(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 24).. their daughter had committed suicide and they could change nothing for her loss. Then, the organization put two choices before them; to move in parallel with the organization’s scenario in glorification of their daughter’s death or take an opposite side and spoil everything and sully their daughter’s name
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 23)..Now compare the organization’s indifference to Khata’s death and its manner and conduct with Neda’s family before and after her suicide operation. That is because Neda’s family lived abroad since long and they could push the organization[MKO/MEK/PMOI] into real crisis if they wanted and reacted against her death. So the organization mobilized all its power to bring her family under its control ..
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 22)..As soon as a member sets himself/herself on fire, the camera starts recording and it is exactly positioned where it had to. The big mistake made by the organization is that the scenes are all filmed by professional hand recorders rather than ordinary cameras or mobiles, which reduces the possibility of any random record. The used sophisticated equipments proved that it was also a simultaneously orchestrated operation.
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part 21)..A look at the organization’s[MKO/MEK/PMOI] own media at that time and later reveals that it had designated a big bulk of its propaganda space, both cyber and non-cyber, for the reflection of the relevant issues and news and did not spare to stick even at the trifles. The origin of these news was often the organization itself and most often used them quoted from other news agencies; as it benefitted the effect of media coverage on the incidents of 17 June immolations.
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Parts nineteen-twenty).. … it was the attempt to mythicize their death and consecrate them as saints and legendry heroines. Multitudes of poems, elegies and songs as well as the already mentioned mystical dances were composed and manipulated to justify the wounded and the dead of the immolation operations … The function of art was converted here; to die for the ideals is evaluated a fair, worthy death, but to die for an egoist who believes in no humanistic ideal value ..
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part eighteen)..When inside the organization, we looked at these as values that had been violated; but now in an open world where we can freely reconsider the past, we see, alas, we had long appraised big lies as values and had deified people who had nothing of extraordinary. It is not at all justifiable even for great leaders of the world to become the object of worship let alone the leader of a group whose members never exceeded four thousand at the time. ..
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part seventeen)..The achievements were specifically summed up by Rajavi in one of his messages addressed to the members of the Leadership Council. One significant point to mention here is that Rajavi critically evaluated self-immolations as ‘dilly-dally’ meaning that the members had dwindled in June 17 self-burnings which had diminished the expected resultant outcomes.The first resultant he stated to be the French police’s pullback. But I think he meant recession of the whole judiciary of France.
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part sixteen)….. I was in England for four years and Neda’s family were also there. There was no connection between the organization and the family in all these years and it all happened unexpectedly. Following Neda’s self-burning, the organization exerted much energy to establish close contact with her family and have control over it to persuade it act in behalf of the organization before the camera. …
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part fifteen)… Some are really nasty with repulsive behavior; they may even pass over their most beloved to prove their loyalty and commitment. These are the main actors of the case we are talking aboutand, consequently, the lower ranks are mostly impressed by the ideas they impregnate them with….I have no doubt that in Paris’s immolations seven or eight seniors like Mozhgan had rushed to set themselves on fire. These are professional starters
(An interview with Batool Soltani on MKO self-immolations – Part fourteen).. … The immolations were the sole option to overcome the crisis, call it a reaction against violation of Maryam’s sanctity or anything else. What the organization needed at that critical moment was to strip members of their capacity for rational activity because it could not preach for them about the legal adverse consequences of Maryam’s apprehension …