By Von Luisa Hommerich
The cult is headquartered in the dignified Berlin district of Wilmersdorf, in a quiet cross street between two tennis clubs. The villa is painted beige, neatly trimmed bushes adorn the front garden, flower boxes the window sills, blue curtains hang behind the panes. Here, behind the bourgeois facade, an Iranian political cult is said to have isolated around 50 women and men from the outside world for a few years.
The name of this organization: The People's Mujahedin. These are Iranian exiles who want to overthrow the clerical regime in their home country. To the outside world, the Iranian resistance fighters present themselves as democratic and freedom-loving. But former residents report that members were manipulated and detained in the villa using psychological techniques. They also speak of “mind control” and “brainwashing” and describe ideological sessions in which they should criticize themselves and confess their sexual thoughts in front of others.
When asked, the People's Mujahedin did not respond to these allegations. In a public statement, however, they described them as “lies and slander”. In previous statements, the organization also denied using psychological techniques. Through a law firm, they reported that information about the People's Mujahedin was largely controlled by the Iranian secret service. Some prominent supporters apparently also join this account, such as German politicians who have been campaigning for the People's Mujahedin for years.
Can this be a kind of political cult center in the middle of Wilmersdorf, Berlin?
ZEIT ONLINE researched for months, evaluated archive material and internal documents, interviewed not only dissidents but also experts - and considers the reports from the villa's former residents to be credible.
Psychological techniques and lobbying
For years, allegations have been known that the People's Mujahedin is supposed to use Psychological techniques to make members submissive, for example in Albania. Two weeks ago, ZEITmagazin reported that the organization smuggled dozens of children from Iraq to Cologne in the 1990s and used such techniques to control them (ZEIT No. 44/2021), which they deny. There is now evidence that the People's Mujahedin has used similar methods in Germany recently.
The People's Mujahedin has changed many times in the course of their history. They were on the EU's terror list until 2009. Since they were no longer militant, they were no longer under the supervision of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Today they mainly do lobbying work, organizing signature campaigns, and calling on politicians to break off all diplomatic relations with Iran. They are currently drumming up against the nuclear negotiations with Iran, which the EU intends to resume at the end of November.
The organization works in Europe and the US under the label of the National Council of Resistance Iran (NCRI). Its France headquarters is near Paris and its German headquarters is in the Villa in Berlin. The organization poses itself as a fundamental democratic opposition to the Iranian regime, with thousands of members and supporters worldwide.
The US government saw the People's Mujahedin as an ally
The organization has made some friends among politicians, for example among members of the Trump administration. Only recently, at the end of October, the former US Vice President Mike Pence described the leader of the People's Mujahedin Maryam Rajavi, a 67-year-old Iranian, as “an inspiration to the world”. And in Germany, an association called the German Solidarity Committee for a Free Iran (DSFI) has been campaigning for the People's Mujahedin for many years. Former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth sits on the Advisory Board. She declined to comment on the allegations against the People's Mujahedin.
Members of the Bundestag took part in the events of the DSFI again and again - at a video conference in November 2020, for example, the two Hamburg Christian Democratic Union (CDU) members Christoph Ploß and Christoph de Vries. “A democratic alternative in Iran to the ruling mullah regime”, de Vries calls the front organization of the People's Mujahedin, the National Council of Resistance. Thomas Erndl (CSU), Lukas Köhler (FDP) and Bernhard Daldrup (SPD) also took part in such conferences or sent greetings, as did former Bundestag President Norbert Lammert (CDU) - and People's Mujahedin leader Maryam Rajavi.
Democratic inspiration or dangerous cult - opinions on the People's Mujahedin could hardly be further apart. Why is partly explained by their story. The People's Mujahedin was founded in Tehran in 1965 - initially as an Islamic and, in parts, Marxist and anti-imperialist-inspired secret organization. They helped overthrow the Shah in 1979. But the subsequent clerical regime did not share power with them, but persecuted them - and executed thousands of People's Mujahedin. Those who survived attacked civil servants and eventually fled into exile, most of them to Iraq. From there, they fought alongside Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war against their own country.
