexual and emotional desires doubtlessly hurts person’s mental health. First of all, I believe that we should view the issue scientifically not personally…
In 1996, men and women’s bases in Ashraf were made separated from each other. Separated bases were built for women inside Camp Ashraf. The separation was created to stop men and women to get involved with each other even in their minds. (This was called “Caught in a moment”).Rajavi feared such an issue so women were completely alienated from men. Just a small number of female officials stayed in male bases as their supervisors.
A number of women were not happy with the separation process. They weren’t impressed by Rajavis’ propaganda.”This is contrary to the values we have propagated for years,” they said.”If men and women cannot work together, so we made mistake to chant slogans about the equality between men and women”. […]
By the way, we were resettled in female base. In a meeting that was held immediately after the relocation, the officials told us:”Now that sisters are apart from brothers, there is the risk that you pamper yourself and leave your values." (!!) Therefore severe and harsh treating became more than the time we were resided together with male members…
To be continued
![](https://st.nejatngo.org/Image/Persons/Ebrahimi/Ebrahimi_Nasrin_2_L.jpg)
Nim Negah Website is publishing series of interviews with Ms. Ebrahimi. Nejat society translated excerpts of her memoirs of the sufferings of living in the MKO cult.
After I entered the MKO base in Iraq the first word I was told was a warning about my hair that was seen from under my scarf! During the first two days I was being interrogated by 15 people. I had to sign a paper; It was an approval document based on which I had admitted to be executed by the MKO in case I escape an operation! Let’s not mention that Mrs. Rajavi now claims to oppose death penalty! By the way they feared the day we wouldn’t agree to launch attack against our country fellowmen.
During the first year I spent in Ashraf, I came to know that everything was like a mirage; the life in Ashraf was a big lie so I began complaining and criticizing the group on various subjects.
I told them:”I think I am in a prison. What you publicize is so different from what you really are.” I was too young to know that this would be dangerous and I would risk my life by criticizing the MKO…
..However, I couldn’t believe that I would be imprisoned. I didn’t guess that my criticisms would make Rajavi mad at me. As the result of criticizing the Rajavis, I was being humiliated…They treated me in such a way that my friends tried to stay away from me…In brainwashing sessions, they told me to condemn myself, this way I would pave the way for others to offense me…
If we said that we hadn’t done anything wrong during the day, it would have been much worse; we would have been verbally abused more….
After a year in Ashraf, one day they called to me. I was told that Mossoumeh Pirhadi wanted to see me. When I was going to her office, I really felt bad.
Having arrived in her room, she started shouting at me and insulting me … I was taken to a bus. I asked: what’s up?”They said:”Shut up! Just get on!” I got on the bus. I was shocked and terrified. Two people were guarding me in the dark bus. I was crying!
… They pushed me into the prison. I was so scared that I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t believe that the MKO –with those slogans and propaganda – have prisons! All of the sudden I recalled the first day of my arrival in the MKO base when the group officials told me,”Iranian regime jail the children under the legal age!” What a surprise!
After a week of imprisonment, a woman named Forough Pakdel came to my cell and said:”Get out”. There was another room next to my cell for interrogation! Another woman named Mahnaz Bazzazi started interrogating me,” who are you? Why did you join the oragnziation? " (suppose that Iran needed someone to infiltrate the MKO. Does the Iranian Intelligence Ministry – with that experience and power- need to send a 14-year-old girl into a complicated group like the MKO?)
Therefore, it was sure that they wanted to intimidate me. They wanted to stop criticism in its first phases.
Interrogation sessions went on .. I wasn’t physically tortured but I was under a constant terrible mental torture. All day long I was stressed. They knew I feared interrogation sessions so they always pretended that someone was going to come interrogate me…
The interrogation session included only shouting and screaming at me that lasted an hour or two.
