Morteza (Mory) Gharib and Kazem Kazerounian
The Middle East Forum’s January 2026 report, “After the Protests: Who Can Lead Iran?”, does not analyze Iran’s principal opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK); it attempts to erase it. That is not scholarship but political denial. No serious observer can wish away a movement that has been embedded in Iran’s political and social life for more than six decades; one that has survived two dictatorships and has paid for its resistance through mass executions and exile. Whether the MEF approves or not, the MEK remains an enduring fact of Iranian politics: discussed in the streets and in private homes, debated within the regime’s own seminaries and institutions, and raised even in Tehran’s political exchanges with foreign interlocutors.
The sheer volume of regime propaganda devoted to it, dozens of feature films and long-running television series, hundreds of books, and thousands of articles, speaks less to the MEK’s marginality than to its perceived threat. The authorities themselves understand this best: even mentioning the MEK’s name or its slogans is treated as a prosecutable offense, a red line enforced by prison and, at times, death.
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