Maryam Rajavi
| Maryam Rajavi | |
|---|---|
| مریم رجوی | |
 |
|
| “President–elect” of the National Council of Resistance | |
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Assumed office 22 October 1993 |
|
| Preceded by | Abolhassan Banisadr |
| “Co–equal Leader” of the People's Mojahedin Organization | |
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Assumed office 27 January 1985 Serving with Massoud Rajavi |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Maryam Qajar–Azodanlu 4 December 1953 Tehran, Iran |
| Political party | People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | Mostafa (b. 1980) Ashraf (b. 1982) |
| Religion | Islam |
Maryam Rajavi (born Maryam Azodanlu, مریم قجر عضدانلو, on 4 December 1953) is the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, an organization trying to overthrow the Iranian government. Rajavi is also the President-elect of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) since 1993. She is the wife of Massoud Rajavi.
Rajavi was born on 4 December in in Tehran. She was raised there as the daughter of a middle-class civil servant descended from a member of the Qajar dynasty. She attended the Sharif University of Technology in Iran, earning a B.S. in metallurgy.
Rajavi has stated that her political activism started when she was twenty-two after her sister Narges's killing by Shah Muhammad Reza's secret police. Then she became a member of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and began her political career.
Rajavi served as an organizer of the anti-Shah student movement in the 1970s and in 1979, became an official of the social section of the PMOI/MEK, where she served until 1981. During that time, Rajavi was a parliamentary candidate in 1980. In 1985, she became Joint-Leader of the PMOI and served in that capacity until 1989 when she became the Secretary General until 1993.
In 1982, Rajavi was transferred to Paris, where the political headquarters of the Mojahedin was located, the principal opposition movement at that time.
In 2003, Rajavi's offices were raided by French police. She was placed under arrest and the assets of the NCRI were frozen by the French government. Rajavi's supporters protested her arrest by demonstration until her release."
Rajavi congratulated Zohreh Akhyani's election as the new Secretary General of the PMOI on 7 September 2011.
The Supreme Court of the UK reiterated Rajavi's travel ban on 12 November 2014. Originally put in place in 1997, Rajavi is not excluded from any other European country and engages regularly with parliamentarians in the European Parliament.
In 2003, she was arrested by Paris Police Prefecture alongside some 150 MEK members for "preparing to commit or finance acts of terrorism". Twenty-four sympathizers of the MEK were placed under investigation, including Maryam Rajavi for allegedly "associating with wrongdoers in relation with a terrorist undertaking". The investigation lost momentum and many of the restrictions on the suspects' movement were lifted in 2006 leaving nine people to be investigated for possible money laundering. In 2014, all of the charges were dropped.
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Wikipedia