Now in her forties, she is a critic of both Iranian government and the Cult of Rajavi. She believes that the ideology of the cult caused her mother’s devotion to the MEK and the collapse of her family.

She writes:

“I have never been in the MEK for a single day. I was not among the Ashraf children. My mother was a member of the MEK before the 1979 revolutuion. She was one of the academic elites at Tehran University who found her way into the group and dragged my father into this pit. She was arrested with my father in 1961. My father was released a year later and my mother two years later, but they continued their activities. My mother’s family was generally part of the 1979 uprising in some way. They were either Tudeh, or Fada’i guerrillas (Communists), or Mujaheds. But my father came from a traditional, religious, and almost non-political family that generally supported Khomeini, and he joined the MEK because of my mother’s love.”

Sara was only three years old when her parents left her behind in Iran and joined the MEK in Iraq. However, Sara finds it a blessing that she owes to her grandmother because her mother tried to take her to Iraq and trap her in the trap of the MEK, but she was unsuccessful due to her grandmother’s wisdom. She writes about this:

“My mother sought to transfer me to Iraq around 1989 to 1990, and we did not know until then that my father had been killed. I remember once that two of my mother’s relatives came to my grand ma’s house to take me and my brother from Pakistan to Iraq. My grand ma’s opposition prevented my transfer. She was my greatest supporter until she died during the coronavirus pandemic and then I left Iran.”

The only information available about Sara Delban is the content she personally shares on her X social media account. The young woman has pinned a widely-shared video from the documentary Children of Camp Ashraf on her account. The video shows moving scenes from 1991, when children from Camp Ashraf are loaded onto buses to be smuggled out of Iraq and eventually end up in orphanages, foster families and MEK’s team houses in Europe and North America.

In the video’s caption, Delban refers to an important aspect of her own and his brother’s lives and the oppression his parents suffered because of their allegiance to the MEK:

“Maybe if it weren’t for my grandmother’s resistance against transferring me to Iraq and Ashraf, I would be in this film because of my mother’s betrayal and stupidity! Maybe today I would be a prisoner in the Cult of Rajavi, with a green or red scarf sitting behind an account, posting the hashtag #NoSheikhNoShah! Someone like my brother. Sometimes, fate can be so cruel.”

Sara’s father was killed in one of the MEK terrorist operations. As a daughter of a female member of the MEK, every new piece of information she receives about the internal relations of the MEK reveals horrifying truths about her parents. Perhaps hearing about Massoud Rajavi’s mass marriage with the women of the organization’s elite council has caused her to share these words recently:

“For three months, the thought of ‘I’m happy my father was killed’ has been tormenting me! Right from the day I found out that my mother, like all members of the MEK’s Elite Council, danced naked in front of Masoud Rajavi with a few other people and was then married to him”

This post by Sara Delban has received special attention and surprise from users. Many users from different political stances have expressed disgust towards the MEK and praised Sara’s courage in telling these bitter truths about her mother.

She is an example of more than a thousand children who have been harmed in various ways by their involvement with the MEK. She speaks of strange contradictions that many of the MEK’s children have experienced.

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Vimeo reviews the plot of the Children of Camp Ashraf by this brief summary:
Parwin and Amir grew up in a military camp. As toddlers they were sent away by their parents who wanted to focus on fighting the Mulla-regime of Iran. 30 years later they are still hoping to reunite with their mothers. Will they ever succeed?
An untold scandal involving around a thousand children worldwide, addressing the most urgent issues of our time: exile, identity, radicalization and our inability to see the needs of vulnerable children.

The documentary “Children of Camp Ashraf” is based on the life story of four Swedish citizen whose parents were members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The film was directed by Sara Moein and produced by Linda Mutavi. Since January, 2024 it has been screened in two Swedish festivals, Goteborg film festival and Tempo Documentary Festival. It was first aired by the Swedish TV channel SVT, in June, 2024.

