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'''Somayeh Mohammadi''' ({{lang-fa|سمیه محمدی}}), born (8 September 1980), is an [[Iran]]ian woman and a member of the [[People's Mojahedin of Iran]] (MEK). She has received media coverage concerning controversy about her membership in the MEK.
'''Somayeh Mohammadi''' ({{lang-fa|سمیه محمدی}}), born (8 September 1980), is an [[Iran]]ian woman and a member of the [[Mujahedin-e Khalq]] (MEK). She has received media coverage concerning controversy about her membership in the MEK.


According to her father, Mostafa Mohammedi, Somayeh is being held hostage by MEK, but she denies claims and has filed a lawsuit against him.<ref name="TiranaTimes">{{cite web |title=Iranian-Canadian father, mujahedeen daughter clash over Albania-based MEK |url=http://www.tiranatimes.com/?p=138197 |newspaper=[[Tirana Times]] |accessdate=4 August 2018}}</ref> Somayeh claims that her father is an undercover agent.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> Somayeh says she voluntarily left Canada in 1998, as many other Iranians did, to join MEK seeking freedom and democracy for Iran.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/>
According to her father, Mostafa Mohammedi, a former MEK member, Somayeh is being held hostage by MEK, but she publicly denies these claims and has filed a lawsuit against him.<ref name="TiranaTimes">{{cite web |title=Iranian-Canadian father, mujahedeen daughter clash over Albania-based MEK |url=http://www.tiranatimes.com/?p=138197 |newspaper=[[Tirana Times]] |accessdate=4 August 2018}}</ref> Somayeh claims that her father is an undercover agent of Iran.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> Somayeh says she voluntarily left Canada in 1998, at the age of 15, to join MEK seeking to overthrow the Iranian government.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/>


Since 1997, her parents have been attempting to bring her home. However, she is based in PMI headquarters {{ndash}} previously in Iraq and now in Albania.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/><ref name="theguardian"/> She emigrated from Iran to [[Canada]] with her family in 1994.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> She had gone to Iraq to visit Camp Ashraf in 1997, never returning to Canada. According to her father, the MEK "kidnapped" his daughter from Canada when she was a teenager,<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> when they convinced him to allow his daughter for a two-week trip to [[Iraq]], but she never returned from the trip.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> According to ''[[The Guardian]]'', "the MEK insists Somayeh does not wish to leave the camp, and released her letter accusing her father of working for Iranian intelligence."<ref name="theguardian">{{cite web |last1=Merat |first1=Arron |title=Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/09/mek-iran-revolution-regime-trump-rajavi |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> According to Somayeh Mohammadi’s lawyer, the Albanian prosecution rejected to take the case because Somayeh admitted she was not being kept in the MEK against her will. The lawyer also said that she and her family had been threatened by unknown people online for representing Somayeh Mohammadi.<ref>{{cite web |title=Albania’s Iranian guests |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csy5dd |newspaper=[[BBC]]}}</ref>
Since 1997, her parents have been attempting to bring her home. However, she lives in MEK headquarters {{ndash}}, previously in [[Iraq]] and now in [[Albania]].<ref name="TiranaTimes"/><ref name="theguardian"/> She emigrated from Iran to [[Canada]] with her family in 1994.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> She had gone to Iraq to visit Camp Ashraf in 1997, never returning to Canada. According to her father, the MEK kidnapped his daughter from Canada when she was a teenager,<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> when they convinced him to allow his daughter for a two-week training camp in Iraq, but she and her brother never returned.<ref name="TiranaTimes"/> According to ''[[The Guardian]]'', "the MEK insists Somayeh does not wish to leave the camp, and released her letter accusing her father of working for Iranian intelligence."<ref name="theguardian">{{cite web |last1=Merat |first1=Arron |title=Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/09/mek-iran-revolution-regime-trump-rajavi |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> According to Somayeh Mohammadi's lawyer, the Albanian prosecution rejected to take the case because Somayeh said she was not being kept in the MEK against her will. The lawyer also said that she and her family had been threatened by unknown people online for representing Somayeh Mohammadi.<ref>{{cite web |title=Albania’s Iranian guests |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csy5dd |newspaper=[[BBC]]}}</ref>


==Membership in MEK==
==Membership in MEK==

Revision as of 08:49, 23 November 2019

Somayeh Mohammadi
Born (1980-09-08) 8 September 1980 (age 44)
Iran
NationalityCanada
Years activepresent

Somayeh Mohammadi (Persian: سمیه محمدی), born (8 September 1980), is an Iranian woman and a member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). She has received media coverage concerning controversy about her membership in the MEK.

