She left all that behind to come to Camp Ashraf in Iraq, the small base that is the home the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, or MEK, a Marxist Islamist group that is as much a cult as a political party dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian regime.

Since the U.S. invasion toppled the MEK's one-time sponsor, Saddam Hussein, the group _ to the outrage of the Iranian government _ has been protected by the U.S. military inside its camp and on supply runs to Baghdad.

On New Year's Day that protection ended, and the Iraqi government, many of whose leaders were sheltered in Iran when the MEK was allied with Saddam, will take control of the camp.

What could happen next has filled Zanjani and Camp Ashraf's 3,400 residents with fear.

"They can't just leave us unprotected," said Zanjani, a former MEK tank commander. "The Iranian regime is waiting outside at the door for us. They will kill us."

Last week the Iraqi government announced that the group's members would be deported _ either back to Iran or to third countries. "Iraq is no option for them," the government statement said.

The statement also banned them from dealing with journalists, Iraqi politicians or any other group _ Iraqi or non-Iraqi.

Iraqi officials have assured the U.S. that the MEK members' rights will be respected and that they won't be forced to return to Iran if they feel threatened. About 50 are wanted by the Iranian government in connection with assassinations and bombings.

Even those with no charges pending against them in Iran are terrified. With no countries willing to accept them en masse, the members fear the worst.

Already the Iraqi government has stopped fuel and food supplies from reaching the camp, MEK members said. In 2005 the government stopped the distribution of ration cards to the camp, forcing residents to turn to the black market, with its wildly exorbitant prices.

Those who supply the group with rice, cooking oil, sugar and other basic goods _ at prices 22 times what the camp once paid _ do so at risk of arrest.

"In the summer of 2006 all fuel deliveries from the camp were cut off by the oil ministry," said Abbas Qassem, the camp's logistics director. Now they sneak the oil by hiding it in septic tankers, and drivers of delivery trucks to Ashraf who are discovered are arrested.

"It was very well planned," Hossein Amini, a member of the camp's political leadership council, said of the Iraqi government's restrictions. "They wanted to put an end to us.