Pluralistic democracy is, by definition, a political system in which there is more than one center of power. Modern democracies are pluralistic by definition because democratic systems allow freedom of associations and parties. But the half-century history of the MEK’s activities has shown that there is only one center of power in the group, and that is Massoud Rajavi, who is at the top of the organizational pyramid, followed by Maryam Rajavi and then some higher-ranking members of the group’s hierarchy.

Establishing justice in a society is not possible without deepening democracy, and in an organization like the MEK, which is run hierarchically, democracy is sacrificed first and then justice is gone. Discrimination is one of the definitive consequences of such a structure. Although the MEK, with its uniformed forces and the use of titles such as “Sister Mujahed” and “Brother Mujahed,” tries to hide its structural injustices, members who have left the group have repeatedly testified about the severe inequalities between the higher-ranking members and commanders of the group compared to the lower-ranking members and subordinate forces.

Aylin Moghadam, a former member of the MEK, was a child soldier who served the MEK for many years. In her posts on her X social media account, she writes about the extreme injustices and the discriminating system of access to facilities in Rajavi’s cult:

The authorities of the MEK eat well, but the rest of the ranks eat beef. Mehdi Abrishamchi and his daughter Ashraf Abrishamchi have natural fruit juice for breakfast. Of course, high-ranking officials like Faezeh Ranjkar, Sedigheh Hosseini, and Zohreh Akhiani all have special diets and are never the subject of any criticism session. And whether in Ashraf Iraq or Ashraf 3, they always stay in air-conditioned rooms, but the rest have air conditioning for just a few hours of the day and are mostly in the sun and in the heat, with terrible nutrition and $8 a month, the equivalent of Albanian money, with which they really can’t buy anything.

But in the wallets of the commanders there is at least a thousand dollars in cash. I said at least. In the wallets of people like Fahimeh Arvani there is even three thousand dollars in cash apart from credit cards. It is up to you!

 In addition, having a phone is free for the leadership council and high-ranking brothers, but it is forbidden for low-ranking forces!!

From these few lines written by Aylin, we can see that inequality in the MEK dominates all aspects of its members’ lives. As can be seen from the memories of other former members, this injustice in terms of nutrition, medical treatment, use of urban facilities, and enjoyment of entertainment has created a deep class gap between high-ranking and low-ranking members.

Also, in terms of enduring psychological pressure and organizational coercion, low-ranking members are greater and more numerous victims. In the pluralistic democracy claimed by the MEK, the number of underprivileged individuals is much greater than that of the well-off commanders and leaders.

Mazda Parsi

The post Injustice in the MEK as told by a former child soldier appeared first on Nejat Society.

Social psychologist Alexandra Stein, Ph.D., specializes in cult phenomena and teaches courses at several universities in London. Her article, “Mothers in Cults: The Influence of Cults on the Relationship of Mothers to Their Children,” examines the impact of the cult experience on the mother-child bond. Dr. Stein notes that this bond is controlled in multiple ways:

mothers are often discouraged from having a special bond with the child;

mothers may spend very little or no time with their children because of the demands of the cult;

the child is physically taken from the parents; and

mothers’ behavior toward their children is carefully monitored.

Stein writes: “Doing ‘the right thing’ (for God, the Revolution, one’s personal growth, whatever) becomes synonymous with obeying the leader. To go against the leader’s directive is to go against God himself. The mother becomes psychologically trapped: she wants to be a good person, but the definition of goodness resides entirely in the cult’s domain.

In 1991 around one thousand children of Mujahed couples were separated from their parents and smuggled to Europe and North America under the order of Massoud Rajavi. More than 3 hundred of the smuggled children were later, at the ages of 14 to 19, sent back to Iraq to receive military trainings at the MEK camps.

Amir Yaghmai is one of these former child soldiers who managed to leave the MEK fighting the group leaders as well as his own leader.

He wrote and published his memoirs of being born in a Mujahed family, grown up at camp Ashraf until his 5 year-old age, smuggled to Sweden, recruited as a child soldier at the age of fourteen.