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The children were left in foster families who were MEK sympathizers, in most cases not with normal qualifications of a safe family. Amir Yaghmai, Parvin Hosseinnia, Atefeh Sebdani and Hanif Bali are the four Swedish citizens whose traumatic childhood involved with the MEK cult is narrated in the documentary.
Amir usually gives updates about the process of broadcasting the film on his accounts on social networks. These are some points that he explained to the Swedish viewers of the film on his Facebook account on July 14th, 2024:

Hello dear friends,
Hope all is well with you. I know that many of you have seen our documentary film “the children from camp Ashraf” which is directed by Sara Moein and produced by Linda Mutawi from Atmo Stockholm in collaboration with SVT. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I recommend that you go and see it through the link below.
A few points I want to highlight about the film:

1- it has taken about 6 years to produce this documentary with countless hours that are not included in the film itself. Making such a documentary film is extremely difficult considering the complex background of the Mojahedin and considering that 4 participants must each tell parts of their personal story. With the feedback I received, I know that the entirety of our story came across in the film.

2- the questions that remain are many. I look forward to being able to clarify in a suitable platform the parts that have not had time to be elucidated or the parts that need a better explanation. I see the questions more as an opportunity to open up for discussion and also debate questions about our history and the film. I don’t mind debating with supporters or members of this organization but I know from experience that they shy away from debating with critics and all they do is label and smear their critics. Which we were all prepared for from the start.

3- my personal goal and involvement in the film has been to contribute knowledge to a younger generation that can fall into the trap that I personally fell into. It can be an emotional period as a teenager where many evil and destructive forces want to pull one and exploit one’s vulnerability. With experiences from those who have ended up there, this can be reduced or at least make them think twice. Simply making the world a better place and helping young people in vulnerable situations.

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“The Children of Camp Ashraf, a must watch, nobody Should miss this summer’s most powerful documentary”, writes Erika Hallhagen, the journalist of SvD of the Swedish daily newspaper.

Erika Hallhagen, critic and writer at SvD’s cultural service wrote about the films she recommends the readers to watch in the summer idyll. Sara Moien’s documentary, Children of Camp Ashraf was highly recommended by the Swedish journalist. “It bears repeating – the worst affected by war and military escalation are the children,” she wrote.

Sara Moien’s documentary was first played in two Swedish Film Festivals, Goteborg and Tempo, this year. It was also aired by the Swedish national TV channel, SVT. The film is now available on SVT Play.
“No one should miss the SVT Play film,” Erika Hallhagen stated.

Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and is published throughout the country. Its circulation is the third highest among quality newspapers after Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten. The newspaper describes itself as independent and liberal-conservative.

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Sara Moien’s documentary, Children of Camp Ashraf, narrates the story of Atefeh Sebdani, Amir Yaghmai, Hanif Bali and Parwin Hosseinnia. In a scene of the film, Amir Yaghmai is on his knee near the grave of his friend, Ehsan.

Who was Ehsan?

Ehsan Shakeri was living in Sweden together with his mother and daughter when the recruiters of the Mujahedin khalq deceived him to join the MEK’s so-called National Liberation Army, in Iraq. He became a member of the MEK’s militia force –better said, child soldiers but shortly after, he came to know that the repressive ruling of the Rajavis over the MEK is not tolerable. He criticized the group and he was labeled as mercenary of the Iranian government. The labeling was continued by the MEK propaganda until Ehsan killed himself.

The young emotional Ehsan could not bear the military life in the MEK where he had to receive military trainings, he had to attend self-criticism sessions and he had to forget family life. He had missed his mother and sister. Thus, he began questioning the commanders and eventually he became the problematic element for his commander, Zhila Deihim.
“Ehsan asked to leave the MEK and go back to Sweden several times but in response he was punished by Zhila Deihim,” former member of the MEK Reza Gooran writes in his memories about his involvement in the MEK. “Zhila jailed Ehsan in solitary confinement in Street 400 of camp Ashraf, beating him and insulting him”. Reza Gooran was in the same unit with Ehsan after they both left Camp Ashraf and joined the American temporary camp for MEK’s defectors (TIPF), in 2004.