Actually, the MKO knew that I was innocent but they just wanted to hurt me. They wanted to teach me that I didn’t have the right to criticize … they threatened me that they would deliver me to Iraqi intelligence service who would in turn execute me. They used various ways to torture me; they brought my food late, I was deprived from having doctor or medicine. Because of too much stress and pressure of interrogation sessions I was sick but they didn’t care…
After they found out that I was badly mentally hurt, they brought me a TV that only showed the group’s propaganda channel ”Simay-e Azady”
… During the entire year in jail, I never went for recess.. When I asked for a recess time, Mahnz Bazzazi refused my request and found a new pretext to verbally abuse me again!
The painful horrible condition continued. The group interrogators didn’t tell me what was wrong with me. They just insulted me saying,” You stand against Rajavi, you are a mercenary” and so on.
… After exactly a year of imprisonment, I could feel that something had changed around me. No one was there, the main door was open. A few hours later I heard someone calling. It was Forough Pakdel who always used to shout at me and use foul mouthed language against me. But this time was different, she called ”Dear Nasrin! Where are you?” I was confused!
She had become so friendly! I was doubtful like the first day they jailed me.. They kissed me! They told me” Get back to the base (Ashraf). Something had gone wrong and you should understand that we are here to struggle and the struggle has ups and downs so organization doesn’t owe you anything”…
By the way, I resisted against them.”Once I trusted the organization, I left my life and family because I thought you were right but I understand that you lie. So let me leave Ashraf. I won’t get back to the camp,” I told them. They tried to convince me to stay in the cult but when they saw I was serious about my decision they said:” Ok, you must stay two more years in the prison so that your information is outdated. According to the regulations of the organization, you will be submitted to Iraqis who will jail you in Abu Qoraib for ten years then Saddam Hussein will exchange you will Iraqi POWs in Iran”
This was the most painful thing I could hear. In fact, I had no way except staying in Ashraf. I was coerced to admit to stay with the MKO. Then I was told to sign some documents that were like confessions…
By the way, I got back to the base but it was not me, Nasrin, it was like a body with no sole. I couldn’t speak or criticize anymore. I just listened to others and kept silent. This was what Rajavi wanted. They told me that I was not allowed to speak about my imprisonment I had to say that I was in Baghdad!
.. a woman who was also a victim of Rajavi’s cult, told me: ”Nasrin … try to be rational otherwise you will be put out of their way. The prison was a small warning. The second time you will be put to death… “
Sometime later, when I saw Rajavi in a meeting, I calmly asked him why I was jailed but he pretended not to understand me and asked Shahrzad Sadr:”What is Nasrin talking about?” I told Rajavi,” The MKO is over in my mind”.
I remember Maryam Rajavi’s arrest in Paris in 2003. After she was jailed by French judiciary because of money laundry activities and conducting terrorist acts, she said:”I expected to be jailed by the Iranian Regime not by a freedom loving country like France.” I should tell Mrs. Rajavi:” Mrs. Rajavi, Me and other people like me expected to be in the prisons of the Islamic Republic not in the prisons of the Rajavis who claim and chant that much of slogans!”
A group of Ex MEK members and supporters, started a new campaign in Facebook which has outraged the Rajavists.
The campaign which was formed after the mortar attack to camp Liberty, has called for immediate replacement of MEK members to safe countries. A request that is against the rajavis will.
It is mentioned in the declaration of the campaign, “We call upon the United Nations and other responsible organizations for the immediate safe transfer of these defenseless political asylums before anymore future attacks.”
Despite the humanitarian nature of the campaign, Rajavi organization has mobilized its member and supporters to accuse founders and members of the campaign to be agents of Islamic Republic of Iran.
One of the founders of the campaign, Mrs. Atefeh Eghbal, is a former high ranking MEK official who left the Iraq based group in mid 90s. Her brother Mohammad Eghbal is still a high ranking MEK official in camp Liberty and is Arabic translator.
