| The MKO leaders led the affairs to proceed in the direction they wanted to, and to conclude with the exact results they had planed for. So I always tried to cope with their way in order not to be punished. |
When we took positions in higher ranks of the leadership council, we were told that a member who had a very tiny doubt about being melted in the leadership would surely have problems in higher levels and the leaders’ further commands. Since these members would train their minor ranks, in turn, their “mental contradictions" should be solved soon.
As a matter of fact they want to know if the members would stay in or leave the group. Once an individual is recruited by MKO, all his abilities and qualifications are acknowledged and categorized mentally and psychologically. They even matter the quality of his motivations, emotions and interests. They have a slogan saying that “Your art as a major member is that you never neglect your minor members. It means that you shouldn’t face a member who is out of the organization’s relations regularly. Rajavi even warned that members might physically be in line but not mentally. He seriously cares about how the superior members look after their minors. He always insisted that it is crucial for the majors to know the minors under their responsibility. In a meeting where some commanders had attended, he said: “I don’t care how many people you keep in the organization. I just care if there is a person in your relations whom you haven’t known completely.
He meant that you should have enough information about your members’ minds that you can prevent them escaping. The leaders of MKO are very severe about what’s going on in the minds and hearts of their members.
They would rather have 10 defectors who have already been known than 1 defector who had not been known before. In each unit they look for the members who are hesitant. They’d rather have only four members in a unit but four qualified ones. They say: “quality is more important than quantity” this is the goal. This is what they base these practices on. They want to know the so-called internal or hidden moments and words of a person.
The first time I visited Masoud Rajavi, I was just promoted. I was moved to the rank S from the rank H. I was shifted from being a supporter of MKO to a sympathizer. In our meeting with Rajavi, he stated some arguments about supporters and sympathizers. Then, as I was promoting to higher ranks, meetings with Rajavi were increasing as well.
It took me three months since my first days in MKO until I met Masoud Rajavi for the first time. During those months, while I was getting my trainings, whenever they argued about our contradictions, they spoke of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi. Masoud is the unique criterion to evaluate the extent of devotion of the members. Typically, when someone from a free society attends the meetings of Maryam or Masoud, they are so eager to know about the contradictions one has brought from the outside world. They recognize the problems one has in one's mind and then they arrange their relationships accordingly.
As I said, Masoud is the criterion for everything. They want to know what the person’s motive for struggle according to this criterion is. Everything is evaluated to in accordance with this criterion. Everything is clarified by Masoud as the core value which shows the measures of a person’s devotion to MKO.
Before the first visit, I didn’t know much about Masoud. So I just wanted to listen to his words to understand what he cares about. In the first meeting, he mostly spoke of how professional the organization was. Maryam was also there. I don’t remember how I felt or I’d just say I didn’t have any particular feeling. I was mostly curious to know about his desires, his ideology and his thoughts.
Until my first visit I didn’t know that Masoud had married Maryam. You may be surprised to know that I didn’t know Maryam Rajavi at all, let alone knowing that she was Mehdi Abrishamchi’s ex-wife.
After I entered the organizational relations I gradually realized that she had been Mehdi Abrishamchi’s wife before. When Mehdi spoke about divorce and marriage arguments, he said that it was not a normal divorce or marriage and this was the first time I learned about their relations. The leaders of MKO tried to make the new-comers to consider and judge the affairs in the way the leaders wanted to. They led the affairs to proceed in the direction they wanted to, and to conclude with the exact results they had planed for. So I always tried to cope with their way in order not to be punished. Even though I had problems or questions, I never exposed them; I wondered in my mind asking about the contradictions I had faced with. I wondered what important issue made Maryam divorce her husband and marry Masoud Rajavi; how this phenomenon should be interpreted.
There were various storms going on in my mind. I thought about the probability of how dissolute could Rajavi be based on his marriage with Firouzeh Banisadr (the young daughter of former president Banisadr) immediately after his first wife was killed in Iran.
I wondered about the social, moral or age factors that had linked Masoud Rajavi with Firouzeh Banisadr. I had a lot of ambiguity and questions in my mind and of course MKO never was willing to answer and clarify such problems. I couldn’t understand why they called Masoud Rajavi’s Marriage an “Ideological” one.
It is worth knowing that I was surprised to see in the meetings that all queries in my mind were discussed. For instance the person in charge of the meeting presented the arguments around the ideological marriage. I saw that Masoud Rajavi apparently tried to put himself under moral accusations to clarify the case. In fact they categorized everything that might occur to the minds of the members. I was eager to know how they answer the questions I had in my mind. I supposed that it was really an accusation, how would they defend themselves.