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MEK has since renounced violence, helped in part by the forcible disarming of the group following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Both Canada and the United States removed MEK from their roster of terrorist organizations in 2012, although a statement from the U.S. state department at the time said they still had “serious concerns about the MEK as an organization, particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its own members.”

The group has frequently been criticized for demanding cult-like devotion to its leaders, the married couple Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

A 2009 analysis by the RAND Corporation wrote that the group engages in “public self-deprecation sessions, mandatory divorce, celibacy, enforced separation from family and friends, and gender segregation.”

Speaking to Vice in 2014, former member Masoud Banisadr, who once served as spokesman for MEK, said the group imposes a “black-and-white world view” on its members.

“I remember a guy who said, ‘My brother works in the Iranian embassy in London. Before I loved him as my brother, now I hate him as my enemy. I am ready to kill him tomorrow, if necessary.’ And everyone applauded,” said Banisadr.

Massoud mysteriously disappeared after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, but Maryam remains a visible MEK representative. Official video feeds of Harper’s speech frequently cut away to show the reaction of Maryam Rajavi, seated in the audience.