The Last Ideological Revolution
The Last Ideological Revolution is a site-specific installation centred on a composite photograph of Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK). The image is a manipulated collage made from two photographs of Rajavi taken by Ashrafi in 2010. The installation site, the ruins of Radio Tirana’s 50 kW medium- wave transmitter in Kashar inaugurated in 1952 at the height of the communist regime in Albania, was chosen to reflect on the context in which the photograph of Rajavi was taken, and on the radio as one of the earliest mediums of mass communication and propaganda tools. Staunchly opposed to injustices committed in Iran, with Ashrafi living in exile in Paris, France, the artists are also critical of the MEK, and of Western countries such as the United States that not too long ago classified the MEK as a terrorist group but now portray this mysterious cult-like organization as Iran’s legitimate opposition, even though the organization has no support from Iranian activists inside Iran.
The MEK’s first ideological revolution started when Mehdi Abrishamchi, Massoud
Rajavi’s right-hand man, divorced Maryam Qajar-Azodanlu so she could marry
Rajavi. The marriage, which took place in 1985, was described as the ideological
union of Massoud and Maryam and a key point in the greater 'Ideological Revolution'.
The MEK’s great defeat during 1988’s Operation Eternal Light, in which the
organisation lost more than a seventh of its army, marks a second turning point. Faced
with rising dissent among the MEK’s rank and file as a result of their refusal to take
responsibility for the defeat, the Rajavis responded by shifting the blame onto the
“liberation army”, their ‘lack of sacrifice’ and low ‘ideological purity’ and ‘capacity
for struggle’, and calling for the need for more constant ‘ideological revolutions’. The
leadership asked all of its members to renounce all earthly attachments, including
sexual and emotional ties to spouses and children. The process included constant self-
criticism or perpetual cleansing (what Rajavi called ‘weekly ablutions’) and the
dissolution of all marriages except that of the Rajavis. The members later realised that
the leadership had not asked merely for legal separations, but rather wanted all
members to sever their ties to their spouses and children and all earthly attachments in
their very hearts. To gain absolute mental and physical dedication to the leadership,
the members needed to hate their loved ones, for those earthly loves were barriers
between them and the leadership chosen by God.
Ever since, MEK members have been routinely subjected to all manner of psychological and physical abuses so as to fully detach themselves from all earthly ties in order to be united with their leader, namely Maryam, who they refer to as ‘Maryam the ever-shining sun (Mehr)’. As for Massoud Rajavi, he has not been seen in public since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003, though various audio recordings attributed to him have been broadcast by the organization. The 2003 invasion of Iraq transformed the MEK’s circumstances and ‘fate’ in more ways than one. Soon after, in June 2004, the U.S. designated the members of the MEK as ‘protected persons’ under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, a status they lost in 2009 when full sovereignty was restored to Iraq. However, in 2012 the U.S. removed the MEK from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations. The Persian word ‘Mehr’ equally connotes ‘sun’, ‘compassion’, and ‘love’. The archaic understanding of ‘Mehr’ signifies eternity and perpetuity. The photo shows Maryam carrying a coffin on which an image is sealed. The sealed image shows Maryam gazing at another image yet again. In Massoud’s perpetual absence, Maryam is the eternal sun. If a creature is perpetual, that creature’s day shall not give way to tomorrow; the creature shall not age. In the photo, Maryam looks older than today, although the photo was taken nine years ago. The mise-en- abîme investigates the politics behind Maryam’s image: recurrence, everlasting, ever shining, undying.
The first 210 Mujahedeen arrived in Albania in 2013, towards the end of Sali
Berisha’s second term as Prime Minister. Another 3000 Mujahedeen relocated from
Camp Ashraf in Iraq to Albania in 2016, following an obscure deal between Prime
Minister Edi Rama and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The Mujahedeen have
since settled in a purpose-built camp in Manzë, around 20 km from the capital Tirana.
The camp is virtually inaccessible to outsiders, and the group are extremely guarded
in their interactions with anyone who is not a member. Interestingly, the Albanian
mainstream media have shown a remarkable lack of interest in the presence of the
Mujahedeen in Manzë, essentially refusing to investigate or report on the group’s
activities and history, including the purpose and duration of their stay in the country.
On the other hand, various incidents have taken place between the Mujahedeen and
foreign members of the press who have tried to gain access to the camp, including
Channel 4’s Lindsey Hilsum who was swiftly branded an agent of the Iranian
regime’s intelligence service by the MEK. There have also been a number of
defections among the members of the MEK in Albania, and in December 2018 the
Albanian government expelled two Iranian diplomats as well as the Iranian
Ambassador in Tirana.
The Last Ideological Revolution raises key questions about democracy in today’s
global context, in particular the murky business of exporting and installing democracy
in countries run by authoritarian regimes by countries with supposedly democratic
governments, and the role of peripheral developing nations like Albania, that
themselves are often described as ‘hybrid’ democracies.
The artists wish to dedicate The Last Ideological Revolution to all victims of the
MEK, deceased and living.
