Mujahedin Khalq as a Destructive Cult

“No to forced hijab, religion and government” a big lie by Maryam Rajavi

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) has published a book called “No to compulsory hijab, No to compulsory religion, No to compulsory government” in English, which apparently contains a selection of Maryam Rajavi’s speeches.

For those who have gone through a long and painful experience of being in the coercive relations of the MEK, even the title of the book attracts a lot of attention. How and with what attitude can the leader of a destructive cult who runs her organization by sheer coercion comment on coercion!!

In the case of “no to compulsory hijab”, it should be asked how can a group that does not enjoy any concept called “free choice of clothing” in its relationships claim to say no to forced hijab.
In the Cult of Rajavi, women are forced to always wear hijab. If a bit of women’s hair is seen, they will be dealt with harsh punishments. how can Maryam Rajavi claim the slogan “No to compulsory hijab”?! When all women and even men are strongly forced to observe the type of covering that the group has determined for them, how can they really claim, “no to compulsory hijab”?

all women and even men are strongly forced to observe the type of covering that the group has determined for them

Of course, we all know that using such empty promises is only to welcome the western politicians who are in the next step paid heavy amounts in order to deliver a five-minute speech on behalf of the group. The leaders of the MEK have to mask their fierce face in Western societies so that the current realities in their organizations remain hidden.

When we look inside the MEK’s relations, we see that they act completely opposite to their slogans, and their beliefs are 180 degrees different from what they say. Rajavi knows that if he reduces a bit of the ruling compulsions within the hierarchy of his cult, it will certainly collapse. This is the nature of cult-like systems.

The second phrase in the book’s title is “No to compulsory religion!”. A long list of testimonies of former members of the MEK state that in the cult like structure of the MEK, even people who are Muslim but Sunni are forced to behave according to Shia rulings. Based on many documented testimonies, those who did not believe in any religion and had joined the group for its political cause into, were eventually brainwashed and coerced to act as a Muslim does, performing Shia rituals. If from Maryam Rajavi’s point of view this religion is not compulsory, then what does it mean?

One can talk for hours about compulsory hijab and religion in the MEK. From gender segregation to the humiliation of men before the eyes of women and the handing over of the pyramid of power to women, it all shows the alleged dominance of women over relationships. Under the order of the disappeared leader of the cult, they have been forced to divorce their spouses. No one had the power to oppose but Massoud Rajavi had the power to have sexual relationships with all women in the higher ranks. Polygamy is not forbidden for Massoud Rajavi.
And the other thing mentioned in the title of the book is “No to compulsory for the government!”. In this matter, like in other parts of the title, human rights or democracy has no meaning for Maryam Rajavi.

Once Rajavi used to chant the slogan of “Islamic democratic government”, but now he has taken the word “Islamic” to deceive the West and instead, he is chanting the slogan of democracy. The conflicts of the MEK with other opposition groups over any political issue about Iran should be closely studied. Rajavi does not accept any government except what he says. She criticizes and threatens everyone who criticizes her and considers every opponent opinion as enemy.

Maryam Rajavi has claimed to write a book with such titles. No to forced hijab, religion and government, by the mouth of Maryam Rajavi is nothing more than a big lie. She violates these three concepts on daily basis within her organization. She is likely to intend to impose the same version, that is right now being executed in her cult, on the Iranian nation.

By Mazda Parsi

December 4, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

How the Cult of Rajavi works according to Steven Hassan

If you think that cults are merely traps for gullible and weak-minded people, Steven Hassan would urge you to reconsider. The mind control expert is the author of Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults. He’s also a former member of the Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church cult.

Based on Hassan’s lived experience and research, a destructive cult is dishonest from the beginning. Destructive cults always lie to new members about their true intentions, according to Hassan. This is a very repeated pattern in the stories of defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ Cult of Rajavi).

Just for instance, a large number of former members of the MEK have been recruited to join the MEK in Iraq when they were working in neighboring countries of Iran and were dreaming of having a better life in Europe. The MEK’s recruiters never told them that they would join a political military cult. Instead, they promised to help the targeted folks immigrate to Europe to have their dream life and they should just stay in the MEK’s camp for a while. The victims had no idea that they would end with an isolated destructive cult that would coerce them to leave all their belongings behind and stay there for their whole life.

