Child Soldiers

threat of Cults for children - MEK cult and Children Cult

Comparing the MEK cult with Children of God cult

In June 2018, BBC Scotland News published a story on a survivor of a notorious cult: Children of God. The report is based on testimonies of a 38-year-old woman says who was abused from the age of four by members of the Children of God cult, including her own father. Born to the cult Verity Carter escaped it when she was 15. What she experienced in the cult that she describes “hell on earth” is similar to the accounts of former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization.

Although the MEK is not considered a sex cult as the Children of God is, there are numerous testimonies about child abuse and unlawful sexual relationships published by former child soldiers and other defectors of the group. However, there are many other common characteristics that destructive cults share. This article is focused on a comparative study on what Verity Carter endured in the COG and what former child soldiers of the MEK suffered in the group.

Threat of Cults

The facts are based on testimonies of former child soldiers of the group including Amin Golmaryami and Ray (Mohammad Reza) Torabi. The testimonies of former child soldiers of the MEK are available on their personal accounts on the social media, on club house, Nejat society website and other contents created by MEK defectors.
The Children of God began in the United States in the late 1960s. Its founder, David Berg, told members that God was love and love was sex, so there should be no limits, regardless of age or relationship. “It actively encouraged sexual activities among minors as young as two or three years old,” Verity told BBC.

The Cult of Rajavi began in Iraq in the 1980 around the personality of Massoud Rajavi after he took control over the Mujahedin Khalq Organization that had been established in 1965 by some communist Islamist students to fight against the Shah of Iran. Rajavi developed his ruling over his cult of personality by forcing members to divorce their spouses and to smuggle their children to European and American countries. He banned family life in his commune in Iraq called Camp Ashraf. However, this does not mean that the children of Mujahedin were safe. They mostly would live in team houses in which they were held under the most sever cult-like practices. A large number of the children were then smuggled back to Iraq, in their teen years, to serve as child soldiers of Rajavi’s army.

a photo of Children of God Cult

Helpless children in cults

Verity says she was repeatedly beaten and whipped for the smallest of transgressions. “It became hell on earth for anyone born into it,” she says. Ray Torabi who left the MEK 5 years ago, spoke out about his childhood in the MEK in Club House on December 20th, 2021. “I was there for 18 years,” Ray said. “I was recruited by Sedighe Hosseini in Canada. I am an eye witness of the story of child soldiers… this is my right to tell my story to the world.”

“We had no contact with the outside world,” Verity says. “We did not have music or television or culture. We had no idea how the world worked.” The same suppressive atmosphere ruled the life of Amin Golmaryami and his peers in the MEK. In his interview with the German newspaper Der Zeit, he revealed horrifying facts about his sufferings under the Cult of Rajavi. According to the interview, published on October 27th, 2021, the MEK commanders banned the children from education. At least 40 cases of MEK children who resided in the group’s team house in Cologne were transferred to Iraq with the promise of visiting their parents and eventually they were unable to continue their education during the next years that they were forced to serve as child soldiers in the group’s camps in Iraq.

The article reads, “From the mid-1990s, some of their former teachers remembered that People’s Mojahedin children suddenly disappeared from Cologne. They suddenly stopped showing up in their classes, 14-, 15-, 16-year-old teenagers.” Amin was taken to Iraq when he was only 13.

The MEK’s child soldiers had no contact with the outside world until they could manage to leave the group’s camp years later. At the age of 16, the MEK agents promised Ray to take him to Iraq to visit his parents. However, he was made sign a recruitment form to join the MEK’s army in Iraq. Unlike his father, Ray Torabi survived an 18-year-long membership in the group and could manage to leave it 5 years ago. However, he got to know about his father’s murder by the MEK torturers only after he left the group.

Like Verity’s mother who is still in Children of God, Ray’s mother, Zahra Seraj, is still under the MEK’s brainwashing structure. She denies him as her son because, as she says, “he is a traitor to the organization”.

The MEK children

Children, fund-raisers of the cult

Verity’s mother and father claimed to be Christian missionaries as a cover for their activities, Verity says, and she was forced on to the streets to trick people into donating money. In the MEK’s regulations, this method of fund raising is title as “financial-social work”. On the weekends, the MEK children had to work for the group from early in the morning until late in the evening in cities across Germany. Nadereh Afshar, former member of the MEK who worked as a supervisor and teacher of the smuggled MEK children in Germany, wrote about how the group exploited children in financial-social work. Her book on the MEK titled “Love Forbidden” gives a first-hand account on the sufferings of children in the Cult of Rajavi no matter where they had been settled after they had been smuggled from Iraq to Europe.