According to her father, Mostafa Mohammedi, a former MEK member, Somayeh is being held hostage by MEK, but she publicly denies these claims and has filed a lawsuit against him.[1] Somayeh claims that her father is an undercover agent of Iran.[1] Somayeh says she voluntarily left Canada in 1998, at the age of 15, to join MEK seeking to overthrow the Iranian government.[1]

Since 1997, her parents have been attempting to bring her home. However, she lives in MEK headquarters –, previously in Iraq and now in Albania.[1][2] She emigrated from Iran to Canada with her family in 1994.[1] She had gone to Iraq to visit Camp Ashraf in 1997, never returning to Canada. According to her father, the MEK kidnapped his daughter from Canada when she was a teenager,[1] when they convinced him to allow his daughter for a two-week training camp in Iraq, but she and her brother never returned.[1] According to The Guardian, "the MEK insists Somayeh does not wish to leave the camp, and released her letter accusing her father of working for Iranian intelligence."[2] According to Somayeh Mohammadi's lawyer, the Albanian prosecution rejected to take the case because Somayeh said she was not being kept in the MEK against her will. The lawyer also said that she and her family had been threatened by unknown people online for representing Somayeh Mohammadi.[3]

Membership in MEK

Somayeh Mohammadi left Canada and her parents when she was 17 years old and went to Iraq to visit Camp Ashraf in 1997.[4][2] Mostafa Mohammadi, Somayeh's father, said a woman from the organization offered his daughter a "short trip" to the Ashraf camp in Iraq at that time.[5] Mostafa was a MEK supporter in Canada and he was usually collecting people donates for the MEK group.[5][1][2] He believed Somayeh lives under unsuitable conditions and the MEK group maybe Tortured her.[1][2] She wrote a letter to the Albanian Interior Minister asking to forbid her father to stay at Albania.[1] She said his presence make the security issue for other members of the MEK.[1] In one video, Somayeh appeared when she was interviewed by two Albanian journalist while she had wore the MEK women uniform.[5] She accused her father of being an Iranian intelligence agent in this video.[2][5][4]

According to the Der Spiegel online website, Somayeh Mohammadi in her interview with Albanian journalists providing a report from MEK camp in Albania, that was saying she is free to go everywhere.[5] The MEK believed that Somayeh does not like to abandon the Ashraf camp, but Somayeh parents have asked to visit their daughter outside the camp and without her commanders.[2] Mohamadi family have believed that Somayeh had never allowed to choose her staying in camp.[2] Somayeh mother said. “Somayeh is a shy girl. I knew that she wants to leave but she is under pressure because the MEK member and officer have threatened her.”[2]

On 17 October 2013, a letter was sent by Somayeh to Canadian authorities while Somayeh was asking them to return her to Canada again, as soon as possible.[5] But she didn't have a Canadian passport anymore and it was impossible to help her.[5] After a while a PDF book, named "The End Of A Conspiracy"[6] published with her name.[5] She changed her mind according the book and was announced that wish to remain with MEK.[5] Her father said, "Who knows what the MEK member did to her".[5]

She is one of about 2000-3000 members of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (MEK or MKO) who are living inside the groups's camp, Ashraf 3, in north-west Albania and outside the Durres city, Albania's second largest city.[1][5] Her parents were once followers of the group and had even supported financially the group in the past,[5][7] hasn't met her since 2005.[1][2]

Efforts to extract

Mostafa Mohamadi, Somayeh's father moved to Canada in 1994[8] to seek political asylum.[1][2] The parents, Mostafa and Robabe Mohammadi, have trying to get their daughter back from the MEK since 1997.[1][2][5] They believed that their daughter tempted by a MEK member to joining the MEK, while she was in a short travel for visiting Ashraf camp in Iraq in 1997.[1][2][5] Somayeh's parent have traveled from their home in Canada to Paris, Jordan, Iraq and now Albania for visiting their daughter and get her back from the MEK.[1][2][5] In their Albania tripe for rescue their daughter from the new MEK camp, they were followed by two Albanian intelligence agents everywhere.[2] Mostafa stated, "We are not working against any group or country. We are only trying to visit our daughter outside the MEK camp. She can choose freely to stay in camp or come back to her home in Canada with us."[2] He added, the MEK group ‘kidnapped’ his daughter and his son from Canada in 1997. She was only 17 and traveled to Iraq to visit Ashraf camp. But Somayeh said that she voluntarily left Canada in 1998 for joining the MEK like another Iranian.[1] According to the Guardian, The MEK claimed that Somayeh has never like to left the camp.[2] Also, She published a letter which she accused her father of being an Iranian intelligence agent.[2] Somayeh's mother believes her daughter is a shy girl, and the MEK member have threaten people like her. If she can choose freely, she will live the camp and MEK.[2]