“You might think you’re getting a free dinner,” Hassan says, “you’re learning a self-help technique. You don’t realize that the goal is to get you to sign up for a week course. Then it’s a two-week course, a six-month course. And then they want you to divorce your wife, give over your assets, and work for no money.”

This is exactly what happened to thousands of MEK members. As the most recent defector of the Cult of Rajavi, Ali Asghar Zamani’s involvement with the group follows the same pattern that Hassan states. Ali Asghar Zamani, his wife and their two children were recruited by the MEK agents, in 2003. The Zamanis did not have any idea that they were going to Iraq to the military Camp Ashraf. The MEK agents had promised them immigration to Europe to build a happy life there. But, for years their destination was the isolated camp in Iraqi deserts where the family fell apart. Ali and his wife were forced to divorce. His initial resistance against this order did not work. His wife was finally separated from him. Their 17-year-old son was coerced to wear military uniform and their little daughter was taken back to Iran. Since then, they could hardly ever see each other. “During the 20 years of membership in the MEK, I could see my son four or five times, from long distance,” he recounts. Zamani escaped the MEK’s camp in Albania, called Ashraf 3, last month.

Steven Hassan believes that there are some warning signs of a destructive cult that people should watch out for. Based in research and theory from leading expert psychologists and scholars who’ve studied brainwashing, “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. These mind control techniques work because, according to Hassan while you’re getting indoctrinated, your critical faculties are getting worn away. That might be through hypnosis, food or sleep deprivation, or forcing them to cut off contact with friends and family. In the MEK all these tools are used except hypnosis.

The way BITE works is explained by Hassan:

flag ceremony at Camp Ashraf,Wednesday Jan 29 1997,

Behavior Control

A group member dictates where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates with, or isolates them from others.
They regulate your diet through forced fasting.
They manipulate a person and deprive them of sleep.
They practice financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence.
They impose rigid rules and regulations.
Instances in the MEK: Rules of a destructive cult with para-military attitudes dominate the MEK. Forced unpaid labor, sleep deprivation, forced dress code, forced hijab for female members are only a few of these suppressive rules.

Information control

They practice deception (by deliberately withholding or distorting information, and/or lying).
They minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information (TV, internet, former members, and so on).
They make extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda (YouTube, newsletters, movies and other media).
Instances in the MEK: Mobile phone is forbidden in the MEK. The Internet is allowed to only a few of high-ranking members. All defectors of the MEK start to learn who to use a smart phone after they escape the group’s camp.

the MEK members in an confession session

Thought control

They require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth (black-and-white, good vs evil thinking).
They change a person’s name and identity.
They use loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts, and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.
They employ hypnotic techniques to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and age-regress the member.
Instances in the MEK: Most members of the MEK have pseudonyms. Questioning about the leaders’ decisions and strategies is not accepted. If you criticize the group’s leaders and cause you are considered enemy and so you deserve to be punished. Thinking is forbidden, let alone critical thinking.

Emotional control

They manipulate and narrow the range of feelings—some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.
They teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt.
They make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.
They instill fear, such as fear of the outside world, enemies, leaving or being shunned by the group.
Instances in the MEK: In the MEK love is forbidden. Members of the group are not allowed to miss their normal life outside Ashraf. Having feelings for their family and friends causes them to be the subject of punishment for the crime they committed: They have thought of wife and life! As a member of the Cult of Rajavi you must regard your family as your enemy.

By Mazda Parsi

November 4, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Family of the MEK hostage assure him of their love

The website of the Mujahedin Khalq has published an article allegedly written by Hassan Shabanpour. As it is usual in the MEK propaganda system, the so-called writer of the article has condemned his family as agents of the Iranian government. Following the publication of such a letter, Hassan’s brother, KaramAli Shabanpour sent a video message to Nejat Society to denounce the tricks used by the MEK leaders in order to maintain their members in their camp.

Hassan Shaabanpour was a soldier fighting for Iran during the Iran-Iraq war when in 1988 was taken as a war prisoner by Iraqi forces. He was then kidnapped from Iraq POW camps by the MEK recruiters. Since then, he has been taken as a hostages in the MEK.