In May, 2009, Los Angeles Times published a report on an appeal court held to try seven MEK members who were guilty to raising funds for the group. In court the defendants admitted that they knowingly raised funds to support the activities of Mujahedin-e-Khalq by collecting money from MEK supporters and soliciting money from unwitting donors at public locations, including the airport. Donors were told they were supporting a charity called the Committee for Human Rights.

Sexual abuse of children

Verity Carter says Children of God encouraged sexual contact between adults and children. She was abused from the age of four by members of the cult, including her own father.
Ray Torabi said in Club House, “It was a terrible life there. I was in Ashraf until I was eight or nine. In Camp Ashraf or in the MEK’s bases in the West, I was sexually abused by the MEK sympathizers and members. I was then given to a family that was very bad. I was constantly beaten by them. I was mentally abused.”
Many of the MEK children were abused sexually, harassed and raped. Amin Golmaryami and Saeed also testified in two Club House sessions that they were sexually harassed by male Mujaheds several times when they were teenage soldiers at Camp Ashraf.

While Verity Carter and her siblings could manage to escape the cult of David Berg in their teen years, the MEK’s former child soldiers were kept under the cult of Massoud Rajavi for their whole child hood and teen years. Most of them were not able to leave the group before their thirties. There are still a large number of those children, in their forties now, under mental and physical abuse in the group’s base, Camp Ashraf 3, Albania. The pressures on children of the Cult of Rajavi led to committing suicide in some cases, such as Alan Mohammedi, Yasser Akbarinasab.

Mazda Parsi

November 15, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Mohammad Mohammadi’s testimony on sexual abuse in the MEK

written by Nejat Society

When in December 2021, former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq spoke out about the abuses they endured inside the group camps and team houses, most people thought it was the first time to reveal facts on sexual abuse of children in the MEK. However, Mostafa Mohammadi might have been the first father who documented the testimonies of his son, Mohammad, on sexual assaults Mujaheds committed against him when he was in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

Mostafa Mohammadi whose other child, his daughter, Somayeh is still taken as a hostage in the Cult of Rajavi, has the valuable habit to film many moments of his family life. The films he had taken became the basis of a documentary on the involvement of his family especially his daughter in the MEK: “An unfinished film for my daughter”.

to download the video file click here.

As a sympathizer of the MEK living in Canada, Mostafa admitted to send Mohammad and Somayeh to Iraq to stay with the MEK for a six-month training. Long after the end of the six-month period, the group leaders did not respond to Mostafa’s repeated requests to send back his children to Canada.

In 2003, after his unsuccessful self-immolation– which he did under coercion by the MEK– to protest the arrest of Maryam Rajavi by the French Police, the group leaders granted him the permission to travel to Iraq to visit his children at Camp Ashraf. He had shown his loyalty to Rajavi’s cult of personality and so he was given a gift.
During the short visit, Mostafa held a birthday party for his son, Mohammad who was in his early twenties. That was when Mohammad spoke of his determination to leave the group. He told his father about the reasons of his decision and the father was smart enough to record by his camera what his son recounted. He handed the camera to Somayeh and sat by the side of Mohammad in order to listen to the horrific facts his son was recounting about his life at Camp Ashraf.

In the film, Mohammad tries to speak vaguely about what he endured at nights of Camp Ashraf having difficulty to overcome his embarrassing feelings but his supportive father is there to help him talk in front of the camera in the hands of his sixteen-year-old sister.

Mohammad testified that he complained about the sexual harassments by male members of the group but the commanders did not care at all. Ultimately, Mohammad had decided not to sleep at nights!

Mohammad was a Canadian citizen so he could manage to return home but Somayeh did not succeed to get back in spite of writing letters to the government of Canada. Besides, the efforts of Mostafa and his wife to rescue their daughter was unproductive due to the obstructions the group made for them.

The next time that they went to Iraq, Somayeh had been totally brainwashed and apparently not willing to get back home. She is still in the MEK’s headquarters in Albania. Her parents were attacked by the MEK agents when they traveled to Tirana frustrating to visit Somayeh. They are still looking forward to seeing their beloved daughter who is in her thirties now.

