Volume 3 Numbers 32&33 Date: Feb/Mar 2019 What do Iranians think of the MEK? Ali Alavi March 03 2019: Reporters who talk about the MEK usually want to talk about the politics and the money. They say, for example, that John Bolton supports them, that they get Inside this issue: money from Saudi Arabia, that they want regime change in Iran. What do Iranians think of the 1 Sometimes these reporters even mention Iranians. MEK? IT’S A MISTAKE TO 2, 3 When they do, they say the MEK doesn’t have much support in Iran be- TREAT THE MEK AS A cause of siding with Saddam Hussein in the war that ended in 1988. NORMAL OPPOSITION That’s all. GROUP Female Defectors Of The 3 Maybe they don’t say anything else because they don’t know anything MKO (MEK) In EU Parlia- else. ment. March 8th THE SPECIAL MOMENT 4, 5 Maybe they don’t care what Iranians think of the MEK because they are TO SAY NO TO THE too busy talking about what America wants and what Europe wants from CULT OF RAJAVI (MEK, NCRI, …) Iran. THE MOJAHEDIN-E 6, 7, Iranians have a lot to say about the MEK. KHALQ AREN’T AMERI- 8, 9 CA’S FRIENDS. EVEN IRANIANS WHO HATE Not just inside Iran. THE REGIME DON’T WANT MEK Not just ex-members. INTERNATIONAL LIBER- 10, TY ASSOCIATION, 11 The Iranian opposition outside Iran has its own view of the MEK. MEK’S SO-CALLED CHARITY BREACHES Let’s hear more from Iranians about the MEK. RULES OF THE UK CHARITY COMMISSION MEK: Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) Mothers, the Forgotten Vic- 12 tims No—32/33 Nejat Newsletter page 2 IT’S A MISTAKE TO TREAT THE MEK AS A NORMAL OPPOSITION GROUP Anne Singleton that he drowned as MEK claim. thoroughly, as did the journal- ists of Aljazeera, The Guardian, February 27 2019: Another example is Independent, Channel 4 News, NBC and other down the years When reporter Luisa Hom- the suspicious assassination of Mohammad Reza Kolahi – the (there is a very long list). They merich wrote her investiga- all asked the MEK to give their tive piece in Der Spiegel titled bomber of the Jomhouri Party headquarters in 1981 who was side, to comment on their find- ‘Prisoners of Their Own Re- ings and to have a voice. The bellion – The Cult-like Group killed in the Netherlands in Fighting Iran’, which exposes the grim situation for MEK members, I doubt she was expecting death threats to follow. After all, she was just doing her job. But that is ex- actly what the MEK reaction was. A Farsi language state- ment (written and published in Europe) promised her as- sassination. Nice. Of course, for those who al- ready know the MEK, this is not surprising. A timely re- minder that the MEK cannot disown its past and cannot stop repeating its past, came in an interview with Nabi Ahamadi, who escaped the cult in Albania recently. Ah- Anne Singleton madi was a close friend of MEK called them all agents of Malik Sharai who was killed 2015. After he left the MEK Ko- the Iranian intelligence services by MEK in June last year. He lahi was always going to be a and refused to talk. confirmed that Sharai was liability. He knew too much. So, one of the few remaining wit- why is nobody asking Maryam nesses to the mysterious Rajavi about this convenient Former MEK members death of 53 MEK members in death? Gholamreza Shekari and Hassan Camp Ashraf, Iraq. He also Heyrani from Albania, who were confirmed that Sharai had One reason of course is that the interviewed for the Der Spiegel asked to leave the group but MEK leader Maryam Rajavi re- article, revealed that not only was then held in solitary isola- fuses to engage with journalists, did the MEK refuse Hom- tion before being physically investigators, researchers. Any- merich’s request for interviews, eliminated by the MEK lead- one in fact who might get to the they sent armed guards to pre- ers. As a trained swimmer, truth about her organization. vent her getting near to Camp Ahamdi says it is implausible Indeed, Hommerich did her job Ashraf 3 in Manez. No—32/33 Nejat Newsletter page 3 This is not the response of a Female Defectors Of The MKO (MEK) In EU Parliament. March 8th normal political opposition. Nejat Society, March 14 2019: Female defectors of the Mujahedin Khalq Organizaion (the MKO/ Issuing death threats to jour- MEK/ PMOI) participated an inter-parliamentary committee meeting nalists is not the response of a organized by Parliament’s gender equality committee. normal political opposition. The conference that was held a day ahead of the International Women’s But then, there’s nothing nor- Day was focused on young women in politics as well as women’s real mal at all about an opposition power in politics and how to boost it. universally hated by their own Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee members debated with more than 20 national MPs from 15 EU member states during an people, inside and outside inter-parliamentary meeting on ‘‘Women’s power in politics’’. Iran. Opening the event chaired by Vilija Blinkevičiūtė (S&D, LT), EP Presi- dent Antonio Tajani declared: ‘‘We must keep working to have more It is a mistake to approach the women in politics, but also in businesses. It is a battle for dignity and MEK as a normal opposition. respect that must be fought by all of us.’’ Indeed, quoting MEK mem- EP Vice-President and Chair of the High-level group on Gender Equali- bers is like giving a platform to ty Dimitrios Papadimoulis added that even though women’s participa- tion in politics was on the rise, ‘‘most of the important positions are still Flat Earthers or Creationists. It filled by men, and this has to change. is not balanced reporting. The The first-ever female President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, MEK is a unique entity. Not an delivered a keynote speech in which she recalled how she had to fight opposition, not a ‘group’ or for her place, both in life and in politics, and to break countless glass ‘organization’, descriptions ceilings. “The starting point is a change in mind-set: we need to build a which imply a certain kind of political culture which leads to women’s equal participation’’. Among the other participants, Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality accountable system and or- Commissioner Věra Jourová, EU foreign policy Chief Federica Moghe- der. rini and Women’s Rights Committee Vice-Chair João Pimenta Lopes advocated for more women in decision-making, pleaded for men to be Hommerich asked to speak involved in the fight for gender equality. with someone from the MEK Batoul Soltani, Homeira Mohammadi and Zahra Moini of Women As- sociation and Reza Jebeli of Aawa Association attended the meeting to (NCRI) but they did not reply. denounce violent attitudes of the MKO leaders against their rank and Instead, she spoke with some files. Batoul Soltani condemned the MKO authorities for they separat- of the many defectors who ed her six-month old and two-year old children from her and smuggled have escaped. Their stories do them to Europe in 1991. She stated that the MKO has violated the rights not differ much from the testi- of hers and her children’s. mony of other former mem- Homeira Mohammad Nezhad was a teenager when she joined the MKO. She addressed the conference on the psychological pressure she bers over thirty years: the endured inside the MKO. As a fourteen year-old girl she was not al- MEK is a cult that routinely lowed to contact her parents during the years she was a member of the and systematically abuses the group. human rights of its whole Zahra Moini gave testimony on forced divorce, forced celibacy, brain- membership. According to 50- washing sessions and violation of the most basic human rights in the year-old Gholamreza Shekari, MKO camps. this is achieved through ‘lies, Reza Jebeli also talked to a number of representatives warning about the potential violence of the MKO and the destructives role of the manipulation and fear’; a group’s lobbies to obstruct the future EU elections. methodology known as Cultic In the margins of the conference, the defectors tried to enlighten EU Abuse. parliament representatives offering them documented testimonies on the cult-like nature of the MKO. They called on the EU Parliament to rec- ognize the rights of defectors of the MKO as refugees submitting their For the record, the MEK is a letters of requests for medical care and living facilities. cult. Maryam Rajavi keeps The human rights violations committed by the MKO was condemned by slaves. It is that simple. the representatives. No—32/33 Nejat Newsletter page 4 THE SPECIAL MOMENT TO SAY NO TO THE CULT OF RAJAVI (MEK, NCRI, …) Mazda Parsi, philosopher Hannah Arendt is This process has been the ex- best known for her works on act mechanism that has been Nejat Society, the problem of “evil”. Can one used in the MKO. do evil without being evil? This March 19 2019: was the puzzling question that The most recent defector of she grappled with when she Imagine terrorist extremists the MKO in Albania, Hadi reported for The New Yorker in attacking European citizens, Sani Khani admits that once 1961 on the war crimes trial of cutting their throats with knife, he was an MKO member, he Adolph Eichmann, the Nazi breaking their hands, removing was like a robot, not able to their eyes with fingers, and choose for a moment of his tearing their mouth open.