According to MEK websites MR. Eghbal has written a public letter to her sister and other campaign activists and accused her of being a traitor as well as insulting her. MEK has showed a huge desire to accuse every ex MEK and other criticizers in order to stop them from writing and talking about MEK.
Despite the efforts of MEK, this small group and their campaign has raised a question among Iranian internet activists that why Ravi`s Organization takes no action to help its members to leave Iraq.
It was commented in the Facebook page of the campaign, “Rajavi claims that he has support of more than 7000 mayors in France and a huge support among members of parliaments in European countries and in America. Why NON of these supports has taken any actions to save members in Iraq?
Meanwhile MEK has called for immediate return to Ashraf, where was given to Rajavists by Saddam and has a better infrastructure for the cult like organization.
An Ex MEK member told Mojahedin Monitor that Rajavi is not willing that its members leave Iraq. They are hoping to remain and return to Ashraf. Rajavi has proved that he is willing to sacrifice its members for his goals.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/campaigneliberty/?bookmark_t=group
Nasrin Ebrahimi is a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, who fled the group in 2006. She was one of the first survivors of the Cult-like MKO who dared to reveal the corruption of the leaders of the group. She was the first person to speak of the “Summit Operation” which was a cult jargon through which a large number of female members of the group became infertile by Hysterectomy surgery.
Nim Negah Website is publishing series of interviews with Ms. Ebrahimi. Nejat society translated excerpts of her memoirs of the sufferings of living in the MKO cult.
… I was attracted by the MKO when I was 13 and I joined the group in Iraq a year after. As I lived in a town near Iraqi border where the MKO TV Channel was available, I was absorbed by the group propaganda. I decided to join it. I was fourteen when I took some money from home and paid a human–smuggler to pass me through Iraqi border.
As a teenager, I had no correct information on either the Iranian government or the MKO. I had no idea of politics.
From the first days of my residence in Camp Ashraf, I realized Rajavi’s version of democracy, freedom, equality and human rights.
…. In a short time Rajavi found out that female members of the group can better run his plans. This way, women would think that they were promoted in the cult hierarchy and they would feel superior over their male comrades…Massoud Rajavi made women feel that they owe their position to him …
I remember Maryam Rajavi saying in a meeting for women:”Without Massoud, you are nothing so for your own promotion and your own growth you must blindly obey Massoud”! … Thus women in Ashraf were living in an illusion world that was built by the Rajavis. They were stranger to their inner self.
… Women in Ashraf had no freedom to choose their clothing; otherwise they would be oppressed by the worst methods. Cosmetics were forbidden in Ashraf. Women were not allowed to tide up otherwise they would be interrogated; they would be asked about what they had in their mind.
This was the “freedom of clothing” the MKO claims.
… We were not permitted to look at men and were constantly supervised by our superior officials. We had to confess all our thoughts; For example, if we had recalled a man, our husband or our boyfriend, we had to confess it in the meeting. We had to verbally abuse ourselves before others because we had betrayed Rajavi. We shouldn’t let our mind think of any other person except Massoud Rajavi who, was as we were told, our possessor.
Do you know any other place where women are so ruthlessly suppressed ? Even in Saudi Arabia the rules are not as anti-woman as it is in the MKO.
Camp Ashraf is like a prison in or in better words like Nazis Forced Labour Camps.
We were woken up by a dreadful march-like sound every morning at 5 or 5:30. A quarter later we had to go to the eating place for breakfast. After a quarter, we were supposed to do our public task, in public places until 6 o’clock. Then from 6 am until 13 pm, we were horribly forced to do exhausting labors including cleaning up the streets, pulling weeds in Iraqi arid desserts, moving goods from one place to another. We were regularly supposed to carry objects to a new place and again we had to move them to another location after a few weeks. This was just a way to keep us busy and exhausted. We had to clean and grind a set of old artillery that hardly ever could go more than a few Kilometers…
13:00 was lunch time. The food was so bad… after the US army was settled in Ashraf, the food became a little better because the group leaders wanted to pretend that everything was fine there…
After lunch, sometimes we had an hour to relax and again we had to start working until night. After dinner, we had to attend meetings such as Current Operation and Daily Cleansing (Two cult jargons practiced regularly in the MKO). Both sessions were like a court in which you had to report your thoughts during the day; others would humiliate you and abuse you verbally …
At 12:00 we had to go to bed. In the middle of night, we had to get up and get on guarding posts for 3 or 4 hours…Regarding such an awful condition don’t Iwe have the right to compare ourselves with Nazi forced labourers?