His father QanbarAli and his five siblings have made efforts during over 3 decades to visit or contact Hassan. When the MEK was located in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, the Shabanpours traveled to Iraq several times but the MEK commanders did not allow them to visit Hassan. “In response to our demands to visit our beloved brother, they threw rocks at us,” his brother says.

The family of Hassan Shabanpour kept on taking actions to find a way to contact Hassan. They have so far published several open letters to the Albanian authorities and to international human rights officials asking for aid to release their loved son from the MEK. That is why they have become a special target of the MEK’s hostility against families.

“According to what I know about my brother, the article has nothing to do with him,” says KaramAli in the video message. “Considering the organizational pressures and the unavailability of outside news, I doubt that he knows about the issues of the day. Rajavi’s mercenaries are trying to insert an article in their websites in the name of my brother. They use it as a chain on his feet, so that he does not think of leaving the organization someday. Using these tricks and deceptions, they are trying to prevent him from leaving.”

He continues, “As his brother and as the representative of his family, I declare our love and support for Hassan. The nonsense the MEK propaganda says does not prevent us from claiming our right and from loving our brother.”

October 30, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Eskan Prison of the MEK

Camp Ashraf was considered the physical container of Rajavi’s cult of personality, in Iraq. The enclosed place, which was several hectares in size, was actually a prison by itself because, despite the walls, barbed wire, guard towers and strict protection, the passage was strictly controlled; contact and communication with people outside the camp, even if they are members’ families, were completely cut off –the situation is still the same in Camp Ashraf 3, in Albania.

But all this does not mean that inside the camp there was no space as a prison; There were several different spaces for imprisonment and torture, the most famous of which was known as the Eskan Prison due to its complicated history.

Although only the ruins of Eskan Prison remain today, there are undeniable evidence and narratives of the lived experience of the former members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in the solitary cells of this prison. They will be discussed in this series of notes. First, a brief explanation about the place and its physical space is provided:

Eskan was actually a building in the southeast of Camp Ashraf that had been built in the early 1980s for the residence of married members of the MEK during the weekends. After a week of non-stop organizational work, the men and women of the Cult of Rajavi went to the accommodation units with their spouses and children on Thursday evening and enjoyed the family center until Saturday morning. A park and a school were built in the area too, out of nearly 4 decades of presence of the MEK in Iraq, they used the place in a moral way only for the few first years.
Since 1989 and after the fatal defeat of the MEK in Operation Forough Javidan and Masoud Rajavi’s order regarding the forced divorce of married members and the permanent celibacy of unmarried members, Eskan was practically out of use. Not long after, Masoud Rajavi ordered the departure of MEK children in 1990, and more than 800 children were separated from their parents and trafficked to Western countries. In this way, Camp Ashraf was cleared of the most insignificant family elements and Eskan lost its meaning.

With the beginning of the 90s and the beginning of the wave of kidnappings by the MEK operatives in Iran’s neighboring countries, Eskan became a reception place for the initial organizing of members who had been deceived by the MEK recruiters in Turkey, the UAE and Pakistan with the promise of work and immigration to Europe. There was also another wave of recruitment of teenagers who had been smuggled to Europe and America a few years ago and now were trafficked to Iraq again as child soldiers to join the so-called liberation army of the group.

Mohammadreza Mobin, a former member of the MEK, was present there in the early days when Eskan turned into a prison. His account is as follows:
“In 1996, this area was called reception of the liberation army. This area was divided into two separate parts, known as upper and lower reception. I was in lower reception. A few months later, the militias [child soldiers] were also deceived from the West. Masoud Rajavi’s son, Mohammad, was among them. But at night, they were taken to another part, which seemed to be the upper reception. The first six months of 2016 were among the most inflammatory days of reception. Almost a large number of us had come from Iran. We were from all ethnicities. Almost in July or August of the same year, the organization took all the militias to the army, and the reception process, for those who came after us, ended very soon, and this issue brought many contradictions to us, including the fact that the MEK leaders did not trust us, who had come from Iran. This was discrimination.

They gradually took us to the upper reception and the lower reception was emptied. In less than two or three weeks, the conflicts between us and the officials of the group escalated. All these contradictions led to the imprisonment of most of those who protested discrimination.

