Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She has a daughter (born in 1982) and a degree in metallurgical engineering. Mrs. Rajavi became acquainted with the anti-shah movement in 1970. After entering Sharif University of Technology in Tehran to pursue her education, she quickly became a leader of the student movement and joined the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, the Muslim, democratic and nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of a secular government in Iran. The shah’s regime executed one of her sisters, Narges, and the Khomeini regime murdered another, Massoumeh, who was pregnant at the time, along with the sister’s husband.

http://www.iran-e-azad.org/english/maryam/biography.html

Formed in the 1960s by the college-educated
children of Iranian merchants, the MEK sought
to counter what is perceived as excessive Western
influence in the Shah's regime. In the 1970s, the
MEK concluded that violence was the only way
to bring about change in Iran. Since then, the MEK
following a philosophy that mixes Marxism and
Islam has developed into the largest and most active
armed Iranian dissident group. Its history is studded
with anti-Western activity and, most recently,
attacks on the interests of the clerical regime in
Iran and abroad.

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The MEK directs a worldwide campaign against
the Iranian Government that stresses propaganda
and occasionally uses terrorist violence. During the
1970s, the MEK staged terrorist attacks inside Iran
to destabilize and embarrass the Shah's regime; the
group killed several US military personnel and
civilians working on defense projects in Tehran.
The group also supported the takeover in 1979
of the US Embassy in Tehran. In April 1992 the
MEK carried out attacks on Iranian embassies in
13 different countries, demonstrating the group's
ability to mount large-scale operations overseas.

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Several thousand fighters based in Iraq with an
extensive overseas support structure. Most of the
fighters are organized in the MEK's National
Liberation Army (NLA).

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In the 1980s the MEK's leaders were forced by
Iranian security forces to flee to France. Most
resettled in Iraq by 1987. Since the mid-1980s,
the MEK has not mounted terrorist operations in
Iran at a level similar to its activities in the 1970s.
Aside from the National Liberation Army's attacks
into Iran toward the end of the Iran-Iraq war, and
occasional NLA cross-border incursions since, the
MEK's attacks on Iran have amounted to little more
than harassment. The MEK has had more success
in confronting Iranian representatives overseas
through propaganda and street demonstrations.

http://www.nasog.net/intelligence/terrorism/organizations/Peoples_Mujahedin_Of_Iran.htm