to be continued
Letter to the editor
Mail on Sunday
Mr. Geordie Greig.
An unpublished report produced by the US Library of Congress for the Department of Defense (the Pentagon), has been continuously quoted by the Mojahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult in their media since it was conveniently ‘leaked’ to the internet in January. The so-called ‘Pentagon report’ mentioned my name along with that of my brother and my sister-in-law, but because what was written was so obviously made-up to fulfill the agenda of the MEK themselves, I chose to ignore it.
Then in an article dated February 16, 2013, the British newspaper Mail-on-Sunday also referred to this report and again this has been widely used by the cult in its media. Amused by the dramatic tabloid headline "British housewife accused by the US of spying for Iran ‘to save her brother-in-law’s life’", I had a closer look to find out why this article had been published six weeks after the report was first leaked.
The US report claims that in 2002: "She (i.e. my sister in law Anne Singleton) agreed to cooperate with MOIS (Iran’s ministry of intelligence) to save her brother-in-law’s life – he (i.e. me, Ebrahim Khodabandeh) was still a member of MEK at the time."
In 2002 I was living in one of the MEK’s bases in London. This means that my life was in danger inside the MEK in the UK!
In my opinion the Mail-on-Sunday article was published specifically to cover up this gaffe. It even points to this in the title.
At the start of the article it says: "Anne Singleton, 53, is alleged to have been blackmailed into training with the Iranian secret service during a visit to Tehran in 2002. The Pentagon-commissioned report claims that Mrs Singleton and her Iranian husband, Massoud Khodabandeh, 56, agreed to work for the regime in return for saving the life of his jailed brother." [bold added]
Not only is this untrue, it is yet another gaffe. The original report did not say that I was in jail at that time and the author of the article either did not bother to read the actual report, or was probably as confused as everyone else who read it as to what it was actually trying to say.
The fact is that I was arrested in Syria and taken to prison in Iran in June 2003.
In the year 2002 I was still a member of the MEK living in their collective base in London. My brother and my sister-in-law who had both left the MEK had established the iran-interlink.org website and were active in exposing the violation of human rights inside Rajavi’s cult which had been going on for many years.
I can tell from my 23 years’ experience and as one of the key personnel in the MEK’s Foreign Affairs Department in Europe that the gaffes made in the report and in the article both originated from the MEK.
Ebrahim Khodabandeh
February 20, 2013
Dear Mr. Per Westerberg, President of the Swedish Parliament
Members of the Swedish Parliament
Ladies and gentlemen, we are a few long serving ex-members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka; MKO, MEK, NCRI) who have been in Mojahedin Khalq prisons because of our disagreements with the ideology and the policies of the organisation. We have all been humiliated and undergone physical and psychological tortures while inside and even after being let out of the MEK prisons. We only managed to free ourselves from the claws of the Mojahedin Khalq after the fall of the infamous dictator regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
In 1991 we witnessed the biggest co-operation between the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, with the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.
In a time that the Kurdish people had the chance of taking advantage of the weakness of the suppressive apparatus of Saddam. In that year when the military machine of Saddam Hussein had been severely weakened by the American forces in the first Persian Gulf war. The Kurdish forces had the best opportunity to move towards Baghdad and topple the regime of Saddam.