His mother is still in the MEK’s cult-like structure. She resides in the group’s headquarters in Albania. She denies that Amir is her son because as Dr. Stein expresses, she is psychologically trapped; She wants to be a good person by the definition of goodness that Massoud and Rajavi define for MEK members.

At his forties, Amir Yaghmai is a father of two girls but he is still impressed by the behaviors of his brainwashed mother trying to shed light on the nature of the MEK as a destructive terrorist cult. Here is a short memoir Amir has recently published on his X account sharing a photo of him and his mother:

1994. I am around 10 years old.

My mother is in Sweden – on behalf of the organization.

For a few days she lives in their office.

On the last day we meet in Guldfynd in the center of Kista.

She asks what I wish for.

I choose a bronze Thor’s hammer.

She buys it for me.

I think it is a farewell between mother and son.

At the last moment, just before she says goodbye, she says:

“Amir, I didn’t come here to see you.

I am here on behalf of the organization.”

The world stops.

Everything goes in slow motion.

I remember every sensory impression –

how my breath evaporates in the chilly air,

exactly where I am standing on the uphill slope,

and above all how my heart breaks.

I wanted to feel needed.

After several years of absence, I thought she came for me.

But instead I was told that I was worth less than the organization.

A feeling that was confirmed over and over again during my upbringing.

Mazda Parsi

The post To his mom, he was worth less than the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

These reports detail instances of children being subjected to military training, ideological indoctrination and participation in operations against Iran. The practice is a clear violation of international law, which defines a child soldier as any person under 18 years of age who is part of any regular and irregular armed force or group in any capacity.

The MEK has consistently denied these documents, claiming that individuals under 18 were not involved in combat and that minors in their camps were there for educational purposes!
However, testimonies from former child soldiers of the MEK and independent investigations contradict the denials, providing evidence of the systematic use of children in their ranks.

Amir Yaghmai, former child soldier of the MEK is one of the first individuals who testified against the MEK. He was of the four children of Mujahed parents whose story was documented in Sara Moin’s documentary, Children of Camp Ashraf.

Moin’s documentary highlights the experience of Amir as a child soldier, detailing his life within the MEK’s cult-like structure and the psychological impact on his upbringing. Amir also began writing his story on X social network.

This part of his memoirs indicates how the MEK child soldiers were manipulated by the group authorities and eventually emotionally dependent on the arms and ammunitions of the group’s army. Based on Amir’s testimony, when the US military wanted to disarm the MEK in 2003, arms had been so vital to the MEK members that a female member (a mother) handed her child soldier son to the American Colonel in exchange for the arms!

Amir Yaghmai writes:
“A female commander named Leila – who had sent me to Iraq from Paris – came forward, dragged one of the teenagers towards the colonel and shouted: ‘Please! Take my son, but don’t take our tanks! We need them for freedom!’ The boy, Amin, found himself between the Mujahideen and the Americans, looking at his mother and the Americans in amazement, not knowing which way to go. It was a strange scene, beyond this world as we know it.”

Amir quotes another child soldier named Hanif who cried at the American Colonel, “Peel my skin me alive! Break my teeth! But don’t take my tank!”
Child soldiers of extremist groups like the MEK develop a profound emotional dependency on their arms due to the complex interplay of psychological mind control. After years of isolation at Camp Ashraf, weapon had become a source of security in highly insecure and threatening situations. The MEK’s ideology always glorified armed struggle, imbuing weapons with a sacred or heroic significance, with had been deepened the Child soldier’s emotional bonds with their arms. This dependency made disarmament an extremely challenging for MEK members in particular child soldiers.

Mazda Parsi.

The post Emotional Dependency of MEK Children on their Arms appeared first on Nejat Society.

On the eve of the American invasion to Iraq in 2003, Massoud Rajavi, called all members of Camp Ashraf to gather in a large hall. “He began by describing the sensitive political situation at the time and the serious threat posed by the United States against Iraq,” Amir Yaghmai writes in his memoirs. “He then said that in these circumstances, MEK members must maintain their focus and no longer be involved in the issue of defection or “cutting off” of individuals. Therefore, each member must sign a new contract in which he undertakes not to ask for leaving the group for the next two years.”

