In recent years I have begun to wonder what my friend who delivered the news was really thinking? How she felt when she decided to call me in the morning to “send her condolences” without first finding out if I was even aware of my loss.

Of course, she was (and is) a member of the cult. A cult that lives on sensationalism and propaganda of martyrs.

My older brother had become a” martyr” just hours before. In the hands of the sect. The witnesses I spoke to afterwards, without knowing what I suspected and experienced from a distance, confirmed it exactly as I thought. That my brother was ordered to run toward the shotguns to die. Who else films an unprotected, unarmed and terrified person his last seconds before getting brutally killed and puts it on YouTube?

In the promotion of the People’s Mujahedin sect, anything is done to get the attention of the outside world. ANYTHING.

13 years ago I had already taken a distance to mujahedin but, like most others even to this day, I had chosen silence. Chosen to just withdraw quietly and live my life in peace.
Today, I know that that friend who called me didn’t give a damn about my brother’s death or about me. She only cared about being the first to call so that she could post on Facebook with her back free, blaming my brothers murder on the Iranian regime and boasting about the Mujahedin as the answer to freedom and justice.
Without any thought about what shock she left me to deal with after we hung up.

Atefeh Sebdani

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Atefeh Sebdani, who is now a Swedish citizen, is married and the mother of three children. She is a successful engineer and lecturer who published his autobiography titled “My Hands in Mine” last summer and was well received by the audience. The book depicts a part of severe violation of children’s rights in the cult-like structure of the MEK and its sympathizer families.

Atefeh is also one of the 4 young people whose life story was shown in the recent documentary “Children of Camp Ashraf” made by Sara Moin in Swedish.
A few hours before the release of the episode, publishing its trailer Atefeh Sebdani wrote on her Facebook account about her fears, her concerns and the obstructions the MEK tried to launch in the way of the production of the episode:

to download the video file click here

Here’s the trailer for my episode that airs tomorrow on SVT Story.
It feels really hard for me to post this tonight and I will await the response before writing more than this post. If you want to send me your thoughts afterwards, please do so here in the comments.

As you can see, the title of the episode has changed. The cult did as the cult always does- acts like a cult. Monitors me and every step I take and communicates with the productions around me to gain control over the smallest detail. They will definitely get in touch with SVT after the episode premieres tomorrow and come up with new things to complain on.
As I warned SVT about during production.

Mujahedin continues to prove who they are: a controlling, authoritarian group that will do anything to preserve the last dignity they have and silence us defectors as much as possible. It’s just that they don’t realize that people who have to deal with them instead get to experience first-hand the things that I testify.

Thank you Mujahedin for never letting me down in that regard! Thanks for all the self goals! Bravo! You continue to confirm to the public exactly everything I tell about your cult.

Now I’ll take a deep breath. Cause tomorrow the whole world(!) will be able to watch my Story. Welcome to share this and inform, to keep showing your fantastic support. This, even though it feels so hard for me to expose myself like this. But now that it’s done, please help me to reach out.
I love and appreciate you all.

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This is the festival’s description on the Children of Camp Ashraf:

A shaking portrayal of the children who were sent to Sweden in the 90s to become the next generation of warriors within the opposition group People’s Mujahedin.

Amir, Parwin, Hanif, and Atefeh are some of the hundreds of children smuggled to Sweden so that their parents could wholeheartedly devote themselves to the political struggle. Thousands of children were shipped from the movement’s military base in Iraq to sympathizers in Europe. Interviews and archival material depict the painful family separations and how the traumas of childhood still leave marks on adult life.
After the screenings March 6 there will be a Q&A session.

The showtimes of Branen Fran Camp Ashraf (Children of Camp Ashraf) will be on Wednesday 6 March, at 18.00, at Mangkulturellt Centrum, Stockholm and on Thursday 7 March, at 20.15, Victorai 2, Stockholm.

Since its founding in 1998, Tempo has showcased hundreds of documentaries from around the world, presenting documentary works in the forms of audio, photography, performing arts, and experimental art. Tempo organizers believe that the documentary expression has a strong, inherent potential to serve as a unifying force in society. Documentary storytelling touches and facilitates conversations about complex issues in an intimate, reflective, and profound manner.

Sara Moien’s documentary was first released in Goteborg film Festival at 4 showtimes from January 31st to February 3rd. While the film was welcomed by the audience, the MEK agents tried to make the atmosphere of the cinemas tense obstructing the Q & A session which was held after the premiere.

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Sara Moin, the director of the controversial documentary about the children of Camp Ashraf, was interviewed by Ahmad Rafat of Kayhan London. She was asked about the protests of the MEK sympathizers against the Goteborg Film Festival before the release of her film. “Despite the fact that the film had not been seen so far, they sent a series of emails to the festival,” Moien said. “They wanted to stop the release of the movie. I don’t know the reason…and a few days before the festival, they requested a demonstration. I don’t know why they want a movie that has not been seen to be stopped in a democratic country?”