In March 1991 Massoud and Maryam Rajavi gave the order to massacre the Kurds with the heavy weapons given to them by Saddam and therefore stopped the Kurds from reaching Baghdad. This massacre of the Kurds is the most disgusting and shameful part of the history of this terrorist organisation during its entire existence.
The Swedish Parliament has accepted in the last few weeks to officially recognise the reality of the suffering of the Kurdish people of Iraq carried out by the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in 1991. We believe that this just and humanitarian gesture should not be left unnoticed. We believe that other European countries should now pass similar resolutions and show their solidarity and respect for the people of Kurdistan.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are a few long serving ex-members of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation who have managed to survive after the fall of Saddam Hussein and now live in European countries. We are living witnesses of the crimes the Mojahedin Khalq have committed in 1991. We urge you to allow us to present ourselves to your parliament and let you know what we have seen with our own eyes. In doing so we are sure that many other aspects of this horrifying crime would be revealed.
Faryade Azadi Association
Community of Independent Bloggers
CC:
The office of the Swedish P.M.
The Swedish Embassy in France
The Iraqi Embassy in France
Open letter to the Swedish parliament
Dear Mr Per Westerberg, President of the Swedish Parliament
Members of the Swedish Parliament
Ladies and gentlemen, we are a few long serving ex-members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (aka; MKO, MEK, NCRI) who have been in Mojahedin Khalq prisons because of our disagreements with the ideology and the policies of the organisation. We have all been humiliated and undergone physical and psychological tortures while inside and even after being let out of the MEK prisons. We only managed to free ourselves from the claws of the Mojahedin Khalq after the fall of the infamous dictator regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
In 1991 we witnessed the biggest co-operation between the leaders of the Mojahedin Khalq, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, with the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein.
In a time that the Kurdish people had the chance of taking advantage of the weakness of the suppressive apparatus of Saddam. In that year when the military machine of Saddam Hussein had been severely weakened by the American forces in the first Persian Gulf war. The Kurdish forces had the best opportunity to move towards Baghdad and topple the regime of Saddam.
In March 1991 Massoud and Maryam Rajavi gave the order to massacre the Kurds with the heavy weapons given to them by Saddam and therefore stopped the Kurds from reaching Baghdad. This massacre of the Kurds is the most disgusting and shameful part of the history of this terrorist organisation during its entire existence.
The Swedish Parliament has accepted in the last few weeks to officially recognise the reality of the suffering of the Kurdish people of Iraq carried out by the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation in 1991. We believe that this just and humanitarian gesture should not be left unnoticed. We believe that other European countries should now pass similar resolutions and show their solidarity and respect for the people of Kurdistan.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are a few long serving ex-members of Mojahedin Khalq Organisation who have managed to survive after the fall of Saddam Hussein and now live in European countries. We are living witnesses of the crimes the Mojahedin Khalq have committed in 1991. We urge you to allow us to present ourselves to your parliament and let you know what we have seen with our own eyes. In doing so we are sure that many other aspects of this horrifying crime would be revealed.
Faryade Azadi Association
Community of Independent Bloggers
CC:
The office of the Swedish P.M.
The Swedish Embassy in France
The Iraqi Embassy in France
Cbloggers and Faryade Azadi Association, January 29 2013
Cult leaders often tend to claim that they are so spiritually elevated that they know the “absolute truth” for the well-being of their followers. In this way, they apply various bizarre practices to blind the followers from observing the reality of maltreatments against them. In the cult, they are constantly kept under a sever mind control manipulative system that they cannot see their leaders abusive acts.
Once the member defects from the cult whether mentally or both mentally and physically, he realizes what has gone to him during the period of his engagement with the cult. He seriously gets motivated to denounce the cult and its leaders.
