Sir Joseph Alan Meale (born 31 July 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield since 1987.

Meale attended St Joseph RC School in Bishop Auckland and studied at Ruskin College, and Durham University, his CV also mentions Sheffield Hallam.
Meale's website lists his previous occupations as Author, Editor, Development Officer, Trade Union Official, Researcher, Political Adviser and Journalist.

Meale entered Parliament on 11 June 1987 and made his maiden speech on 3 July 1987 in the Tourism debate where he commented on the poverty, lack of provision, opportunity and services in the Mansfield community. Meale was a whip from 1992 to 1994 when he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Prescott in Prescott's different roles until 1998.
He became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the DETR under John Prescott from January 1998 to January 1999.

In 1998 following allegations in the Sunday Times, Michael Ancram accused him of cronyism by lobbying on behalf of Tony Kleanthous, the millionaire Greek-Cypriot chairman of Barnet football club.
Kleanthous wanted to build a £14m stadium on green belt land, 140 miles from Meale's constituency. The Sunday Times article said that Britain's Greek-Cypriot community had paid for Meale and his wife to go to Cyprus and that Greek-Cypriot lobbying groups had donated thousands of pounds to Labour. Meale denied cronyism and Kleanthous denied making donations to Labour or representing Greek-Cypriots.

Maryam Rajavi (born Maryam Azodanlu in 1953 in Tehran, Iran) is the wife of Massoud Rajavi, a founder of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). She's the "president-elect" of the National Council of Resistance of Iran., a coalition of exiled groups opposed to the Islamic Republic regime. In 1985, she became co-leader of the PMOI along with Massoud Rajavi, and together they made women a main portion of the group's fighting force.

Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She has a degree in metallurgical engineering. She speaks English, French and Persian. Mrs. Rajavi became acquainted with the anti-Shah movement in 1970.

In 1982 Maryam Rajavi left Iran for Paris, where the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance was located. In 1993 Rajavi was elected President-Elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella coalition of which the PMOI is the primary member organization. As President-Elect, Rajavi has continued to place women in nearly all of the leadership roles within her resistance movement, and believes that women should have equal opportunity with men to participate in social and political activities.