Amir was shocked. He had wanted to leave the MEK for years but hadn’t been able to. “Each time I had been forced to sign different contracts for different reasons,” he writes. However, this time, the matter was more serious than ever. Massoud Rajavi was officially ordering members to stay in the isolated Camp Ashraf. “You were supposed to keep your mouth shut for two years, not to express a single doubt.”

Amir told himself: “I won’t sign! They can do whatever they want! Take me to a confession session, quarantine me for two years, send me to Abu Ghraib prison, or hand me over to the regime! It doesn’t matter! I can’t take it anymore.”

This was also his response to his commander when he asked Amir to sign the contract. Consequently, Amir entered a traumatic cycle of bribery, threat, intimidation and humiliation.

First, the MEK leaders tried to bribe him promising to allow him to have a home in Baghdad, and to get married –the possessions that are forbidden for MEK members. This was a promise made by Maryam Rajavi, Massoud Rajavi’s third wife but it was presented to Amir by Mohammad, the son of Massoud who was also a child soldier and a friend of Amir’s.

Nevertheless, Amir replied Mohammad Rajavi: “I want to be free, to go for a walk without a barbed wire or a guard tower in front of me. To love. To sing. To wear the clothes I want. To see the world. I won’t go and regret the unseen. Not just to get married.”

When the first tactic did not work for the cult commanders, they tried to threat Amir and pressure him by intermediating an emotional tool: his mother.

“In a large room, around an oval-shaped conference table, the high-ranking commanders of the MEK were sitting: Ahmad Waqef, Mahmoud Ata’i, Fereshteh Yeganeh, Mahvash Sepehri, Mohammad Rajavi… and my mother!”, he pens.

Nasrin (Mahvash Sepehri) told Amir: “When you joined, your mother guaranteed that you would never leave us. Now she has to come with you, go into quarantine for two years, and then be sent to Iran with you. Then, she has to find a way back—if she gets arrested, she has to commit suicide.”

Amir shouted at them shouted: “You have no right to make my mother the victim of my decision! I am responsible for my own choices. I am twenty years old!”

Fereshteh Yeganeh opened a folder and showed him. His mother’s signature, and all the oaths he had been forced to sign over the years. Amir protested that all of this was by force. “If my mother is leaving with me, I am not leaving at all!” Amir told them. Nasrin replied emotionlessly, “If you want to stay, you have to defend your choice. We are not convinced yet.”

They kept Amir and his mother in the room for over 9 hours, until the dawn. During the entire hours, the commanders were insulting Amir, calling him “traitor”, spitting on his face and his mother was watching him with weeping eyes.

The next morning, Amir had been coerced to sign a new contract. “I signed a new contract which had nothing for me except humiliation,” he writes.

This is how he describes that night: “The night at Camp Ashraf, when just because I wanted to leave the organization, they made me go under the most severe stress, threat, insult, and humiliation. Worst of all, my mother, who was an old member, was also tortured before my eyes in order to force me to confess that I was wrong. Seeing tears and sufferings of my mother was one of the most painful moments of my life.”

The post The darkest night for an MEK child soldier appeared first on Nejat Society.

Focusing on those who have written and spoken to certain media about their experiences as child soldiers or orphaned children in Europe and North America, you may find certain names. The experiences of children raised within or affected by the MEK are complex and often involve significant trauma.

The individuals like Hanif Azizi, Amir Yaghmai, Atefeh Sebdani, Parvin Hosseini, Ray Torabi, and Amin Golmaryami, are among those who have publicly shared their experiences. Their accounts often detail the challenges of growing up in the MEK environment, including separation from parents, indoctrination, and the psychological impact of the group’s activities.

These individuals have written about their experiences as child soldiers or as orphaned children in Europe and North America.

The experiences of these individuals, and others like them, are documented in various forms, including books, documentaries, memoirs, interviews, and journalistic reports. These accounts provide insights into the MEK’s internal dynamics, the treatment of children, and the long-term consequences of their involvement.

The MEK’s practices have been criticized by human rights organizations and former members. These criticisms often focus on the group’s authoritarian structure, the separation of families, and the use of children in political and military activities. The experiences of those who have left the MEK, particularly those who were children within the group, are crucial for understanding the impact of the MEK’s actions as a cult-like extremist group.