“Cult of Personality in its most extreme form”
In Iraq, they turned more and more into a cult, as the US historian Ervand Abrahamian describes it. A cult of personality in its most extreme form developed around the then leader Massoud Rajavi. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, married couples divorced on ideological grounds, and children were separated from their parents. The US State Department came to the conclusion in a 1994 report that the organization was an “opposition cult”. Members in the West sometimes live in communal houses, they would get little money of their own and have strictly structured days - this is what dissidents are now claiming about the villa in Berlin. And German security groups also see the People's Mujahedin as a self-contained group with cult-like structures to this day.
The fact that the organization still managed to paint a positive image of itself in the West has a lot to do with August 14, 2002, the day on which the People's Mujahedin surprisingly entered the geopolitical stage. At that time, the National Resistance Council presented evidence that Iran was working on a secret nuclear program. As the New Yorker later discovered, the Israeli secret service Mossad had leaked the information to the People's Mujahedin. But to this day the organization benefits from the credibility it was given back then.
Apparently, some of the US soldiers who invaded Iraq seven months later also contacted the People's Mujahedin. This is suggested by a report by the RAND think tank, which advised the US armed forces. According to the report, the People's Mujahedin presented themselves as friends of America who could provide information about Iran.
In June 2004, the US Department of Defense classified the People's Mujahedin in Iraq as a “protected person” under the Fourth Geneva Convention, although the organization was still on Washington’s terror list at the time. According to media reports from then, hardliners like Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney wanted to keep the resistance fighters warm as a possible weapon against Iran. Later, in 2005, US special forces trained some People's Mujahedin in the Nevada desert, according to research by the New Yorker. According to NBC, they also killed nuclear scientists in Iran on behalf of Mossad. The organization has always denied this.
"They controlled us - mentally, socially, financially"
From 2009, however, it became dangerous for many members of the People's Mujahedin. Over 3000 of them were still living in a camp in Iraq, without weapons, because the Americans had taken them. Pro-Iranian militias attacked them and many people died. Politicians like Rita Süssmuth worked with the DSFI to take in at least some of the resistance fighters. Around 100 came to Germany. Many of them ended up in the villa in Berlin-Wilmersdorf after their arrival - this is what the former residents, with whom ZEIT ONLINE could speak.
All of these people want to remain anonymous, nothing in this text may indicate their identity. Neither their age, their gender, nor the period of their stay in the Berlin villa, not even their exact number can therefore be given here. ZEIT ONLINE was able to speak to them personally for many hours over a period of months. They all still want freedom and democracy for Iran. But at some point, they agree, they should have realized that this goal does not justify all means.
“We thought we were coming to Europe, to freedom,” said one of these people about their arrival in Germany. “But in Berlin, the organization's officials continued to monitor us mentally, emotionally, socially, and financially.” Normal members of the People's Mujahedin, according to the dissident members, were only allowed to leave the Berlin villa for sport or on behalf of the organization. Though, they couldn’t go out alone. At least one member must have accompanied them to spy on each other.
Back then, women would have slept in the attic and men in the basement. Usually, four or five and sometimes up to ten members were in one room. However, some members in management positions, mostly women, enjoyed special rights. They often had single rooms with TVs and could have lived more freely. Like all other women, however, they too should have worn a headscarf. Members should also have prayed three times a day. Supporters of the organization regularly came by, sometimes Rita Süssmuth. But they only got to see what they should see.
Thoughts about sex and family were forbidden
According to the dissidents, the organization's cadres had strictly structured their day-to-day life: they had to get up at seven o'clock, after breakfast. They would have worked for the organization all day, for example collecting donations on the street. In the evening, there were ideological meetings in which they had to disclose forbidden thoughts - such as thoughts about their own family. Because family is a “demotivator” in the fight against the Iranian regime, it was said. They should also have confessed to sexual thoughts. “You had to turn everything out from top to bottom and write on a piece of paper,” says a former member. “For example, I saw someone on the street and wanted to sleep with them.” It was degrading.