Ehsan was good in English, so the American forces employed him as their interpreter. However, Zhila Deihim did not leave Ehsan alone, in TIPT. She used to come there to visit Ehsan asking him to spy on the other defectors who resided there. Therefore, Ehsan was called spy by his peers and consequently the Americans fired him just because the MEK commander wanted him to work as their mercenary.

Actually, Ehsan was not a spy but Zhila Deihim wanted him to be. Ehsan just wanted to get back to his family. Reza Gooran tried to support him in TIPF but both of them were under pressure, previously in the MEK and now in TIPF. “Ehsan was like my younger brother, I really loved him,” Reza says.

Amir Yaghmai, former child soldier who had left the MEK too and was in TIPF at the time, confirms Reza Gooran’s account in the Club House room, attended by former members and former child soldiers of the MEK. He says, “I was in TIPF with Ehsan and Reza. Reza was so supportive to Ehsan. The American forces had jailed Ehsan in solitary confinement for one month. Then he was released and he went to Iran inevitably and from there he immigrated to Sweden. The MEK labeled him as a mercenary of the Iranian government publishing several announcements to accuse him of being the agent of the Iranian intelligence in its websites.”

Ehsan Shakeri was announced as the agent of the Islamic republic by the MEK just because he had gone to Iran and had stayed there for a short time before moving to Sweden. Based on the MEK rhetoric, returning to Iran equals with working with Iranian government which is the enemy of the group.

“In 2009, –I do not mean that it was just because of the MEK but—he was under severe mental pressure and finally, as what Reza said, we heard that Ehsan hanged himself by the neck in the jungles of Sweden,” Amir Yaghmai says. “He was a child of ours (Mujahedin); his father had been killed. His mother and sister live in Sweden. The MEK shot him by calling him “mercenary! Mercenary! mercenary! I was the only witness there. I saw what he endured. If I were in his shoes at the time, I might have gone to Iran too. Once he came to Sweden trying to build a new life, the MEK constantly published announcements against him.”

Ehsan was never a mercenary, neither for Iran nor for the MEK. He could not manage to endure such accusations. He committed suicide after enduring too much mental pressure.

By Mazda Parsi

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Children of Camp Ashraf is about Amir Yaghmai, Parwin Hosseinnia, Hanif Bali and Atefeh Sebdani. They are four of the children of Mujahed parents who ended up in Sweden. Sara Moein’s extremely engaging documentary, presents a rich archive material about the experiences of its protagonists who suffered a traumatized childhood in the MEK’s system. They are trying to reconnect with the group in order to visit their parents, who are now in Albania.

Camp Ashraf, mentioned in the film’s title, was a military camp in the desert of Iraq, near Iranian border. The film depicts how the children lived and grew up there, until they were smuggled to Europe and North America. The parents of these almost 1000 children remained in Camp Ashraf to continue fighting, while their children were displaced. The children in the film were placed with mujahedin sympathizers in Sweden. One of the participants, Amir Yaghmai later returned as a child soldier to Camp Ashraf.

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Amir, Parwin, Hanif and Atefeh are four of the children who ended up in Sweden, and in Sara Moein’s deeply engaging documentary, they tell rich archive material about their experiences. They are also trying to reconnect with the organization and their parents, who are now in Albania.

About Atefeh Sendani

Atefeh Sebdani, born in 1986 in Esfahan, Iran, is an engineer and has worked as a digital strategist and business developer in tech. She lives in Stockholm, is an award-winning lecturer and runs the Instagram account @atefeh_sebdani. In August 2022, she published her autobiographical book “My hand in mine”.

