Profile: Maryam Rajavi

The Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), a militant Iranian political organization formed in the 1960s, kills US military personnel and US civilians working on defense projects in Tehran. MEK is currently led by husband and wife Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. MEK is part of a larger political organization know as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). [US Department of State, 4/30/2003; US Department of State, 4/2005; GlobalSecurity (.org), 4/27/2005; National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, 5/12/2005]

Entity Tags: Mujahedeen-e Khalq, Massoud Rajavi, Maryam Rajavi

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

The National Council of Resistance, a front group for the Mujahedeen-e Khalq [MEK], elects Maryam Rajavi to serve as the interim president in Iran in the event that the mullahs are overthrown. She and her husband, Massoud, have headed the MEK since 1985. [Iran-e-Azad (.org), 6/10/2005]

Entity Tags: Mujahedeen-e Khalq, Maryam Rajavi

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

The US State Department includes the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), a militant Iranian opposition group, in its list of foreign terrorist organizations. [Executive Office of the President, 9/12/2002 ; Newsweek, 9/26/2002; US Department of State, 4/30/2003] MEK, which in English means, “People’s Holy Warriors,” [Christian Science Monitor, 7/29/2004] is later described by its former members as a cult. Its husband-and-wife leaders, Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, exercise absolute control over the group’s rank-and-file, requiring that members worship them and practice Mao-style self-denunciations. Many of the MEK’s members are tricked into joining the group. For example, the parents of Roshan Amini will tell the Christian Science Monitor in 2003 that their son joined because he had been told he would be able to complete two school grades in one year and earn a place in college. But after joining, Amini was not permitted to leave. [Christian Science Monitor, 12/31/2003; Los Angeles Times, 12/5/2004]

Entity Tags: Massoud Rajavi, Mujahedeen-e Khalq, Maryam Rajavi

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

France’s Secret Service raids the compound of the Iranian terrorist opposition group, Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an anti-Iranian group that has been on the US State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 1997. Among those arrested are husband-and-wife leaders Maryam and Massoud Rajavi. Following the arrests, nine MEK members across Europe set themselves on fire in protest. At least three of the protesters die. Critics claim that the self-immolations were ordered by MEK’s leadership. [New York Post, 6/17/2003; CNN, 6/22/2003; BBC, 7/1/2003; Los Angeles Times, 12/5/2004]

Entity Tags: Maryam Rajavi, Massoud Rajavi, Mujahedeen-e Khalq

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

Newsweek interviews Maryam Rajavi, one of the leaders of Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), at the organization’s compound in the French village of Auvers sur Oise. “I believe increasingly the Americans have come to realize that the solution is an Iranian force that is able to get rid of the Islamic fundamentalists in power in Iran,” Rajavi tells the magazine. She also insists that her group’s history of anti-Americanism has long past. [Newsweek, 2/15/2005]

Entity Tags: Maryam Rajavi, Mujahedeen-e Khalq

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

Newsweek reports that there is disagreement in the Bush administration over what to do with 3,800 Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) fighters being held in custody by the US at Camp Ashraf (see April 2003). The magazine says that parts of the Defense Department want “to cull useful MEK members as operatives for use against Tehran, all while insisting that it does not deal with the MEK as a group.” They would be sent to Iran to gather intelligence and possibly reawaken a democratic movement in Iran. The CIA however has objected to this strategy “because senior officers regard them as unreliable cultists under the sway of [Maryam] Rajavi and her husband,” Newsweek explains. A Defense Department spokesman however denies there is any “cooperation agreement” with the MEK and claims that the Pentagon has no plans for using MEK members in any capacity. But an MEK official interviewed by Newsweek said the opposite: “They [want] to make us mercenaries.” Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) also feels the Defense Department has plans for MEK members. “The Defense Department is thinking of them as buddies and the State Department sees them as terrorists. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle,” he told Newsweek. [Newsweek, 2/15/2005]

Entity Tags: Brad Sherman, Maryam Rajavi, US Department of Defense, Mujahedeen-e Khalq

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

The National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran is held in Washington, DC and attended by about 300 supporters. Speakers at the event include members of Congress, legal scholars, and Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political wing of Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK). Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA.) tells the crowd, “Unless we deal with Iran, there will never be a solution in Iraq.” [US Newswire, 4/13/2005; National Convention for a Democratic Secular Republic in Iran, 5/27/2005]

Entity Tags: Maryam Rajavi, Bob Filner, Mujahedeen-e Khalq, National Council of Resistance of Iran

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran

About 500 protesters demonstrate in Huntington Beach, near Los Angeles, calling on the Bush administration to back the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group, and remove the organization from the State Department’s list of US-designated foreign terrorist organizations. One of the speakers at the event is Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political front for the MEK. Addressing the crowd via satellite, she tells them that she believes the opposition’s efforts will soon payoff. [Los Angeles Times, 5/23/2005]

Entity Tags: Maryam Rajavi, Mujahedeen-e Khalq

Timeline Tags: US confrontation with Iran