November 7, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Mujahedin Khalq and Children – Mohammad Koohestani

written by Nejat Society

Mohammad Koohestani was born in 1982 when his parents had a clandestine life in Iran. His father Mostafa Koohestani had married his mother Zahra Farahnak three years earlier because the Mujahedin Khalq organization had ordered them to do so. Mohammad was the fruit of an organizational marriage.

After a while, Mohammad and his family were disappeared. The Farahnaks (the family of his mother) do not know exactly when Zahra, her husband and son left Iran to join the MEK in Iraq. It is estimated that they were smuggled across the Iran-Iraq border to relocate in the group’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq, in 1983 or 1984.

Mohammad Koohestani

In 1988, Mohammad’s father, Morteza was killed in the MEK’s cross border operation against Iran, “Eternal Light” (Forough Javidan). And, Mohammad had to stay in a group life with other MEK children at Camp Ashraf. In 1990, when he was only eight years old, Mohammad was smuggled to Europe together with 700 other MEK children, under the order of Massoud Rajavi.

Eight years later, he was among those MEK children who were recruited as child soldiers by the group and sent back to Iraq. At Camp Ashraf he was got to wear military uniform and to receive military trainings. He served as the MEK’s army soldier in Iraqi deserts until the group was disarmed by the US army in 2003.

On July 28th 2009, Iraqi army decided to set a station inside Camp Ashraf. Massoud Rajavi leader of the MEK, ordered the rank and file to build a human shield against the Iraqi forces to stop them from entering the Camp. The clashes were sparked by the coerced members of the MEK and ended with the killing of 11 members. 35 more including Mohammad Koohestani were injured. He was hit in head.

Since then, Mohammad has been suffering severe headaches. He is 40 years old residing in the group’s camp in Manza, Albania right now. He still suffers headache and takes painkillers and sedative pills, according to the group defectors.

Although Mohammad and his mother live in the same camp, they do not have regular communications unless once or twice a year on special occasions. Family relationship is forbidden in the MEK. They do not have any contact with their relatives in Iran, either.

August 24, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

The Fate of Child Victims of Mujahed Parents in the MEK

written by Nejat Society

Political ideologies can easily influence people’s daily lives. In the contemporary history of Iran, the topic of politics has been constantly remained trending both in the news and in daily conversations of people and eventually their lives. With parents as their kid’s role models, they hold the biggest impact in their children’s lives. Children show a tendency of picking up behaviors, words and phrases that they hear from people around them. Since kids are easily influenced by their parents, they are likely to repeat what their parents say and believe. As an extremist violent movement, the Mujahedin_e Khalq has worked in such a way that its children have been more involved in their parents’ political activities than any other political movement.

No opportunity for MEK children to learn

Experts believe that children should not be restricted from learning and exploring different political beliefs on their own. However, children of Mujahed parents grew up in the MEK’s headquarters in Camp Ashraf, Iraq where they were not exposed to any political and ideological belief except that of Rajavi’s Cult. Living in dormitories under the command of Mujahed teachers (or trainers) who ordered them to bow to the photos of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi chanting songs to glorify them.
People typically should spend a lot of time researching and educating themselves on political principles before they decide which party and beliefs they want to be identified with. When it comes to young children, they aren’t old enough to understand the importance of this process. In the MEK, this process was simply omitted. The children were just thrown in the ideological trap made by Massoud Rajavi.
Some of these children were never allowed to think twice about the beliefs their parents hold and the MEK commanders want them to hold. On the other hand, there have been some MEK-born children who managed to find an opportunity to explore different political ideologies. The children of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi the leaders of the group symbolize these two groups.

Ashraf Abrishamchi and Mohammad Rajavi, two opposite fates

Mohammad Rajavi the son of Massoud Rajavi could find his way to the world outside his father’s cult of personality but Ashraf Abrishamchi, the daughter of Maryam Rajavi is still in the MEK’s system in her early forties. As a gift to her devotion to the group, she has been elevated in the group’s cult-like hierarchy. She has recently been entitled as the deputy assistant of the MEK secretary general.

