"No one can criticize Rajavi." And everyone must go through routine
self-criticism sessions. "It's all done on tape, so they have records of what
you say. If there's sign of resistance, you're considered not revolutionary enough,
and you need more ideological training. Either people break away or succumb."
Salahaddin Mukhtadi, an Iranian historian in exile who still maintains communications
with the Mujahedeen because it is the strongest armed opposition to the Iranian regime,
told me that Mujahedeen members "are locked up if they disagree with anything.
And sometimes killed."
[Nadereh] Afshari, who fled the group 10 years ago, told me how friendship was
forbidden. No two people could sit alone and talk together, especially about their
former lives. Informants were planted everywhere. It was Maryam's idea to kill
emotional relationships. "She called it 'drying the base,'" Afshari
said. "They kept telling us every one of your emotions should be channeled
toward Massoud [Rajavi], and Massoud equals leadership, and leadership equals
Iran." The segregation of the sexes began almost from toddlerhood.
"Girls were not allowed to speak to boys. If they were caught mingling, they
were severely punished."
Though Maryam and Massoud finagled it so they could be together, they forced everyone
else into celibacy. "They told us, 'We are at war, and soldiers cannot have
wives and husbands,'" Afshari said. "You had to report every single day
and confess your thoughts and dreams. They made men say they got erections when they
smelled the perfume of a woman." Men and women had to participate in
"weekly ideological cleansings," in which they would publicly confess their
sexual desires. It was not only a form of control but also a means to delete all
remnants of individual thought.
In the chaotic days after the fall of Baghdad, several Mujahedeen members managed to
flee the military camps and were in Kurdish custody in northern Iraq. Kurdish
officials told me they weren't sure what to do with them. One was Mohammad, a gaunt
19-year-old Iranian from Tehran with sad chestnut eyes. He hadn't heard of the
Mujahedeen until one day last year when he was in Istanbul desperately looking for
work. A Mujahedeen recruiter spotted him and a friend sleeping on the streets, so
hungry they couldn't think anymore. The recruiter gave them a bed and food for the
night, and the next day showed them videos of the Mujahedeen struggle. He enticed
them to join with an offer to earn money in Iraq while simultaneously fighting the cruel
Iranian regime. What's more, he said, you can marry Mujahedeen girls and start your
own family. The Mujahedeen seemed like salvation. Mohammad was told to inform
his family that he was going to work in Germany and given an Iraqi passport.
The first month at Ashraf, he said, wasn't so bad. Then came the indoctrination
in the reception department and the weird self-criticism sessions. He quickly
realized there would be no wives, no pay, no communication with his parents, no
friendships, no freedom. The place was a nightmare, and he wanted out. But
there was no leaving. When he refused to pledge the oath to struggle forever, he was
subjected to relentless psychological pressure. One night, he couldn't take it
anymore. He swallowed 80 diazepam pills. His friend, he said, slit his
wrists. The friend died, but to Mohammad's chagrin, he woke up in a solitary
room. After days of intense prodding to embrace the Mujahedeen way, he finally
relented to the oath. He trundled along numbly until the Americans invaded Iraq,
when he and another friend managed to slip out into the desert. They were helped out
by Arabs, and then turned themselves over to the Kurds, hoping for mercy. Mohammad
fell ill, and the next thing he knew he was in prison. "The Mujahedeen has a
good appearance to the outside world, but anyone who has lived among them knows how rotten
and dirty they are," he said.
Another Iranian whom I met at the Kurdish prison told me that he had been a zealous
Mujahedeen supporter for years in Iran, and when he finally made it to the Iraqi camps, he
was horrified to discover that his dream was a totalitarian mini-state.