The majority of former members of the cult of Rajavi (the Mujahedin Khalq Organization/ the MKO/ MEK) are determined to reveal what they once thought as normal in the cult because of the responsibility they feel regarding the threat of the cult for both their former friends in the MKO and the humane community. Overwhelmed with feeling of anger and vengeance against Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, defectors of the MKO can help keeping silent over the human rights abuses they witnessed in the cult. Unsurprisingly, they are labeled by the cult as “agent of the Iranian regime” which is according to Mrs. Ann Singleton (a defector of the cult) a “one size fits all used to designate the victims” of the MKO [1]
Mrs. Singleton and his husband Massoud Khodabande and his brother-in-law Ebrahim are even mentioned as agents of the Iranian intelligence in the recent Pentagon report on Iranian intelligence. The misleading Pentagon report was noticeably run by the MKO’s agents in the US government. Iran Interlink offers evidences on the allegation:
The report is characterized by its mixture of allegation, assertion and allusion, much of which is not substantiated by evidence. The report blends fact and fiction in a manner intended to deceive and mislead. As such, this document is not an attack, it is a defensive act, it is a play on words intended to prevent informed discussion and stop important people being listened to. Indeed, the gratuitous mention of two specific individuals, Anne Singleton and Massoud Khodabandeh, who have consistently exposed the aspects of the Mojahedin Khalq which it most wants to hide – cult nature, human rights violations, mercenary relation to foreign agents – is the strongest possible indication of the provenance of this report.
The other indication is that the source of this specific misinformation is Rabbi Daniel M. Zucker. In a footnote the article “Disinformation Campaign in Overdrive: Iran’s VEVAK in High-Gear” is sourced at Global Politician, September 3, 2007, http://www.globalpolitician.com/23386-vevak-iran (accessed April 17, 2012). Interestingly, this website can no longer be accessed. [2]
However, the whole deceitful report –which was highly propagandized by the MKO – did not disturb the Khodabandehs. On January17, a few days after the report published Massoud Khodabandeh posted this status on his face book profile:
“I told my Mum that the Khodabandeh family was being attacked by the MEK in Washington and that she had been mentioned too. She said – I’m sure you three are more than enough for Rajavi and his cult, but if not, I’ll be happy to personally sort out Rajavi.”
For defectors denunciation of the violence committed in the MKO is kind of delightful job that helps enlighten the world community and release of their ex-comrades.
Ann singleton was among the first defectors to write about her experience with Rajavi’s Cult. She is the author of a book titled “Saddam’s Private Army”[3]. This is a sentence the review of the book published by Amazon.com:
”Told by a western woman who for twenty years had unique access to the secret inner world of the Mojahedin.”[4]
As you read on the book cover, "Saddam’s Private Army” gives a very detailed account and analysis on “How Rajavi changed Iran’s Mojahedin from armed revolutionaries to an armed cult."[5]
Regarding recently published testimonies of female former members about sexual abuse and women’s rights violations in the cult of Rajavi, Singleton’s book is perhaps the first document on the corrupt world created by Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. Singleton describes how Maryam’s ambitions lead her to promote herself in the MKO until she becomes Rajavi’s “personal assistant”. In 1984, Massoud who had been married to Firouzeh Banisadr – daughter of his then ally — divorced from her,” in this respect it is widely believed that she began a sexual relationship with Rajavi even before he divorced from Firouzeh in 1984. Singleton writes, ”She had been appointed head of Rajavi’s office and she worked closely with him in his office often not returning home at night for days. Before their marriage on 8th February 1985 Maryam hadn’t returned home to her husband Abrishamchi for several months. In this time. She had also attended a hospital in Paris for what is believed to have been a termination of pregnancy.”[6]