Social media is likely one of the first ways children are exposed to the world of politics. While there certainly is biased media, children are able to learn and understand more about political issues through various platforms. That’s why Mohammad Rajavi started speaking out against the MEK a few years after he left the group.
Nevertheless, Ashraf Abrishamchi seemingly has never been allowed to access the outside world. She is the daughter of a father (Mehdi Abrishamchi) who handed his wife (Maryam Qajar) to Massoud Rajavi in order to marry him as the ideological husband! The parents of Ashraf were themselves so manipulated by Massoud Rajavi that they could never teach their daughter different political opinions and give her the opportunity to form her own opinions, rather than forcing their political beliefs onto her.

six deputy leaders named by Zahra Merikhi

Vahideh Nabavi (34) Shiva Mameqani (40) Maryam Rezaei (30) Zahra Merikhi (62) Sepideh Pourtaqi (40) Azar Akbarzadegan (39) Ashraf Abrishamchi (39)

Like her parents, Ashraf was manipulated by the cult of Rajavi too. Like many other child victims of the MEK, she became a child soldier of the MEK’s army. She was coerced to wear military uniform when she was a teenager; she was trained to use arms and military vehicles and she was taught bombing and grenade launching techniques.

Mohammad Rajavi alias Mostafa

Mohammad and many former child soldiers of the MEK finally got determined to leave the MEK and to choose for their future. They began to state their political views years after they left the group. Politics is such a wide subject and can be difficult to understand, which is why children deserve to be taught about politics in an unbiased manner. Today there are a lot of former child soldiers of the MEK who live across the world holding different political views although they began to think and choose for their political views in their late thirties or forties but it is never too late.

The right to choose for you own, unprecedented in the MEK

Indeed, children of the MEK were allowed to choose for their place of residence, their clothing, their hair model, their field of education, their job etc., only after they left the MEK. Adolescents deserve the opportunity to follow what they personally believe in but former child soldiers of the MEK paid a huge price to gain such a freedom to choose for their own.

Normally, Children should not be expected to inherit their parents’ political expectations, nor should they be disregarded for having their own ideas. Parents should be loving and accepting despite whatever beliefs their children take on, even if it doesn’t align with their own but most of the MEK’s child soldiers were labeled as traitors by their own parents just because they said no to the Massoud Rajavi.

To sum up, politics is a growing topic in the world around us. People of every age deserve the opportunity to formulate their own beliefs, and hold back their own opinions without being forced to follow specific ideologies. However, in the Cult of Rajavi, not only children, but also their parents are not permitted to question the group’s attitudes. Criticizing the group’s ideology just launches you to the opposite side, the enemy. As soon as you start questioning, you are regarded in the side of the Iranian government even though you have been living your whole life inside the group’s camps.

Mazda Parsi

June 22, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Ray Torabi’s message on the occasion of his 40th birthday

written by Nejat Society

Ray (Mohammad Reza) Torabi, former child soldier of the Mojahedin-e Khalq shared a post on his Facebook account on the occasion of his 40th birthday:

Mohammad Reza Torabi

“When I was 17, after 8 years of separation from my parents, I finally met my biological mother. Unfortunately, the condition of our meeting was that I had to leave Canada and go to Iraq to meet her, where she was a member of an Iranian opposition organization (turned out to be a religious cult). She told me that my father had passed away some years before as a result of a heart attack, which he suffered in his sleep. He was 39 at the time of his death.
I ended up staying in this organization for many years, and oh the stories…
But in all those years, I always believed that I, like my father, would one day die of a heart problem while in my bed. Although I was literally in the middle of war with so many life-threatening situations, nothing scared me quite like the idea of dying in my bed before even turning 40.
I wouldn’t be lying if I said that I thought about it hundreds of times over the years.
But the years went by and as is the rule of life, the truth surfaced and I realized that my biological mother had lied to me regarding the facts surrounding my father’s death and that he didn’t die of a heart attack and that he was murdered by the same organization he sacrificed his life for. That’s a story for another day.
But I turned 40 today. A year older than my father. And although life hasn’t been so kind to me, I’m grateful for every day of it. With all its ups and downs, sweet and bitter moments, pains and sufferings and the challenges that turned me into the resilient, humble, compassionate, forgiving, kind… Human that I am.”

