Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Ghadjar Azedanloo was born in 1953 in Tehran.

She joined the terrorist group MKO/PMOI in 1978 and started her covert activities in its “Schools and Universities Section” in Iran and continued her political activities as one of the activists of the student movement while studying at the University.

In 1979, she married Mehdi Abrishamchi, a senior member of MKO.

When MKO’s leadership announced publicly and openly its armed strategy to overthrow the government and subsequently started its terror campaign inside the country in 1982, the Iranian government decided to crack down on the terrorist group which made Maryam flee to France and take refuge in Paris. Once in France, she began her job as the Head of Masoud Rajavi’s Office in his Headquarters. She collaborated very closely with Rajavi and used to hold several private meetings with him over a long period of time.

In early 1985, Masoud Rajavi, who had divorced his former wife, i.e. Firouzeh Bani Sadr, married Maryam, the legal wife of Mehdi Abrishamchi. During the wedding ceremony held in a church in Paris, Masoud and Mehdi, the two husbands of Maryam, described this odd action as “the Great Modern Ideological Revolution of Mojahedin”. In a complimentary address delivered in that ceremony, Abrishamchi stated: “The name of Masoud is a source of aspiration and motivation for Mojahedin and Militias.

“I humbly thank God for bestowing upon me the favor of living in a period of time during which Masoud and Maryam are our leaders and we witness such an honorable Ideological Revolution.”

An insight into the developments taking place within the MKO at the time reveals the main reasons which paved the way for resorting to such actions. There is huge evidence in hand that prove the MKO has, for a very long period of time, been a leader-oriented Cult18. In other words, the inner relations within the group, especially the developments within the leadership, compelled a senior echelon of MKO, i.e. Mehdi Abrishamchi, not only to leave his wife but to also present her to the leader of the organisation. The new development demonstrates the fact that this cult has been, and currently is, under the undeniable charismatic influence and authority of a mono polistic leader.

Justifying the Modern Ideological Revolution of Mojahedin, Rajavi states: “It may raise a question in someone’s mind that why we are witnessing a divorce and then a marriage. The answer is very simple: we are determined to resolve the question of leadership for both the Iranian people as well as the Iranian woman [19]. Maryam also states: “I was also given birth by Masoud himself, like every other sister and brother of mine. Be sure that each and every Mojahed who has accepted the leadership of Masoud Rajavi is ideologically and per se a Rajavi”.