I persistently asked for an explanation about the existing discrimination, but they did not give any answer. So, I asked to leave the group or at least to have a phone call with my family. But no attention was paid. It was the beginning of October when at night, after three days of hunger strike and stay in the hospital, they put me in a Land Cruiser and transferred me to the lower reception area. Everything had changed there. They had built an inspection gate on the way with guardians who had covered their faces.”

Hamid Dehdar Hassani, also a former member of the MEK, writes about his bitter experience of being imprisoned in Eskan. He describes the place:

The former Eskan had been turned into a warehouse and prison. Previously, it was a set of appartments with mostly 4 rooms with a bathroom, a toilet and a room as a kitchen that they had built for couples in the organization, where they settled every Thursday to Friday evening until 1988. But from 1988 onwards, with the start of the internal ideological revolution issues and divorce issues, Eskan was closed and turned into warehouses or prisons. I was imprisoned in one of the rooms of these apartments where the other three rooms had been locked.

In next sections, we will discuss the stories of former members of the Cult of Rajavi from imprisonment and torture in Eskan.

October 22, 2023 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization's Propaganda System

In response to the MEK claims against Nejat Society Albania members

As it was expected, Nejat Society Albania was slandered by the propaganda machine of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The group accuses Nejat activists of being the agents of the Iranian government in Albania. A few weeks ago, the group published an announcement against Nejat Society’s members in Albania. Nejat Society Albania has been established by former members of the MEK and a number of Albanian citizens who have been gathered together for a humanitarian cause: freedom of MEK hostages and the reunion of families of hostages with their loved ones at Ashraf 3.

Brikella Sullolari is one of the Albanian citizens of Nejat Society who has published her response to the MEK’s disinformation letter about Nejat Society Albania:

As it has become known, the MEK organization has made an official response to the former mujahedin and the association Nejat Albania. But the question arises,
reaction towards whom and for what?

The letter made public by that organization is an unprecedented behavior

what is a reaction for their sins hidden from the eyes of Albanian institutions, but not hidden from the minds of those members or former members.
In that letter it was written that the ex-mujahedin are traitors, while the MEK organization itself set up a trap for these members to whom it belonged promised a life of western standards and it turned out to be fatal and in undeniable conditions.

MEK members are without the right to freedom and the right to live!
Your former members have betrayed the traitors! They believed in freedom!
They trusted life and themselves.

Maybe not everyone could compromise with some money for silence, in order not to make public the suffering you have caused yourself your members.
Nejat Albania highlighted and I remind those people that the world has color and that one should live the only life, short or long! BE evidence only from God and not from the Rajavi family addressed to the former mujahedin and the association Nejat Albania. But the question arises, reaction towards whom and for what?

The letter made public by that organization is an unprecedented behavior what is a reaction for their sins hidden from the eyes of Albanian institutions, but not hidden from the minds of those members or former members.

In that letter it was written that the ex-mujahedin are traitors, while the MEK organization itself set up a trap for these members to whom it belonged promised a life of western standards and it turned out to be fatal and in undeniable conditions.

MEK members are without the right to freedom and the right to life!
Your former members have betrayed the traitors! They believed in freedom!
They trusted life and themselves.

Maybe not everyone could compromise with some money for silence, in order not to make public the sufferings that you yourself have caused to your members.
Nejat Albania highlighted and I remind those people that the world has colors and that one should live the only life, short or long! Test life only from God and not from the Rajavi family.

Brickela Sullolari – Social network management sector of Nejat Society Albania

October 18, 2023 0 comments

Albania

Why MEK is considered as an ungrateful group for Albania

It is already known that the mujahedin organization came to Albania as part of a promised dream, to be away from their country, Iran and the Iranian regime.
The MEK organization for more than 10 years has come with the status of humanitarian shelter, which caused a lot of trouble in relation to the neighboring countries, but it was a diplomatic relationship of that time, which favored this community to be able to get the green light In our country.

At that time, more than 30 Mujaheds were accepted into Albania by the government of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha. They were congratulated both by international institutions and by representatives of the USA.

After this step they moved from the initial location in Kashar, and relocated more than 3000 members of this organization to a camp called Ashraf 3 in Manez, near the city of Durrës.

But, with full generosity, the Albanian citizens, despite their skepticism, accepted this fact for this coexistence that was organized, since the MEK community was closed only in that location.