The mentioned-people have contributed to a growing body of literature and personal accounts that shed light on the MEK’s activities and their impact on individuals and families. Their stories are important for raising awareness about the MEK’s practices and the challenges faced by those who have been affected by the group.

In response, the group accuses its former child soldiers of being agents of the Iranian government to demonize the MEK.

However, the available sources do not provide credible evidence to support the MEK’s claims that former MEK child soldiers are Iranian agents. The sources, particularly those critical of the MEK, suggest that the MEK’s accusations are part of a broader strategy of demonization and propaganda, rather than being based on verifiable facts.

The MEK has been accused of various misconducts, including human rights abuses, and has been designated as a terrorist organization by several countries. The group’s history of violence, its controversial alliances, and the allegations of cult-like behavior all contribute to a lack of trust in its claims.

In recent years, children of Mujahed parents have testified in various ways about the violations of the rights of children who were involved with the MEK. Their testimonies are now part of the reliable and documented sources for investigating the crimes of MEK leaders. These testimonies are available for use in the trial of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi in a fair court.

Mazda Parsi

The post The MEK children who speak out appeared first on Nejat Society.

Iranians deeply resent the group for its continued embrace of terror, as well as its cult-like behavior. That its leader Maryam Rajavi has held her position for 40 years hardly builds confidence in her supposed commitment to democracy. There is an irony, too, that her spokesman Ali Safavi will cast wild aspersions against critics who question the group’s democratic credentials and outlook, but then refuse challenges to identify even a single time when he criticized or differed in policy with Rajavi.

Iranian Americans have contributed disproportionately to American society and the American economy. Iranians are overrepresented in medicine, engineering, and in academe. They serve in the U.S. military and across the U.S. government. While these Iranians are Americans first, grateful for the protection the United States gave them when they fled religious dictatorship, they care about the country from which their families came and have strong opinions about its politics. Some lionize Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah. Others come from families associated with the Tudeh, the left-of-center party that rallied around former Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Still others are constitutionalists or republicans. Those Iranian Americans who join the U.S. government submit themselves to ordinary and even enhanced security clearances without difficulty.

Here, though, the Mujahedin-e Khalq is an outlier. The FBI, which handles most senior security clearances, does not clear Mujahedin-e Khalq members. The members of the cult refuse to face polygraphs and, when they do, reflect deceptiveness.
MKO behavior is strange in other ways. The MKO may talk a good game in its Paris rallies, but how many MKO members who are U.S. citizens or green card holders actually serve in the U.S. military? If the MKO is as pro-American as they say and has nothing to hide, why such a strange omission? Indeed, of all immigrant and political groups who come to America, the MKO may be alone in eschewing such service.

Other elements of the Mujahedin-e Khalq reality should also raise red flags among those considering accepting its cash. Safavi can vehemently deny that the MKO is a cult, but he distracts from the simple fact that few if any children of MKO members—they seldom marry outside their political movement—attend public schools or broader multicultural schools. Cults thrive by isolating members. The isolation that MKO children endure is extreme.

By this metric, there appears to be little difference between the Mujahedin-e Khalq’s American wing and Branch Davidians, Unification Church, or People’s Temple. Each may have had the right to their beliefs and politics so long as they did not contravene U.S. law, but in each case, the rhetoric of public-facing leaders reflected less the groups’ reality than did the internal isolation their children suffered. American officials should be very, very cautious when signing onto the MKO’s talking points or accepting their claims. Sometimes an honorarium is not worth the embarrassment sure to follow.

Middle East Forum, Michael Rubin

The post Where are Mujahedin-e Khalq Schoolchildren? appeared first on Nejat Society.

Zhina (Zeinab) Hosseinnejad, a former child soldier of the MEK who spent her childhood and youth in the organization, although she is now a staunch opponent of the Islamic Republic, tries to inform Iranian public opinion about the nature of this destructive cult by occasionally publishing accounts of her time as a member of the cult. She is one of the former child soldiers of the MEK who testified against the MEK in the Hamburg court in Amin Gol Maryami’s case. She was also interviewed by some journalists and filmmakers in Europe.