Sara Moien   insists on announcing that her film deals with a very human issue about 4 Swedish citizens. She finds the life story of the four heroes of her film interesting because despite their success in life in Sweden today, they have gone through a strange fate and a painful childhood.

The director of the documentary “Children of Camp Ashraf”, who is basically a journalist, is trying to draw the audience’s attention to a human tragedy without political bias by taking advantage of the freedom of expression that governs the country where the four protagonists live. According to Sara Moin, although there are a revolution and three wars in the life story of the characters of this film, which can involve the audience with all kinds of views and political biases, she aims to draw the attention of the audience to the painful story of about 800 to 1000 children from Mujahed parents who paid a heavy price for their parents’ political choice.

Sara Moien accurately believes that the contents related to the children of MEK are very few compared with the contents about the very organization. He pointed to the article written by the German journalist Luisa Hommerich a few years ago about former child soldiers of the MEK in De Zeit magazine, as one of the pioneering materials in raising the issue of these children. It should be mentioned that Luisa Hommerich also recommended watching the movie to the residents of Sweden before its release.

According to Hanif Heydaranjad, a journalist and former member of the MEK, more than 120 of the hundreds of children of the group who were trafficked from Iraq to Europe and North America were settled in Sweden in foster families. Therefore, it seems that Sara Moin had more options to choose her heroes, but why she went to Amir Vafa Yaghmai, Parvin Hosseinnia, Hanif Bali and Atefeh Sabdani, is an important point.

In response to this question about the number of children of the MEK, she says that compared to these four people, they were not successful people, they suffered bitter fates and even committed suicide. (Perhaps you have heard the names of Yaser Akbari Nasab and Alan Mohammadi.)

Certainly, there are former child soldiers who could be considered as witnesses of the violation of children’s rights in the structure of the Cult of Rajavi, and certainly today in various countries of the world, including Sweden, there are former children who have lived in the families of sympathizers of the MEK without the supervision of European governments. They have experienced the same pain that Atefeh Sabdani suffered.

Howeever, as Sara Moin says, these people with fragile spirits caused by sufferings and with their damaged self-confidence, do not have the courage to appear in front of the camera. A camera that intends to depict a bitter human story in a European democracy.

The screening of the documentary about the children of Camp Ashraf has just started. This controversial film will soon be shown at Tempo Film Festival in Sweden and other festivals around the world. Public opinion will watch only one part of the record of crimes of the MEK leaders, the part that demostrates the innermost corners inside the group.

As Sara Moin emphasizes, in the future screenings of her film in Stockholm, the MEK can demonstrate within the framework of democracy and freedom of speech. But you should ask them: “Isn’t it better to watch the movie first and then protest?”

Mazda Parsi

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In 2021, the German journalist Louisa Homrich published a detailed article about the children of the Mujahedin Khalq in De Zite magazine, which was focused on the life story of Amin Gol Maryami, one of the former child soldiers of the group. In this article, the situation of the MEK children who were separated from their parents, smuggled to Europe and settled in Germany was discussed and eventually accusations were made against the group. As expected, it resulted in the reaction of the MEK against the German magazine.

Following the screening of the children’s documentary of Camp Ashraf by Sara Moin at the Swedish Goteborg Festival, Luisa Hommerich invited the residents of Sweden to watch this documentary on her X account:

Recommendation: If you are in Sweden, watch “Children of Camp Ashraf” at the Goteborg Film Festival. In the documentary, children from the Iranian #MEK cult speak on camera for the 1st time. (The cult has been deceiving European politicians for decades)

Luisa Hommerich recommend Children of Camp Ashraf

She also mentioned her experience in De Zeit magazine in dealing with the issue of children whose rights have been violated in the Mujahedin-e Khalq cult:
(Over 2 years ago we first broke the story that the cult allegedly trafficked children from Europe to a secretive camp in Iraq and trained them as soldiers. https://zeit.de/zeit-magazin/2021/44/amin-golmaryami-flucht-irak-volksmudschahedin-militaercamp-organisation

The #MEK/Mujahideen-e Khalq tried to sue against the article but lost on all counts 1 year ago.)

Luisa Hommerich recommend Children of Camp Ashraf

After the premiere of the documentary, Sara Moin, the director, in an interview with Keyhan London, mentioned Luisa Hommerich’s article in De Zeit magazine as a good start to deal with the tragedy of the children of the MEK.

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Children of Camp Ashraf deals with the story of 4 out of 900 children of Mujahedin_e Khalq (MEK) who were separated from their parents in 1991under the order of Masoud Rajavi and were smuggled from Camp Ashraf, Iraq to Europe and North America. Amir Yaghmai, Parvin Hosseini, Hanif Bali and Atefeh Sabdani are four of the 120 children of the MEK who were smuggled to Sweden at that time.

According to the information available on the festival’s website, the tickets for the first screening of the film at 5:45 pm on Wednesday were completely sold out about three weeks ago.

At the end of the movie, the crowd of Swedish spectators in the hall faced the tumult by the supporters of the MEK who were trying to convince the jury and the audience in the hall in non-Swedish languages that the film not based on truth.