According to official data, then the number of deserters or those who left the MEK camp, who surrendered to the institutions of our country, to seek according to a legal protocol to live freely in our country, has naturally increased.

Even though the MEK continued its activity in silence, fearing the transparency of information about what was happening inside that camp, this information was transmitted by former members who left that camp.

This is where the Albanian institutions came into play, which offered him support to live freely and to make it possible to communicate with him why it was necessary to leave that camp.
Their confession turns out to be unbelievable even for the employees of the institution, when it was proven that many basic human rights are prohibited in that camp.
They make it official that communication with their families is forbidden, it is forbidden to have a family, even for those who are married, they have to divorce only for the interests of the organization.

However, in retrospect, they fell prey to a scam by this organization where they were promised that they would live in a European country where they would live freely, but the truth turned out to be different.

Some of them in public interviews in the Albanian media have claimed that they were trained for cyber purposes.

It is known that from the control reports of suspicion of policies, policy structures and the appearance of a routine in the premises of the MEK, and the door has been closed for a control reason.

Why all this non-transparency in a foreign country? What were they hiding?

But policy resistance meant that a number of servers that turned out to be used for negative purposes emerged as material evidence to be prosecuted.
Albania does not deserve a group that is treated without freedom and respect to human rights.

Aldo Sulollari/ Alfapress.al

October 15, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Liri Shekari speaks of her husband’s tragic story as a MEK member – Part two

Lirije Shekari, the wife of Gholamreza Shekari, a former member of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK), writes about the bitter times of members caught in this cult. Lirije Shekari is an active member of Nejat Society Albania. Gholamreza Shekri married Liri after leaving the MEK cult in Albania, and unfortunately shortly after the couple got married, Gholamreza was detained in the illegal refugee camp Karrec. These days, Liri Shekari is waiting for her husband’s release from the camp, and she continues humanitarian activities along with other members of the Albanian Nejat Society.
In the second part of her memoirs, Lirige gives a thorough portrait of the sufferings of MEK members:

In previous episode I told my friends that my husband’s problems were not few when he was in the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Some impacts can still be seen in him. He is not a normal member of society. Well, it is clear that he suffered a lot and was under a lot of mental pressure that even at nights he talked in sleep and when I asked him about it, he said that he still does not forget those bombs and those who were innocently killed.

These people who are members of the MEK and all of them have suffered and have always been under the pressure of their commanders. This is far from humanity. MEK leaders make people their slaves, for their own evil purposes.

Another memory I remember one night was related to his mother. After he defected the MEK, when he called his mother and siblings after 29 years, they all had a hard time believing that this was the child of that family. When I heard that, the hairs on my body stood up. I wondered what kind of life my husband and the other people inside the MEK had. My father was curious and said that maybe my husband was lying.

I asked some other defectors of the MEK if Gholamreza was telling the truth that he has not seen his family for 29 years and they also said, “We are like your husband because the MEK imprisoned us in a camp, so believe your husband’s words!”

I have another memory too. About having a wife. Gholamreza said that in the MEK marriage is forbidden because they say that women do not allow us to fight against the enemy, which was unbelievable to me because I have seen in other wars how women have fought alongside men and won and even they married each other and they have children.
So, what do the Mujahedin say? They have to promote their work with lies and have become anti-family. When I sat at the table of my husband’s friends, I saw how the MEK ruined the lives of these people with lies and dishonesty for the sake of their own ambitions.

October 11, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Pompeo must understand that MEK has built a modern slavery in Abania

In a meeting with Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), on Friday, October 6th , Mike Pompeo, former US Secretary of State said that Ashraf 3 is home to thousands of MEK members who have built “a modern community” in the Balkan state in the past few years. Referring to a destructive cult as a modern community indicates the extent of deviation of the MEK’s paid supporters.

Maryam Rajavi’s muti-million lobby campaigns have been acting successfully to buy the support of US warmongers. In his flattering speech on behalf of the MEK, Pompeo also described the MEK as “those who seek freedom and democracy in Iran”. It seems that the Rajavi’s dollars for Pompeo’s speaking fee and for his first-class flight and visit to Paris have been hefty enough to close his eyes to the bizarre world he saw at Ashraf 3 last year.