Mohammad Reza Torabi in his youth

Mohammad Reza, nicknamed Ray, is a former child soldier of the MEK who left the group four years ago after 18 years of enduring the cult-like system of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi. He did not know that his father was a victim of torture in that very organization until he left the group. Ray Torabi is one of the several former child soldiers of the MEK who are speaking out against the group’s brainwashing structure. In response to Ray’s questions about the death of his father, the MEK propaganda made his biological mother and his aunt write against him labeling him as agent of the Iranian government. However, Ray did not give up and continued speaking out about his experience of involvement with the Cult of Rajavi.

Amir Vafa Yaghmaee

His Facebook post on the occasion of his birthday was warmly welcomed by his audience. He was widely encouraged by former members of the MEK and his current friends to bravely share his stories. Amir Yaghmai, another former child soldier of Rajavi’s army addressed Ray by writing:
You are one of the most humble guys I’ve met. Our background could have turned us into strange personalities with the lack of social adaptation. Fortunately, most of us made it quite well and we became good souls.

Amir Nematollahi

Among the numerous comments on Ray’s post, the one from Amir Nematollahi, former operative agent of the MEK is also remarkable:
Life has thrown its fair share of obstacles in your way from a young age, before our paths even crossed, and I have only been able to witness the strength you carry for a short amount of time. But in those three years, you have managed to inspire more than any quote, self-help book, or words of wisdom could ever do, because you get out of bed every morning, face life and all of its challenges head on, while still managing to keep your head up, and live life to the fullest. I am truly grateful to know you and your life story inspired me in many ways stay strong and I assure you that your father would have been so proud of what you become and who you are…by the way happy birthday.

May 28, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Journalist award “The staying power” for research on the MEK

written by Nejat Society

Berlin (dpa) – The journalist Luisa Hommerich has been honored with a prize for her research into the influence of the Iranian opposition group People’s Mujahideen in Germany. She received the 1st prize in the “The long breath” award, as the DJV Berlin − Journalists’ Association Berlin-Brandenburg announced on Thursday.

According to the information, she researched for “Zeit Magazin” and “Spiegel”. Among other things, it is about a dropout who reports on his experiences with the group.

Luisa Hommerich

The “Staying Power” prize was awarded for the 15th time. It honors media professionals who conduct investigative research on socially relevant topics and courageously bring them to the public. The prizes are endowed with a total of 6000 euros. The prerequisite for a nomination is that you live and work in Berlin or Brandenburg.

Yaghmaee and Golmaryami

Second prize went to reporters Adrian Bartocha and Jan Wiese from the ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). They researched trafficking in Vietnamese children and young people.
The 3rd prize was awarded to Kersten Augustin and Sebastian Erb from the daily newspaper “taz” based in Berlin. They reported on cases of right-wing extremism in the Bundestag police. Only on Wednesday did it become known that the team of authors also received second prize in the daily press’ Guardian Prize for this research. The prize is one of the most renowned journalism awards in Germany and has been awarded since 1969.

Newsroom.de

April 30, 2022 0 comment

Saeed and Mohammad Akhavan Hashemi—MEK children Saeed and his twin brother Mohammad were only three years old in 1988 when their mother was killed in Forough Javidan, the messy military operation that the Mujahedin Khalq launched from Iraq against Iran after the ceasefire was signed between Iraq and Iran. A year later, the twins were smuggled out of Iraq together with seven hundred children of Mujahed parents who were separated from their parents under the direct order of Massoud Rajavi who saw the children an obstacle to the struggle. Saeed and Mohammad were smuggled through Europe to Canada. As well as other MEK children, the agents of MEK in Canada handed the twins to families who were mostly sympathizers of the group. They were grown up in Canada until their teen years. When they got sixteen, the organization needed the child soldiers to extend its millitary force. Thus, Saeed and Mohammad were persuaded to get back to Iraq to join the group’s military arm, the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA). They were first moved to the US where they were settled in the MEK’s base for a few months. They were indoctrinated to join the army to revenge the blood of their mother. In the US, Saeed was intrigued to take part in the anti-Iran protests run by the MEK. After a few months of indoctrination in the headquarters of the NCR in Washington, when they were 17 years old, the twins were coerced to sign the membership forms of the NLA and eventually they were smuggled back to Iraq. They were given military uniforms and arms as child soldiers of the MEK’s army. In the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq, Saeed and Mohammad like other child soldiers of the MEK were not able to go to school or university. Instead, they received military trainings. In 2003, after the US invasion to Iraq, the MEK was disarmed by the US army and NLA was practically dismantled. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, main sponsor of the MEK had been collapsed and the newly established Iraqi government did not want the MEK in its territory but the MEK leaders considered themselves the owners of Camp Ashraf, the land that Saddam Hussein had confiscated from Iraq farmers and had donated to Massoud Rajavi. In order to move the MEK out of Iraq, the group was temporarily relocated in Camp Liberty near Baghdad. The twins were separated. Mohammad was transferred to Camp liberty and Saeed was ordered to stay in Camp Ashraf. Although the brothers did not use to live together in Camp Ashraf –as none of family members are allowed to live together in the MEK—the last two weeks they spent more time together. “We used to talk to each other every night for the last two weeks,” Mohammad says. “The last day we said goodbye to each other. We exchanged our watches as memento.” This was their last visit. Saeed was shot dead by Iraqi Intifada Youth who raided camp Ashraf on September 1st 2013. He was only 28 when he became the victim of Massoud Rajavi’s ambitions in Iraq. The whereabouts of Mohammad Akhavan is not clear. He might be still under the brainwashing system of the Cult of Rajavi i9n Albania to revenge the blood of his mother and brother, who both were victimized by the cult’s system or he might have left the MEK after the group was relocated in Albania, just like many other former child soldiers of the group.

