An article written in Business Insider by Bryan Metzger has created quite a stir as it is littered with falsehoods about the main opposition to the Iranian regime, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Described as propaganda, his article appeared as though he had simply ‘copied and pasted’ information from the Internet, rather than doing his research on the Resistance group as the piece was devoid of any objectivity.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “This story’s click-bait title comically downgrades Vice President Mike Pence’s expression of admiration for leading opposition figure Maryam Rajavi as praise for the group that forbids members from sexual thoughts.”
The truth of the MEK is that it is an organization led by women who take up all of the key leadership roles. This is in complete opposition to the misogynistic clerics ruling Iran at present. The Iranian regime’s mullahs heavily control state media and regularly fabricate stories about the MEK and spin conspiracies to undermine the work that the MEK is doing. An example of this would be a piece published by the Mashreq daily in 2018 which discussed ‘sexual exploitation’ and the ‘sterilization’ of the women in the MEK.
The NCRI said, “The regime’s motives are clear: To dissuade Iranian women fed up with the misogynist and fundamentalist rulers from supporting the MEK. Nevertheless, it is not working.”
The regime is desperate to undermine the popularity of the MEK and its international support. Even more now so as their new president Ebrahim Raisi was one the main perpetrators of the 1988 massacre in Iran which saw the executions of over 30,000 political prisoners, the majority of whom were MEK supporters. As a result, many people are calling for his prosecution as there is currently a case in Sweden where a former prison authority involved in the massacre is on trial after being arrested two years ago under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
The religious dictatorship ruling Iran continues to spew propaganda against the MEK to protect Raisi and other officials like him, using the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to plant stories filled with lies through ‘friendly journalists’ in publications both domestically and internationally. The mullahs are terrified of the appeal that the MEK has to impressionable young Iranians and worry this will threaten their hold of power.
The NCRI said, “In July 2019, more than 350 personalities from 47 countries visited Ashraf-3. Similarly, dozens of journalists from the United States, the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium, have visited Ashraf-3 and spoken to the residents privately.”
In February 2019, a court in Hamburg, Germany ruled to force the German magazine, Der Spiegel to remove several false allegations about the MEK that had been written by a journalist associated with the MOIS.
The regime has attempted for decades to discredit the MEK politically, and despite their plots to eliminate the MEK, the Resistance organization is still standing strong and fighting back on behalf of the Iranian people to reach their goal to create a better, free Iran for the next generation.