On May 16, 2022, Mike Pompeo and his wife, visited Ashraf 3, the headquarters of the MEK in Manez, Albania. The military-like, uniform worn, gender segregated members — female members with forced hijab– could not ring the bells for the US former official to beware that the MEK is not a normal community, let alone “a modern community”.

The MEK is a “modern slavery” in which the rule of Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality dominates. Members of Ashraf 3 are treated as slaves who are deprived from their most basic rights in the heart of modern democratic Europe.

Modern slavery often occurs in isolated locations where victims enjoy the least level of communication with the outside world. This is what Pompeo witness at Ashraf 3 but chose to ignore.
MEK members have been taken as hostages since they were recruited or deceived to or kidnapped to join the group. They have not been allowed to contact their family and friends from the very day they entered the Cult of Rajavi.

They are kept in the barred, guarded area near a remote village in north of Tirana, highly restricted to communicate with locals. They do not own identity papers. They lack language skills. They can hardly ever leave the group. They are literally modern slaves who have to fight for their own freedom, not freedom of Iran.

By Mazda Parsi

October 9, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

In the Cult of Rajavi, Shopping is a Disaster

As a destructive cult of personality, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/ Cult of Rajavi) has isolated its members in its headquarters in Albania, called Ashraf 3. Members of the group are subject to entrapment, isolation from friends, family and the mainstream culture. The rare times that they are allowed to get out of the camp are for shopping. According to the defectors of the group, shopping turns to a disaster for an MEK member.

Rafigh Dehghan and Reza Mazginezhad left the MEK a few years ago. Living in Tirana, they are now members of Nejat Society Albania. In their memoirs about the suppressive atmosphere ruling the Cult of Rajavi, they talk about shopping as an activity that was a tool for mind control and manipulation.

Better not going shopping

In a video message, Reza Mazginejad, a former member of the MEK, talks about the strict structure of confession and self-criticism meetings in group. He, who is now a member of the Nejat Society Albanian branch, remembers that when he was trapped in Ashraf 3, leaving the camp and shopping in the streets of Tirana meant for him to count the facts that were in the MEK system, were known as the “Jim” facts, an MEK-built term referring to sexual thoughts. With bitter humor in his words, he explains that sometimes his mind was so busy counting and remembering Jim moments that he forgot to shop.

Reza Mazginejad; MEK former member in Albania

Every night, members of the Cult of Rajavi should report in self-criticism meetings, the cases that they experienced “Jim moment” during the day. This means that every moment they think of the affairs of normal life such as an opposite sex, they should confess it as a sin before their peers, because according to the group leaders, these moments are considered “sexual” and so that person should be punished.

In the MEK, self-criticism sessions are held seriously, persistently and regularly every night at Ashraf 3. The atmosphere of repression and peer pressure in these sessions is so intense that the members try to have something to say among the crowd every night in order to get out from under the blade of repression as soon as possible. In order to get cleansed they should be suppressed, verbally and even physically abused.

Women wearing pants dangerous for Mujaheds

Rafiq Dehghan, the other former member of the MEK, talks about his distressful memories for a simple shopping trip outside Ashraf 3. He, who is now an active member of Nejat Society, talks in a video message with a sad and frustrated tone about his strange memories of brief appearances in the free world.

According to the testimonies of this former member of the Cult of Rajavi, every time going shopping for MEK members is equal to a flood of questions about the “Jim” moments they might have experienced. Dehghan, who is nervous of recalling these memories, mentions some examples of the questions that the commanders would ask him after returning from shopping:
“How many women did you see? How many moments? Tell me who wore pants?!…”

Rafiq Dehghan

These questions are repeated every night in the self-criticism sessions called “Night cleansing”, which distort the memoirs of the isolated space of Ashraf 3 every time. Members are forced to have answers to these questions, to confess their so-called sexual moments. To bear the criticism and oppression of the commanders and peers and finally to express regret for what they have seen and thought about.

Actually, destructive cults disregard life and even harm life. They use isolation, and phobia indoctrination to overwhelm cognition of their members. In Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality, the commanders control who you talk to, who you see in the streets, what you read and what you watch. They victimize ordinary life in favor of their bizarre cult activities like daily self-criticism sessions called Night Cleansing. One of the MEK’s darkest practices is aimed to control sexual thoughts.