The members were also kept docile by methods typical of cults, such as sleep deprivation. Political meetings sometimes lasted late into the night, say the dissidents, from around 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. The residents of the villa were often exhausted. And another manipulation technique was used by cults: the destruction of social ties. The residents of the villa, say the dissidents, were only rarely allowed to see their own children, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, many of them only about once a year. The longing for the family was instrumentalized in order to manipulate the members. For example, by only allowing contact if someone was particularly docile. A person who secretly visited a family member was criticized and psychologically battered for weeks afterward.
In addition, they were largely shielded from information from the outside world and were almost exclusively given the television station of the People's Mujahedin. Anyone who read newspapers and magazines or listened to the radio was criticized. Listening to your own music was forbidden, as was the internet on your cell phone. The internet on the computers in the villa has been censored. And the kissing and sex scenes were cut out of the films that they were allowed to watch about once a week.
Pictures of victims of torture and starving children
At the same time, the organization scared the members of the outside world. The Iranian secret service was lurking around every corner, they said. “And they said the people outside are selfish, self-centered, and aimless. Only we are real freedom fighters,” says a former member. They would have represented life in the organization as heaven on earth and life outside as hell. In theory, you could have left at any time, says a former member. Due to such manipulation techniques of the organization, however, this step seemed extremely difficult to them: “I could no longer imagine that a world worth living in was waiting for me outside.”
What was the purpose of this alleged manipulation? what was the purpose of the members in the villa? The dissidents say: They were cheap workers. They report that they had to do tasks for the organization from morning to night, six to seven days a week. For example, some would have looked for politicians or kept the German-language websites of the organization up-to-date. Others organized demonstrations. For this, they have recruited extras from Eastern Europe. This practice lives on to this day. In July, ZEIT ONLINE spoke to Slovaks and Poles in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, who said they had managed to get hold of a Berlin trip including hotel accommodation for a mere 45 euros. “We just had to go to this demo for that,” said a woman who waved a flag. She was recruited through Facebook. What is it about? “About human rights for Iran.”
The dissidents report that most of the residents of the Berlin villa have collected donations for the People's Mojahedin. For example, they knock on the door of the rich and solicit donations. Other members would have stood in pedestrian zones and showed pictures of victims of torture and starving children. These collectors were at times an everyday picture in Berlin. This brought in a lot of money, especially in the run-up to Christmas. This went to several stealth clubs that were run from the Berlin villa.
“We never told people that the money would go to the People's Mujahedin”
Some of these clubs are still active today. They have names such as Aid for Human Rights in Iran, Association for People and Freedom, or Association for Hope of the Future. In the past, the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI), which checks the use of donations, warned some of these associations that they would not be managed transparently. In fact, the dissidents say: These associations were run by completely different people than indicated in the association register. Donors were also misled about the true aim of their donations. “We never told people that the money would go to the People's Mujahedin,” said a former member. “But for example, This is to save a woman in Iran from the death penalty.” In fact, the money went, for example, to the People's Mujahedin demonstrations and campaigns.
They themselves, say the former residents, were barely paid for their work: They received around 50 to 100 euros per month in cash, plus some cigarette money. At times they were not even insured. When asked, the People's Mujahedin did not respond to these allegations either.
Politicians are surprised at who they got involved with
Again and again, in the past, there have been such accusations as cultish structure, deception, and fraudulent donations against the People's Mujahedin. Time and again they managed to get away with minor punishments or not to be prosecuted at all and to dismiss the accusations as a propaganda campaign by the Iranian regime. In public, they were partly believed in the image of the slandered freedom fighters - probably also because it had a real core. In fact, the regime in Tehran repeatedly campaigned against the People's Mujahedin and spied on them in Europe, as it is in the reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It was only in February that a Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison. He had planned an attack at the annual meeting of the People's Mujahedin in France in 2018. Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani also addressed the rally.
The Iranian-born politician Omid Nouripour (Green Party) says the principle “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is misleading in the case of the People's Mujahedin. “They must also allow themselves to be asked, to what extent they guarantee democratic principles and human rights?” he says. For years, Nouripour has been trying to educate his colleagues in the Bundestag about the organization. They, says Nouripour, are trying persistently to lure parliamentarians for their own purposes with catchphrases like “freedom” and “human rights”.