The cult of Rajavi

MEK and Children – Saeed and Mohammad Akhavan Hashemi

written by Nejat Society

Saeed and his twin brother Mohammad were only three years old in 1988 when their mother was killed in Forough Javidan, the messy military operation that the Mujahedin Khalq launched from Iraq against Iran after the ceasefire was signed between Iraq and Iran.

A year later, the twins were smuggled out of Iraq together with seven hundred children of Mujahed parents who were separated from their parents under the direct order of Massoud Rajavi who saw the children an obstacle to the struggle. Saeed and Mohammad were smuggled through Europe to Canada.

Saeed and his twin brother Mohammad were only three years old in 1988 when their mother was killed in Forough Javidan

As well as other MEK children, the agents of MEK in Canada handed the twins to families who were mostly sympathizers of the group. They were grown up in Canada until their teen years.
When they got sixteen, the organization needed the child soldiers to extend its millitary force. Thus, Saeed and Mohammad were persuaded to get back to Iraq to join the group’s military arm, the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA).

They were first moved to the US where they were settled in the MEK’s base for a few months. They were indoctrinated to join the army to revenge the blood of their mother. In the US, Saeed was intrigued to take part in the anti-Iran protests run by the MEK.

After a few months of indoctrination in the headquarters of the NCR in Washington, when they were 17 years old, the twins were coerced to sign the membership forms of the NLA and eventually they were smuggled back to Iraq. They were given military uniforms and arms as child soldiers of the MEK’s army.
In the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq, Saeed and Mohammad like other child soldiers of the MEK were not able to go to school or university. Instead, they received military trainings.

In 2003, after the US invasion to Iraq, the MEK was disarmed by the US army and NLA was practically dismantled. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, main sponsor of the MEK had been collapsed and the newly established Iraqi government did not want the MEK in its territory but the MEK leaders considered themselves the owners of Camp Ashraf, the land that Saddam Hussein had confiscated from Iraq farmers and had donated to Massoud Rajavi.

In order to move the MEK out of Iraq, the group was temporarily relocated in Camp Liberty near Baghdad. The twins were separated. Mohammad was transferred to Camp liberty and Saeed was ordered to stay in Camp Ashraf.

Saeed and his twin brother Mohammad

Although the brothers did not use to live together in Camp Ashraf – as none of family members are allowed to live together in the MEK—the last two weeks they spent more time together. “We used to talk to each other every night for the last two weeks,” Mohammad says. “The last day we said goodbye to each other. We exchanged our watches as memento.” This was their last visit.

Saeed was shot dead by Iraqi Intifada Youth who raided camp Ashraf on September 1st 2013. He was only 28 when he became the victim of Massoud Rajavi’s ambitions in Iraq. The whereabouts of Mohammad Akhavan is not clear. He might be still under the brainwashing system of the Cult of Rajavi in Albania to revenge the blood of his mother and brother, who both were victimized by the cult’s system or he might have left the MEK after the group was relocated in Albania, just like many other former child soldiers of the group.