Members of the MEK are constantly under an abusive, manipulative and suppressive controlling system. The international Human rights bodies and Albanian authorities must take urgent action to stop the group leaders from violating the human rights of those who are residing in Ashraf 3 as the group’s hostages.

Mazda Parsi

September 26, 2023 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

MEK; The cult of the leader

Massoud Rajavi is an outstanding speaker, able to move audiences with his smooth voice, staccato delivery, and sharp turns of phrase. Neo-Stalinist, caught up in his own charisma, he soon created a cult of personality around himself and eventually his current wife, Maryam Rajavi . former members of the movement frequently criticize this phenomenon, described by many foreign reporters.

Born in 1953 to a middle-class family in Tehran,Maryam Rajavi was active from 1970 in the resistance movement to the Shah. She was a student at the Sharif Technical University in the capital. Rising to a leadership position in the student movement she joined Mojahedin in the mid-Seventies. According to her official biography, the Shah’s Savak executed one of her sisters, Narges, and agents of the Islamic Republic later killed another, Maasoumeh.

Maryam Azdanlu, working hard in the social department of the Mojahedin, played a key role in winning student support for the movement. As a candidate in Tehran for the legislative elections of 1980, her supporters claimed that she won over 250000 votes. She took part in Tehran’s popular demonstrations against the Islamic Republic soon after the revolution. In 1982, she joined the Mojahedin’s headquarters staff in Paris.” Elected” in 1985, after she married Massoud Rajavi, as “ co-leader”, she was made secretary General by decree four years later. Deputy commander In chief of the National Liberation army(NLA) since 1987, the National Resistance Council “elected” her “future president of Iran” five years later. Her role was to be the country’s provisional chief executive during the transition period that the Mojahedin predicted would follow the fall of the Mullahs.

Ervand Abrahamian, a City University of New York historian, has analyzed Massoud and Maryam Rajavi’s “cult of personality’ in terms of the Mojahedin’s “sect-like” structure and behaviour. By 1987, he argues, the organization had developed all the symptoms of a religious cult or sect: worship of the leader, called “the guide” or ,less formally, but significantly :”the current Imam”. The Mojahedin’s “rigid” hierarchy was based on orders from the top and unquestioning subordination of the membership. Abrahamian describes a closed world with its own texts, censorship and enforced outlook. And this “world view” , despite frequent public denials, remained committed to a “synthesis” of the Shiite “religious message” with Marxian social science. He goes on to emphasize the organization’s creation of its own “history”,”martyrs” and “hagiography”. members follow a dress code. Finally, in Iraq, Abrahamian depicts a world apart with its own communities,press, offices, militia, training camps, clinics, schools and prisons,known as “ re-education centers”.

Peter Waldman, an American journalist, endorses this view. According to him, Massoud Rajavi’s marriage with Maryam, a relatively unknown ex-wife of one of his assistants, completed the group’s “transformation” from a political movement to a sect. he points to the Mojahedin’s publications that presented her new role as a “triumph of feminism” and an “ideological revolution” for Iranian women and Moslem world. She was used, he adds, as a contrast with the treatment of women under the Islamic Republic.

According to the former members, the “leadership cult” rose to a new pitch soon after their marriage. Waldman wrote that, Massoud Rajavi was described in a series of Mojahedin publication as “quasi-divine” and a “gift to mankind”. His marriage was compared to the Koran’s depiction of the Prophet’s, and he was seen as a source of “God’s light”. finally, according to the reporter, the group officially proclaimed Massoud Rajavi as “infallible” and “without sin”.
Dr. Ghaffour Moussawi, a psychiatrist and former member, suggest that Massoud Rajavi suffers from a form of narcissistic disorder:” this man is obsessed with his own personality. He believes himself to be above others. He can neither tolerate criticism nor face up to his own mistakes, of which, God knows.

There have been many during his long career as a despot. To establish his authority, he relies on demagogy, intimidation, raw power or the force of arms. He only recruits young people who have not yet developed their own personalities or critical capacities and will do anything to prove their loyalty. His narcissism is also evident in his avowed hatred for other Iranian opposition leaders, whom he insults and accuses of all kins of reason. He has attacked every one, including those most respected for their integrity, like Dr. Charlaat Madaari”.

From the book: The People’s Mojahedin of Iran: A Struggle for what? “By Victor Charbonnier,2004.

August 29, 2023 0 comments

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