If you ask the two Hamburg CDU members of the Bundestag, Christoph Ploß and Christoph de Vries, why they took part in the conference with the leader of the People's Mujahedin in November 2020, a spokesman for the CDU Hamburg justifies this with very similar values. The two are “standing along with the Iranian people who strive for freedom, democracy, and equality,” he writes. “In this, we fully agree with the DSFI, in which well-known personalities such as Rita Süssmuth are involved.” In response to the accusation that the People's Mujahedin is a cult, the spokesman writes: Such accusations correspond “partly in wording to the statements of the mullah regime, its secret service, and its militias”.
Trusted the request because of Rita Süssmuth
Other participants of the conference were surprised after inquiries from ZEIT ONLINE with whom they got involved. The invitation to the conference did not reveal that it had anything to do with the People's Mujahedin, says a member of the Bundestag who wanted to remain anonymous. He decided to take part because he found the issue of human rights in Iran as important. Since the former President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert was also on the list of participants, he had no concerns. Norbert Lammert, on the other hand, told ZEIT ONLINE: He trusted the request because, after all, not only his predecessor and party friend Rita Süssmuth is involved in the DSFI, but also other long-standing colleagues in parliament.
This is, for example, the recently deceased former CDU member of the Bundestag Otto Bernhardt, who for a long time was on the board of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. And Martin Patzelt (also CDU), who until recently sat in the Bundestag. Both are still listed on the DSFI board. When asked, Patzelt said that he supported the People's Mujahedin because he considered it to be the most powerful democratic opposition to the Iranian regime. However, he is following developments among the People's Mujahedin attentively and critically.
"You are being fooled by the People's Mujahedin"
"You only need one or two famous names," says a former member of the People's Mujahedin, explaining its lobbying strategy. You have to invest a lot of energy in the first contact person. You have to shower the person with attention and compliments, give them gifts and the feeling of being committed to a meaningful, noble cause. In a second step, one could then slowly come up with the idea that the person could found an association or a federation that campaigns for the People's Mujahedin. "It's a psychological trick: when you ask someone a favor after so much flattery, people think they owe you something and they can hardly say no." A single respected politician could attract many more prominent supporters. In Germany, Rita Süssmuth and the DSFI would fulfill this function.
The former residents of the Berlin villa believe that German politicians will not receive any money for their commitment. "They want to do good, but they are being fooled by the People's Mujahedin," says a former member.
From other countries, however, there is evidence that the organization also pays lavish speaking fees. For example, Trump's former security advisor, John Bolton, received $ 40,000 from the People's Mujahedin for a speech in 2017, the Guardian reported. And the organization was even connected to party donations. In 2014, People's Mujahedin sympathizers financed the European election campaign of the right-wing populist Spanish Vox party on a large scale, as the newspaper El País revealed. Its founder Alejo Vidal-Quadras has been a long-time supporter of the People's Mujahedin. According to the dissidents, the villa in Berlin processed similar fees to foreign politicians to whom, and whether these payments were also financed from donations, none of them will or can testify precisely.
Do people still live here?
A sunny Sunday in October in Berlin, in front of the Wilmersdorfer Villa, a green-white-red flag with a golden lion flies, the flag used by the People's Mujahedin. A surveillance camera is also filming. There is a hustle and bustle in front of the villa. Cars go away and come back, men with mustaches smoke, talk on the phone in the front yard. Again and again, women come out of the glass door of the villa or disappear back into the house - some wear headscarves and uniforms, the typical clothing of the full female members of the People's Mujahedin.
Is it a kind of office, an office where the last person turns off the light in the evening and everyone goes home?
Or do some of these people live here? Is the villa your home?
If so, it could mean that the cult-like methods that the dissidents speak of are still being used there. Such practices would make up the core of the organization, says a person who once lived in the villa. Members would, however, be urged to vehemently deny this to outsiders. "From the inside," says another person, "with the People's Mujahedin many things look different than from the outside."
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Habilian Association.