In a recent post on her Facebook account, Zhina wrote about the concept of “constructive criticism” in the MEK. Reading this section of Zhina Hosseinnejad’s memoirs make it clear that criticism, even constructive criticism, is forbidden in the MEK’s ruling structure. Criticism leads to torture and harm to the critic, and this is proven repeatedly and in various situations in Zhina’s post.

Zhina’s account of constructive criticism within the MEK can be considered credible evidence to make any political force that thinks it can interact with the MEK reconsider. This is a part of her post on constructive criticism:
Whenever I hear the word “constructive criticism” about reactionary opposition groups, I recall the events in Albania, the days when I still believed in the change of the Mujahedin.

When we arrived in Albania, the atmosphere of suffocation had become a little less than in Iraq, so I was able to write explicit internal criticism reports regarding censorship, repression, psychological torture, and forced confessions in women’s meetings, and I demanded that the officials of the organization be held accountable to the public.

One of the so-called bright and “good police” officials told me; “Our apparatus still does not have the capacity to respond to criticism, since we are not the government, our system will collapse and weaken.”

But I still do not understand why at the time of repression, torture, corruption, and violation of people’s rights, they were the government, but when it came to accountability, they were not the government… Let’s move on.

After months of psychological pressure sessions, which finally led me to leave the organization, one day I told an MEK agent who was visiting my controlled apartment in Tirana; “I want to open a Facebook page and write the reason for my departure from the organization and post my criticisms publicly and constructively.”

As if the official was struck by electricity, she said; “No, no, don’t do it! Let me ask the higher officials.”
In short, from that day on, every night and every morning, sometimes even late, they came to me, saying things, threatening and tempting, that I was shocked, but all they did was to prevent me from opening a political page.

And the more I asked; what’s wrong with “constructive criticism”? The more they said; “Absolutely! Don’t write even a single comment! Go and live your life.”
“life” that from years until that moment before leaving Ashraf was a taboo. Life was shame, it was disgrace, it was betrayal and it made you deserve trial! All of a sudden it became good, it became important, it became necessary, it became gold!
And you know very well what criticism will turn into when they don’t let you make “constructive criticism” in time… and it did.

When the issue of some of us was brought to the European media and the German courts, some MEK accounts came to my direct message and wrote: “Don’t step on the blood of your mother and uncles! If you have criticism, make it constructive criticism! Why did you bring the issue to the media and the court?!”

I said; Oh No! what happened? Constructive criticism became good? You came a little late! Sweet Heart!
In short, we, the new generation of MEK, were not given the space and the right to even the slightest “constructive criticism” until the issue was brought to the media and the court.

The post Former child soldier’s account on “Constructive Criticism” in the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

Testimonies from former MEK members expose a systematic effort to recruit and exploit children, particularly during the organization’s years at Camp Ashraf in Iraq. Survivors such as Amin Golmaryami and Amir Vafa Yaghmai recount being forcibly separated from their families as minors and subjected to ideological indoctrination designed to suppress individuality and enforce obedience. This psychological manipulation served as the foundation for coercing children into roles ranging from logistical support to direct participation in armed conflict.

The trauma endured by these individuals has left long-lasting scars, manifesting as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alienation, and severe difficulties in reintegrating into civilian life. Such exploitation of children not only contravenes basic human rights but also highlights the MEK’s disregard for the fundamental welfare of its members. These narratives dismantle the MEK’s carefully curated image as a pro-democracy movement, exposing it instead as a group willing to sacrifice vulnerable lives for its militant agenda.

The MEK has aggressively lobbied for recognition as a democratic force, securing backing from influential politicians in Europe and the United States. However, the organization’s history of authoritarian practices starkly contradicts its claims. Allegations of child soldier recruitment are emblematic of a broader pattern of coercive control, including the suppression of dissent within its ranks and the enforcement of absolute loyalty to its leadership.