Tumult by the supporters of the MEK after the doc’s screening

Hanif Heideranjad, a former member of the MEK and a journalist, wrote in his report on premier of the Children of Camp Ashraf: “Instead of being responsible and accountable, instead of addressing the subject and content of the film and responding to the facts and documents and instead of addressing the testimonies of four people interviewed in the film, the MEK resorted to blind and baseless accusations against these four people.”

On his Face Book account, Siamak Naderi, a former member of the MEK, refers to the “disturbance and hooliganism of the forces sent by the Cult of Rajavi”. According to the statements of Siamak Naderi, Amir Yaghmai told him in a call that due to the commotion of the supporters of Rajavi, the question and answer session that had been held with the presence of the film crew was disrupted in the cinema hall.

Mohammad Reza Torabi, a former member of the MEK and a former child soldier of the group, who now lives in Germany, published a video on social networks about the troubles that the supporters of the MEK made during the screening of Sara Moin’s documentary in front of the festival cinema and inside the screening hall. According to his report, the Cult of Rajavi used other child soldiers who are themselves victims of Massoud Rajavi’s cult of personality to disturb the cinema hall.

The documentary Children of Camp Ashraf is also scheduled to be played at the Tempo Festival in Sweden in March.

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As one of the four case studies of Sara Moein’s new documentary, Hanif Bali arrived in Sweden when he was three years old. He spoke of his several moms in an interview with Manoto TV in 2016. “When I was told “Your mom”, I had to ask “Which mom?” because I had several moms,” he told Manoto.

He was one of the 120 children of MEK parents who were smuggled from Camp Ashraf, Iraq to Sweden. He was then moved between eight different foster families until he turned 18. He is a Swedish politician now because he is one of those few lucky MEK children who was not returned as a child soldier to Camp Ashraf to receive military training.

Hanif recounted the heartbreaking stories of his childhood as an orphan in a foreign country, in the interview. About his biological parents, he said, “Mothers were allowed to call their children only once a year. My father has called me only twice in my entire life.”

Children of Camp Ashraf narrates the story of the environmental scientist Amir, the actress Parvin, the politician Hanif and the influencer Atefeh who are four of over 700 children of MEK parents who were separated from their parents and smuggled from Iraq to Western countries under the order of the group’s leader Massoud Rajavi.

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Barnen från Camp Ashraf is the Swedish title of the film which has documented the lives of Amir Yaghmai, Parvin Hossein Nia, Hanif Bali and Atefeh Sebdani as 4 examples of about 120 children of the MEK parents who were resettled in Sweden. The number of MEK children who were smuggled from Camp Ashraf, Iraq to European and North American countries mounts to over 700.

Amir Yaghmai was smuggled back to Iraq when he was 14 years old and he was immediately given a military uniform and recruited as a child soldier of the group’s so-called National Liberation Army.
Amir has so far revealed facts on difficulties, segregation and mental pressure he suffered during his stay in the cult-like structure of the MEK.

Today, Amir has a PhD degree in Eco-logy, working as an environmental scientist. He lives in Sweden with his family.

The documentary, which partly develops on Amir’s testimony of what it is like to escape from a destructive cult, will premiere on January 31st at the Gothenburg International Film Festival and on March 4 at the Tempo Documentary Festival.

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Atefeh Sebdani debuted last year with the gripping memoir My Hand in Mine. It is a story about growing up with no one to hold on to but yourself, of abuses that are skillfully covered up and a society that time and again fails to see the vulnerable child. But it is also a story of a stubborn burning vitality and the courage to finally break free.

The documentary, which expands on Atefeh’s vital testimony of what it is like to escape from one country and grow up in another, will premiere on January 31st at the Gothenburg International Film Festival and on March 4 at the Tempo Documentary Festival.

Sara Moien the director of Children of Camp Ashraf, narrates the story of the environmental scientist Amir, the actress Parvin, the politician Hanif and the influencer Atefeh are four of over 700 children of MEK parents who were smuggled from Iraq to Western countries.
These children have experienced traumatic lives in foster families, orphanages and as child soldiers in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

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The documentary about the children of Camp Ashraf will be played on January 31, 2024 in Swedish with English subtitles. In the Gutenberg Film Festival website, the film is introduced in the following words:

As children, they were taken from their parents and sent to Sweden with the aim of one day returning as warriors to overthrow the current regime in Iran.

Screening of the documentary “Children of Camp Ashraf” at the Gutenberg Film Festival

In the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution, the militant organization People’s Mojahedin (MEK) left their homeland, allied with Saddam Hussein, and settled in Iraq. Here, based on collectivist ideas, they established a large camp, Camp Ashraf. The organization became increasingly tied to its leaders, and in the early 1990s, it was decided that hundreds of children in the camp would be raised by sympathizers abroad. Amir, Parwin, Hanif, and Atefeh are some of those who ended up in Sweden, and in Sara Moein’s deeply engaging documentary, they narrate their experiences to a rich archive of materials. They also try to reconnect with the organization and their parents, who are now in Albania.

goteborgfilmfestival.se

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