Rajavi

Rajavi is a Persian surname associated in contemporary usage with Iranian political figures and a prominent opposition organization. The name is most often linked to Massoud Rajavi (born 1948), the founder and longtime leader of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI). It is also associated with Maryam Rajavi (born 1953), an Iranian political activist who has led the MEK’s political wing from exile and serves as president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the MEK’s umbrella political organization.

The MEK/PMOI is a political-militant Iranian organization that originated as a revolutionary movement combining leftist and Islamist elements. It opposed the Pahlavi regime before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and it subsequently conducted armed opposition against the Islamic Republic. The group operated from bases abroad for many years, notably in Iraq with some support from Saddam Hussein’s regime; after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, its bases were dismantled and its leadership and members moved to various locations, including Europe and Albania, where many later resided.

The Rajavi-linked MEK/NCRI has been the subject of international controversy. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by some governments in the past, though designation status has changed over time; the United States removed the MEK from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list in 2012. Today, the Rajavi name is most closely associated with Iranian opposition politics and the MEK/NCRI umbrella.