The MEK’s leadership has denied these accusations, often dismissing whistleblowers as propagandists aligned with Tehran. Yet, the consistency of survivor accounts and corroborative investigations by credible outlets such as “Le Monde” paint a damning picture. For international supporters, these revelations necessitate a moral reckoning: continued support for the MEK risks enabling practices that violate international law and basic ethical principles.

The MEK’s recruitment of children places it in the company of notorious organizations such as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and armed factions in conflict zones like Syria. These groups employ similar tactics—psychological manipulation, forced separation from families, and the use of fear and propaganda to secure loyalty.

However, the MEK’s centralized structure and political ambitions distinguish it. Unlike fragmented groups operating in lawless territories, the MEK’s leadership operates within a hierarchical system that oversees both militant activities and international lobbying efforts. This organization-wide complicity makes the MEK’s actions even more troubling, as they are not isolated incidents but part of a calculated strategy that implicates the group’s upper echelons.

Countries hosting or supporting the MEK bear significant responsibility for addressing these allegations. Albania, which has provided refuge to many MEK members, faces scrutiny for its role in sheltering an organization accused of grave human rights abuses. Under international law, including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), states are obligated to prevent the recruitment of children and ensure accountability for perpetrators.

For nations like the United States and European countries that advocate for the MEK as a counterweight to Iran, the ethical stakes are high. Ignoring the group’s documented abuses undermines their credibility as defenders of human rights and could tarnish their foreign policy agendas. Supporting the MEK without demanding accountability risks complicity in its violations.

The voices of survivors must drive the global response to these allegations. Their testimonies provide invaluable insights into the MEK’s exploitative practices and call for an end to impunity. Truth commissions, reparations, and legal action against those responsible are necessary steps to ensure justice for victims and to deter similar abuses in the future.

Moreover, the international community must reassess its engagement with the MEK. Support for opposition groups cannot come at the expense of fundamental human rights. By holding the MEK accountable, the global community can send a clear message that the exploitation of children will not be tolerated, regardless of a group’s political alignment.

The MEK’s alleged use of child soldiers is a profound betrayal of the principles it claims to uphold. Survivor narratives expose the devastating human cost of the group’s actions, challenging its legitimacy as a pro-democracy force. For the international community, these revelations are a test of its commitment to universal human rights. Accountability for the MEK is not just a moral imperative—it is a necessary step to ensure that justice prevails over political expediency.

Pouia Tajali – Geopolitika.ru

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Definition and causes of nightmare

Nightmares, like dreams, are the product of our brains, and their terrifying vision originates from inside us. Nightmares should not be confused with bad or unpleasant drteams. Nightmares are actually long, vivid and frightening dreams that usually threaten our survival, physical integrity, safety or self-esteem and fill us with fear. They can also cause intense feelings of fear, anger, sadness, confusion, and even disgust.
Some researchers call nightmares “repetition of threats”. The meaning of this term is that most people repeat the threats they have faced in real life in their nightmares. This is why most people remember the images and content of their dreams well when they wake up from nightmares. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; latest edition: DSM-5-TR, published in March 2022), the causes of nightmares are as follows:
– Anxiety and stress
– Trauma (physical or mental impact) or distressing events such as the death of a loved one
-Disordered sleep, lack of sleep, fatigue from long-term air flights, illness and fever
– Side effects of a specific drug or treatment
– Medicines or drug withdrawal such as sleeping pills
– Drinking or quitting alcohol
– Breathing disorders during sleep such as sleep apnea
-Sleep disorders such as narcolepsy or sleep anxiety disorder
-Eating shortly before bedtime

The causes of nightmares of the MEK child soldiers

According to the large number of memories, documents and evidence about the prevailing atmosphere within the Cult of Rajavi, it seems that at least the first three are the most true causes of nightmares regarding the child soldiers of the MEK. Of course, as he says, Mohammadreza has gotten rid of this suffering due to the beautiful life he has built for himself outside the cult. He attributes the end of his nightmares to the birth of his young son Ryan:

“But since Ryan Azadi was born, those nightmares have ended. I don’t know what the mechanism is, but what a blessing. These days, I am very proud of myself for having the courage to escape from that hell. Life is beautiful.”
But another child soldier of the MEK, who is active on the X social network with the username Aylin Moghadam, said in the comments to Mohammad Reza’s post about his endless recurring nightmares:

“I also have nightmares almost every night, they hold meetings for me, previously by Masoud Rajavi, now Maryam Rajavi has entered the scene, with her scary face looking at me with anger, and in my dream, I say ‘why am I here while I had gone out, how did I come back?’ and I scream asking for help Everywhere I go there is barbed wire…
“Another recurring nightmare of mine is that they forcefully tell me to get on a tank and fight. In my dream, I say that I don’t want to fight anymore. I’m tired. I don’t want to ride an armored car. They say that no one asked you if you want to get on and… I wake up crying again.