Migena Balla, the lawyer of Mostafa and Robabe Mohammadi, stated that pressure has been brought to bear on both the police and the judiciary to ensure the MEK does not “create political problems”. In addition, the police officer refused to accept her complaint about MEK and didn't allow Somayeh visit her parents.[2]

Efforts by U.S. and Canadian diplomats helped to get back the Mohamadi's family son, who is living in Canada now; but they can't do anything for Somayeh.[7] When the Saddam's regime fallen in 2003, Mostafa had moved to Iraq and rescued his son ,Mohammad, from the Ashraf camp and he succeeded. But his daughter Somayeh avoided to leave because she was under special supervision by MEK commanders. However, she had asked for help several times to the U.S. Marines guarding the camp.

Mostafa found that Somayeh will go to a Tirana hospital once a week as a translator for MEK members seeking medical care. He waited nearby the hospital on 27 July 2018 to find a suitable condition to meet his daughter. After a few hours, they became hopeless to visit their daughter and finally came back to their hotel. They were surrounded by four men of the MEK while they shouting "terrorist" at Mostafa and Robabe Mohammadi. Police had quickly arrived and carried Mohammadis and the MEK men to a Tirana police station. Their lawyer, Margarita Kola for MEK members and Migena Banna for Mohammadis joined them in the police station. Kola, who once worked as a counsel for the US Embassy in Tirana allegedly maintained she legally represented the Americans embassy. Mostafa Mohammadi was sent to a hospital for his injuries and the MEK men were promptly released. After this incident, the video of the MEK member attack to the couple had faced with the various reaction on Albanian social media. Local television stations have set meetings with the couple to air on stories about the search for their daughter.[7]

Reaction

The MEK has published a letter on Albanian media 2018,[1] introducing Somayeh as its author. The letter introduces Somyaeh's father as an Iranian intelligence agent. Recently Somayeh announced in a video interview inside the MEK that she wants to be a member of the group.[5] The Mohammadis have responded with open letters to their daughter and to Albanian politicians, asking for a meeting with their daughter.[2]

As Somayeh says, she has published her whole story in a book in Persian and English to describe her father's efforts to abuse her, as well as she accuses her father to play the role as an undercover Iranian agent in the Ashraf and Liberty camp killings in Iraq.[1]

A documentary film, “An Unfinished Film for My Daughter, Somayeh”, narrated the life story of Somayeh and her family. It's a 90 minutes film that shows Mostafa Mohammadi tries for rescue his daughter from MEK trap. The film was captured in some countries such as Iraq, Canada, Germany, France and Sweden. The film won the best political documentary award in Iran international Film Festival, "Cinema Verite". The film directed by Morteza Payeshenas and produced by Mohammad Sakibaniya in 2014.[9][10][11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Iranian-Canadian father, mujahedeen daughter clash over Albania-based MEK". Tirana Times. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Merat, Arron. "Terrorists, cultists – or champions of Iranian democracy? The wild wild story of the MEK". The Guardian.
  3. ^ "Albania's Iranian guests". BBC.
  4. ^ a b Russell, Greg. "Daughter's anguish at father's Iran Camp Ashraf 'hostage' claims". The National.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Hommerich, Luisa. "The Cult-Like Group Fighting Iran". Der spiegel. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  6. ^ Amiri, Pejman. "Iran's Fake News Makes Families Work Against Each Other". Baghdad Post. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Daragahi, Borzou. "The 'political cult' opposing the Iranian regime which has created a state within a state in Albania". The Independent. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  8. ^ "Ekskluzive/ Flasin prindërit e muxhahedines: Nuk jemi agjentë, vajza jonë u rrëmbye nga MEK (2018)". tpz.
  9. ^ "رهایی "سمیه" از خانه عنکبوتی منافقین". irinn.ir. IRINN. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  10. ^ "وضعیت نامعلوم شخصیت اصلی "فیلم ناتمامی برای دخترم سمیه" در کمپ منافقان+ فیلم". Tasnim News. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  11. ^ "تجلیل از سازندگان "فیلم ناتمامی برای دخترم سمیه" برگزار شد". tasnimnews.
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