April 26, 2022 0 comment

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi offered his own gun to the 14-year-old Zohair

written by Nejat Society

Zohair was only fourteen when he was armed by Massoud Rajavi in person

Zohair Zakeri was born in 1976. When in 1991 Massoud Rajavi ordered to separate the children form their Mujahed parents and smuggle them to Europe and North America, Zohair refused to leave Camp Ashraf; he allegedly wanted to be a fighter of the MEK’s army, the so-called National Liberation army. Eventually, Massoud Rajavi gave his colt to him as a gift!
His father, Ebrahim Zakeri was a high-ranking member of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi). His mother who disagreed with the MEK had divorced before they came to Camp Ashraf, Iraq.

Zohair zakeri next to his father

Ozra Alavi Taleghani the second wife of Ebrahim Zaker was Zohair’s stepmother. Both parents were commanders in the MEK and busy working for the group. So, Zohair did not enjoy a normal family life. Before the separation from their parents and the eventual forced divorce of married members, children of the Mujahedin could visit their parents in the weekends but Zohair was even deprived from these short-time family life.
Persuaded by Massoud Rajavi, the 14-year-old Zohair became a child soldier of the Cult of Rajavi. He did not go to school or university. Instead, he was under the constant manipulation system of the cult. He was trained as a devotee of Massoud Rajavi. According to the MEK’s website, Zohair wrote a letter to Rajavi after he watched the videos of his speech addressing him, “Brother! You break a record again but what should we do with your love?” This was the result of the education system of the Cult of Rajavi.

Zohair Zakeri

When Zohair was 19, he was an official member of the MEK’s army. Radicalized by Massoud Rajavi’s trainings he was ready to act under his absolute power. Consequently, years later when he was ordered to lie down in front of the military vehicles of Iraqi army to prevent them from entering Camp Ashraf, he was manipulated (or perhaps intimated) enough to get killed for the cause of Rajavi.
Zohair was 35 when he was killed in the clashes between Iraqi forces and the MEK members in May 2011. The MEK propaganda media broadcast all kinds of content to glorify the “martyrdom” of Zohair, a young man who never enjoyed childhood in the Cult of Rajavi and lost his life under the order of the cult leader.

March 15, 2022 0 comment

Massoud Rajavi

Massoud Rajavi should be convicted as Lubanga was

written by Nejat Society

March 14th ten years ago, marked the day that Thomas Lubanga Dylio was found guilty by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities. About a decade later, former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK/ PMOI) began speaking out giving their testimonies on how they were snatched and recruited by the agents of Massoud Rajavi.

In March 14th, 2012, the guardian reported, “The international criminal court has delivered the first verdict in its 10-year history, finding a Congolese warlord guilty of recruiting child soldiers. Thomas Lubanga was convicted of snatching children from the street and turning them into killers. He showed no emotion as the presiding judge, Adrian Fulford, read out the verdict.”

Thomas Lubanga

Lubanga was sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment. According to the ICC official website, on 15 March 2020, Thomas Lubanga was released after having served 14 years of imprisonment. Thomas Lubanga had used a rebel militia to dominate the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri region. “Children as young as 11 were recruited from their homes and schools to take part in brutal ethnic fighting in 2002-03,” according to the Guardian. “They were taken to military training camps and beaten and drugged; girls were used as sex slaves.”

Lubanga’s trick to coscript militia is very similar to that of Massoud Rajavi to recruit his Mujahed militia. About eight hundred children of Mujahed parents were first separated from their parents who were allegedly fighting the Iranian government in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. They were smuggled to Europe and North America where they were kept in team houses of the MEK or were given to fostering families, sympathizers of the MEK.

Today, after over two decades, former child soldiers have launched a campaign to defend their right to reveal their own experiences of being a child soldier in the MEK. Amir Yaghmai is one of the first former child soldiers of the MEK who spoke out about his experience of living under the abusive system of the Cult of Rajavi. In 2021, two other MEK-born children who are now in their thirties spoke out. Hanif Azizi, a Swedish policeman now, published his autobiography, “Suburban snout” in Swedish recounting his childhood in the MEK’s military camps. Amin Golmaryami was the third child soldier who was officially brought to the lime light of the Western media. His life story was published by the German newspaper Die Zeit in October 2021.

