
In the show "The Unexposed" on MCN TV, a former MEK member, Hamid Atabai, was invited, who has been a mujahedin for 36 years and deserted last year, leaving the Manza camp.
Atabai gave a touching account of the closed life that takes place inside the camp, giving harrowing details of the activity to the limits of inhumanity within the MEK. Atabai told how he was not allowed to see his sister, who was dying of cancer, and how his life and that of other MEK members is controlled down to the cell.
Excerpts from the conversation:
Ylli Rakipi: How is life inside this organization? You were there for 36 years and escaped from the camp in Manza a year ago. What is life like inside this camp?
Hamid Atabai: The life that happens in the Ashfraf camp is not the life that a normal person leads. It's a life of seclusion and it's worse than a prison. You have neither the right to sleep alone, nor to get up when you want, nor to eat when you want. You don't choose what clothes to wear or when you want to go out. We didn't even have the right to come from Manza to Tirana.
We did not even have the right to go to the hospital of our own choice. When we went to Ashraf, we had to write down everything we saw. Where in the world does this happen? Is this life?
Ylli Rakipi: One of DASH's concerns is that within the organization there is violence against members. Have you faced violence and threats?
Hamid Atabai: A man is more willing to be violated than to be psychologically violated. We had the gas chamber and asked to be whipped. I always had complaints, threats. We, from human life, had crossed the limits and I'm telling you how much I would like to be beaten there every day...
Ylli Rakipi: Why did you decide to leave?
Hamid Atabai: I was a soldier in the MEK and I was also in the Iraq-Iran war for 36 years. I fought with the MEK until the last weapon they had in their hands. The reason they kept me is that I was on a mission with Iran for a sick soldier and the MEK just kept me. I was in MEK prison. I did not choose to stay in MEK.
Ylli Rakipi: Were you threatened when you left?
Hamid Atabai: Yes, first they deceived me and told me, if you return to Iran we will kill you, as they have killed other people who have returned to Iran. Then I didn't know if this thing is true or not. I always thought I'd better stay in MEK before I leave.
Ylli Rakipi: Did you have a chance to talk with the family in Iran?
Hamid Atabai: Talking to the family is a violation of their law, a very big violation. They would never give permission and they don't give permission even for a simple phone call, or to write a letter to the family. My sister had cancer, she came to Camp Ashraf in Iraq, the second time she came she fell into a coma and died. I begged MEK to see me before she died, I was never told that my sister was there (crying in the studio).
Ylli Rakipi: When you were in the camp, how did you fight against Iran?
Hamid Atabai: I did not take part in many wars, because I was a nurse. I saw a war there and it was the end of the Iraq-Iran war. I used to be a nurse.
Ylli Rakipi: Were the Mujahideen involved in the activity against Iran?
Hamid Atabai: Undoubtedly, there were many things in Iraq that opposed Iran. Certainly they have set fire to oil barrels quite often...
Ylli Rakipi: I am talking about the activity in Manzë.
Hamid Atabai: Things were done from the Internet. On the internet they used, they wasted it.
Ylli Rakipi: What exactly did they do?
Hamid Atabai: First they deceived the young people who are in Iran. Because one of the main reasons MEK is still alive is deception. They managed to convince the youth to the point of opposing the government of Iran.