“In my dream, I don’t have anything, they have thrown away all my things, they force me to wear boots and tell me that you have to clean this whole desert of grass and… they regularly hold meetings for me and yell at me, I wake up with tears still on my face and after that most of the time I can’t sleep anymore I don’t know how long I’m going to have nightmares.”
Even reading Aylin’s nightmares is heart-breaking, let alone knowing that Aylin and people like him and Mohammad Reza experienced these fears in the MEK camps. Being isolated in the deserts of Iraq, participating in self-criticism and inquisition meetings for long hours, forced participation in military operations and conflicts, are all real and tangible experiences for the child soldiers of the MEK.

Aylin, who doesn’t want his real identity to be revealed and seems to be still trapped in the atmosphere of terror created by the MEK leaders, has a lot to say, but he avoids revealing:
“Unfortunately, I avoid saying many things for some reasons, because the MEK agents are very much looking for who I am, and I want them to fail.”

Only from the content of his nightmares one can understand what fear and anxiety, trauma, sleep disorder and excessive fatigue caused by the MEK system have done to the soul and spirit of this former child soldier.

Is there a remedy for the suffering of the children of the MEK?

Although Azadeh Masoum has left the MEK some years ago, got married and become a mother, the birth of her child has not stopped her from having nightmares, but her deep motherly love and concern for her daughter has affected her nightmares as well. She writes to Mohammad Reza in comments:
“Unfortunately, I still see them, I even dreamed once that my daughter was with me and she was taken from me and given to another sister in an “organizational ranking change”. I was going crazy, when I woke up, I felt very bad.”

A few days later, impressed by the traumatic experiences of the MEK child soldiers, the author came across a post on the Facebook account of Atefeh Sabdani. Although Sabdani has no experience as a child soldier, she has experienced terrible traumas as a child of the MEK. She is now a 38-year-old mother of three children. The experience of a bad dream that her five-year-old daughter had the night before prompted her to write about it on August 16th, 2024.

The scream of the little girl woke her up and she rushed to her room to comfort her. She hugged her and soothed her by saying, “mommy is here”. The child calmed down, but Atefeh was thrown to her childhood, orphaned by the MEK, separated from her mom, left with feelings of helplessness and lack of security, and the experience of sexual assault by her foster father, who was a supporter of the MEK, and he had taken Atefeh and her two brothers and two other children under his custody in order to receive the social aids that the Swedish government pays children.

It is in the midst of night and Atefeh Sabdani, a successful Swedish citizen, influencer and author of a best-selling autobiography, is suffering from anxiety and shortness of breath from recalling bitter childhood memories. She had nightmares from the age of 5 to the age of 10 and 15 with no one to soothe her, she is still not completely healed from her traumas. She writes about this:

“Although I am actually 38 years old. And no matter how much I have walked through the path of healing and distanced myself more and more from my past, it still sneaks up on me. At night, as if to remind me of who I am and where I came from. Don’t forget. My five-year-old daughter sleeps peacefully. Now, I have to comfort myself.”

Mazda Parsi

The post Child soldiers speak of their nightmares years after leaving the MEK appeared first on Nejat Society.

On May, 2024, Amir Yaghmai, a former child soldier of the MEK published a photo from that era on his account on X social network and wrote:
“MEK claims that it has had no child soldier. This is a picture of me at the age of 14 in a military uniform at Camp Ashraf. After 1 year of active brainwashing by the authorities, I was transferred from Paris to Iraq in 1998, and this captivity lasted for 6 years. until the arrival of the American forces.”