This was the start of a series of revelations by other child soldiers of the MEK. Sam, Mohammad, Ray, Arman, Saeed, Zina and other young defectors of the MEK who were once recruited by the group’s agents and transferred to Iraq, spoke out in the social media, in particular Club House platform. These former child soldiers were eventually labeled as agents of the Iranian government by the MEK propaganda.

Die Zeit’s journalist Luisa Hommerich who only investigated the cases of MEK children in Cologne, Germany, writes, “From the mid-1990s, some of their former teachers remembered that People’s Mojahedin children suddenly disappeared from Cologne. They suddenly stopped showing up in their classes, 14-, 15-, 16-year-old teenagers. A former teacher says today that he informed the Cologne Youth Welfare Office and the guardian Christoph Meertens about it.”

There were a lot more children, girls and boys who were smuggled from the United States, Canada and European countries to the MEK’s military headquarters in Iraq, Camp Ashraf. At least three hundred of the MEK’s children were coerced by the MEK agents to sign a recruitment form to join the MEK’s military force, called National Liberation Army (NLA), financially and logistically sponsored by Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi dictator. Their story is very similar to Lubanga’s victims. All of these children were under 18; they were whipped from school; they were forced to wear military uniform in Camp Ashraf; they were trained military trainings and even in cases they were forced to attend military operations or clashes. Former child soldiers of the MEK even exposed several cases of sexual harassment and child abuse by MEK agents.

Although former child soldiers of the so-called People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) do not seek to sue the group leaders for the time being, Massoud Rajavi and his commanders can be hold accountable for crimes against children under legal age they recruited for the NLA. Today, former child soldiers of the MEK are determined to tell the truth as a warning for other people who are at risk of being trapped by extremist groups and destructive cults like the MEK. However, the international community must take it into consideration that the crimes of Massoud Rajavi against his own members, particularly the children of his own members are definitely blamed by illuminated public opinion.

By Mazda Parsi

March 12, 2022 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

You saved my life? child soldier asks the MEK

written by Nejat Society

Former child soldier of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) writes about several questions his mind was flooded with during the years he was kept under the rule of the Cult of Rajavi. Under the order of Massoud Rajavi, Mohammad Reza Torabi and 800 children of the MEK were separated from their Mujahed parents in 1991. He was smuggled to Canada where he had to stay with MEK agents in their bases in Toronto or he was forced to live with families who were linked with the group. This is his Facebook post on his concerns as a child whose basic rights were violated in the MEK:

The main question that has come to my mind all these years after being sent from Iraq to Canada was why not even one of my parents accompanied me? Wasn’t it their goal to save my life, as they said? Why did my mom let me be handed over to a family in Toronto that constantly assaulted me, even when they were mad at their other kids? A family with a psychotic mother and a revengeful father who hated the MEK and projected his hatred for Massoud Rajavi on me. Why was it allowed to be sexually assaulted by one of Rajavi’s full-time supporters at the age of 11 at the MEK’s base in Toronto? Why?! Wasn’t it their duty to protect my life?

the MEK child soldiers

I got the answer when I wanted to leave the MEK in 2017. When Zahra Seraj (my biological mother) gave me an ultimatum saying, “If you leave the Mujahedin, you are no longer my son and I will no longer have a relationship with you.” And I proudly left the Rajavi worshiping cult. Yes, Rajavi’s dirty ideology has brainwashed these fathers and mothers that they are ready to prefer the organization and its disappeared leader over their children not once but a thousand times. They have become so brainwashed that now in the German court they write false testimonies against us. The bitter humor of the story is that they consider it their honor!

History will make harsh judgement on these fake revolutionaries. The winter will go and the blackness will remain in the charcoal.
The Mujahedin Organization, the trial is ahead.
Tick tok tok!

At the age of 16, the MEK agents promised Mohammad Reza to take him to Iraq to visit his parents. However, he was made sign a recruitment form to join the MEK’s army in Iraq, National Liberation Army! He was not told that his father had passed away five years earlier. He came to know about his father’s death just after he arrived in Camp Ashraf in 1999. During the 18 years that he was in the Cult of Rajavi, he worked hard serving the alleged cause of the MEK. He was never told how his father was killed under torture in the MEK’s internal prison. He was informed about his father’s killers only after he left the group in 2017. Today he lives in Germany enjoying the free world. He is writing his autobiography “A Ray of Light”.

March 6, 2022 0 comment

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