It took us just a few years more to learn about further violations of human rights in the MKO. Batoul Soltani, is a former member of the MKO’s so-called elite called “Leadership Council”. She bravely revealed horrifying facts about sexual abuse by Massoud Rajavi although she said that recalling those memoires is “awfully difficult” for her.[7]
Mrs. Soltani exposed a cultic ceremony in the MKO, called “Salvation Dance” (nude dancing) in which women of the “Leadership Council” were made remove their clothes in front of Massoud Rajavi and dance before him.”Get close to Massoud and unite with him”, Maryam said to dancing women.[8]
The former member of the Mojahedin Leadership Council added “They had portrayed the issue of having [sexual] relations with Massoud Rajavi in such a way that it appeared to us as the most sacred task. Mas’ud Rajavi also used verses from the Koran to justify his behavior.”[9]
A few months ago, Soltani together with two other former members, Zahra Mirbaqeri and Nasrin Ebrahimi once again denounced the MKO by receiving a list of 100 female members of the group who have gone under hysterectomy to be sexually abused by the Cult leader, Massoud Rajavi.[10]
Nasrin Ebrahimi had previously revealed that Rajavi had entitled the operation to remove women’s womb as “Summit”[11] referring to women’s extreme devotion to their leader. They lose their final sign of sexuality and motherhood, or as Mrs. Singleton says” to neutralize their sexuality”.[12]
Mir Baqeri said that the surgical operations were carried out to take out the victims’ wombs so that they would not be pregnant after being raped by Rajavi.[13]
Women of the Leadership Council were given a necklace on which Massoud’s portrait was graved earlier than they were made married with him. Zahra Mir Baqeri has one of the necklaces to show those who are concerned.
“Maryam Rajavi invented rituals such as being washed by other women members so as to ‘spiritually purify’ them, followed by the instruction to dance naked before both the Rajavis to prove they had ‘broken the physical and mental barriers’ to their total submission to Massoud. After these coercive practices, he would choose a bedmate for sex. The women have said that they did not agree to sex with Rajavi out of free will but because they had been coerced through deception into submitting to what they later came to recognize as rape.”, Ann singleton notifies.[14]
As she suggests:
“The facts are easily verifiable. The physical evidence of hysterectomy can be found in the women’s bodies. It is a matter of fact, not opinion. And if those who managed to escape the cult have evidence consistent with their accusations, does it not behove those people actually responsible for their welfare to conduct an investigation into the condition of the other named women in the MEK who are trapped incommunicado in (the ironically named) Camp Liberty.”[15]
There may be a much longer list of abuses committed in the Cult of Rajavi, as some of them were already reported by Human Rights Watch in 2005. This is what terribly disturbs the leaders of the MKO. To defend themselves they have no way except using their old tactic, labeling them “agent of regime”. Such reaction cheers defectors up as they see that they’ve been successful to bug the cult leaders.
By Mazda Parsi
References:
[1]Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[2]Iran Interlink, More smoke and mirror from the MEK propaganda factory, January &, 2013
[3]Singleton, A, SADDAM’S PRIVATE ARMY: How Rajavi Changed Iran’s Mojahedin from Armed Revolutionaries to an Armed Cult, IRAN INTERLINK, 2003, ISBN 0-9545009-0-3
[4]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saddams-Private-Army-Mojahedin-Revolutionaries/dp/0954500903
[5] Singleton, A, SADDAM’S PRIVATE ARMY: How Rajavi Changed Iran’s Mojahedin from Armed Revolutionaries to an Armed Cult, IRAN INTERLINK, 2003, ISBN 0-9545009-0-3
[6]ibid. Page 57
[7] https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/3261
[8]ibid
[9] BBC Monitoring, Massoud Rajavi accused of "sexual exploitation" of women, September 22 2010
[10]Fars News Agency, MKO Ringleaders Abuse Female Memoires Sexually, December 25, 2012
[11]Fars News Agency, The Ideal Summit Mujahedin Khalq makes women unfertile, October 15, 2008
[12] Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[13] Fars News Agency, MKO Ringleaders Abuse Female Memoires Sexually, December 25, 2012
[14] Singleton, Ann, Do not Disturb – Criminals at work in Camp Liberty, IranInterlink, January 5, 2013
[15]ibid