Amir Yaghmaei at Camp Ashraf-Iraq

According to Amnesty International Child soldiering is usually a full-time occupation, which implies long hours of work and little possibility of returning home. Child soldiers are separated from their homes/families and rarely receive education.
On August 7, 2024, in the comments of Amir Yaghmai’s post and in order to validate it, another former child soldier named Azadeh Masoom published a photo of herself and two other child soldiers of the MEK. In this photo, the famous face of the child soldiers of the ME#K, Alan Mohammadi, can be seen next to Azadeh. In a few short sentences in caption, Azadeh refers to several dimension of child soldiering in the MEK’s army:
“This is the photo of Alan, 13 or 14 years old, who the MEK said she committed suicide with his weapon. What was a 13 or 14-year-old kid doing with a weapon? I was 17 years old sitting next to her, and Maryam Zuljalal, who is sitting on my left, I guess she was 17 years old because we were classmates when we were children.”

Alan Mohamamdi-Azadeh Maasoum and Maryam Zoljalal

Based on the Amnesty International document, most of the children who participate as soldiers in the conflicts either never went to school or dropped out in the early years of school. This concept can be proven in a sentence from Azadeh Masum. She does not know exactly how old was the girl on her left, Maryam Zuljalal, but based on this, she guesses that she is the same age as she was at the time, seventeen years old, because they were classmates when they were children. This means that these two teenage girls stopped going to school before the age of 17 and were deprived of education while they were under the legal age. Alan’s condition was worse. She was no more than thirteen years old when she was brought to Camp Ashraf.

Another former child soldier, Mohammad Reza Torabi also emphasizes the reality of Alan’s child soldiering and her opposition to staying in the oppressive and suffocating environment of Camp Ashraf by re-sharing the photo of Azadeh Masoom:
“Another crime of the MEK. Azadeh, who like me managed to escape from the grip of the MEK cult, is talking about Alan Mohammadi, a girl who was tricked by the MEK when she was 13-14 years old and was sent from Europe to Iraq and Camp Ashraf. From the very first days, live all of us, she started receiving military training and was given a Kalashnikov to guard in the towers around the isolated camp. Finally, due to the pressure of the MEK organization, Alan decided to end her life by pulling the trigger of her Kalashnikov in the watchtower. She preferred death to continuing her stay in the MEK cult.
Now MEK say, we didn’t have child soldiers. So what was Alan doing with Kalashnikov in the guard tower?
Curse the Mujahideen and Rajavi!”

The presence of a young teenage girl in the guard tower of a military barracks with a Kalashnikov is a clear example of a child soldier in a hazardous environment. The hazardous and accident-causing environment is one of the criteria that is discussed in details in the article 3 of the Amnesty International document.
Based on the article, child spldiering as a hazardous work is determined by the followings:
(a) work and activities which expose children to physical, emotional or sexual abuse;
(b) work underground, under water, or at dangerous heights;
(c) work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
(d) work in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health;
(e) work under particularly difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work which does not allow for the possibility of returning home each day.

The above-mentioned cases are all the hazardous conditions that the child soldiers of the MEK were exposed to in the camps of the group, including Camp Ashraf. In many of the available photos of child soldiers at Camp Ashraf, they are clearly in military uniform, Kalashnikovs in hand, and riding tanks and other military vehicles.

In the memoirs of child soldiers, we constantly hear and read about the dangers that threatened children’s spirit, body and dignity every moment inside the MEK. IN 1999, the Amnesty International document has recommendations to the international community on the necessity of banning the participation of children in war. These recommendations require the existence of a separate article in this regard in the convention against of child labor.

This is despite the fact that in the same years, between 1997 and 2002, the MEK brought at least 300 child soldiers from Western countries to Iraq. Many of them are still trapped in the MEK’s camp in Albania, a number of them were killed during violent clashes, and some of them, like Alan Mohammadi, committed suicide. And, some like Amir, Azadeh and Mohammad Reza are brave and self-made survivors of that era who chose to live in the free world not with the help of human rights conventions and Amnesty International, but with a little aid from the United Nations and with their own efforts.

Mazda Parsi

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