About My hand in mine

“She had promised me that it would always be me and her. Us against the world, us in the world. Now she was crying too and there were people around us watching. ‘Please . . . mother. . . stop . . . please mom . . . I do not want to.’ ”

Why do you abandon your children? Atefeh is five years old when her mother hugs her goodbye outside a worn-out bus on a dusty desert road. Together with his two younger brothers, Atefeh is smuggled to Europe. The parents are soldiers in an Iranian resistance movement and remain in the organization’s military camp. In a stroke, the five-year-old is the mother of her brothers.

My hand in mine is a story about growing up with no one to hold on to but yourself, of abuses skillfully cleaned up and of a society that fails to see the vulnerable child. But it is also a story of a stubborn burning vitality, and of the courage to finally break free.

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Now I’m grown up and not much has changed, however the “Resistance Movement” I grew up with has been formed into a group that ticks all the checkboxes for what you can call a cult.

Over the years, many of us have asked questions without getting answers.

What have the Mojahedin actually done in these enclosures for 40 years?

What are they doing? What have they achieved? What does a week look like? So, purely actively, what have they done purely in terms of change for the better, which they claim?

To me it looks more like a group whose leaders just want to act and look grander than what they are on the outside.

the majority of the people in Iran nor the Iranian diaspora outside want them to come to power if the Iranian regime were to fall.

It would rather be a nightmare.

After talking to a lot of dropout parents in recent years, my conviction is unwavering.
The Mojahedin needs to be disbanded

And the Swedish state needs to examine why and how it turned out like this with and for many of us children.

I take part in the documentary because every time one of us criticizes the Mojahedin, rumors spread like wildfire that she is a spy for the regime.

BUT PLEASE RARA – everyone who has left this sect over the years CAN’T be regime spies.

How would that even be possible?
Watch, spread, ask and change.

Face book of Parwin Hosseinnia

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In the late 70s, Iranian students founded a revolutionary movement, the People’s Mujahedin, which helped put an end to the Shah’s regime. However, the dream of a secular, democratic and socialist country was short-lived. Ayatollah Khomeini, as you know, wanted something different for Iran. The mujahedin members once again found themselves in opposition.

Somewhere there, the movement was radicalized, which found a new home in dictator Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. From the Camp Ashraf military base, they continued to fight the power in their homeland. When the fighting became too severe, all the children were evacuated. Just over a hundred ended up in Sweden, the vast majority without their parents – often placed in foster homes that sympathized with the biological parents’ struggle – with the goal that the children would return as child soldiers as soon as they were old enough.

This is not an entirely new story. Rinkeby policeman Hanif Azizi has told about his life as a Mujahedin child in the book “Suburban Cop” (2021). Last year, Atefeh Sebdani, digital strategist and author, published “My Hand in Mine” with a similar arrangement. But the documentary “The Children of Camp Ashraf” expands the story of Sebdani and the other children in an even more striking way. Much thanks to a fascinatingly rich archive material. The story oscillates between the past – with euphoric images of life in the camp, where the children swarm around cared for by everyone and no one in a kind of non-normative extended family – and the present, where four adults in Sweden recount their traumas from childhood.

It is in many ways an absolutely incredible story of betrayal on many levels. The parents who chose fighting within the sometimes-terror-labeled organization over their children, but also about Sweden and its social service that obviously made a lot of mistakes. Among the most famous people who appear in the film is the controversial politician Hanif Bali (m), who ended up in Sweden at the age of 3 and went from one foster home to another foster home throughout his childhood.

Amir Yaghmaei at Camp Ashraf-Iraq

At the center, however, is the environmental consultant Amir Vafa, who deals with his trauma most movingly. Among other things, by searching for an elusive father in Paris and a poignant attempt to reconnect with the mother who remains in the movement’s military camp, now relocated to Albania.

You may lack context and a little more explanatory fact. It’s such a complex story – politically, historically and socially – that it feels like a lot of prior knowledge is required to really grasp it. At the same time, there are enough talking pictures to still get close to the main characters. At times it is exciting like a thriller, at times “The Children from Camp Ashraf” plumbs existential depths about parenting and cult life in an intelligent and poignant way. On a more general level, there are lessons of wisdom and strong lessons to be learned from the film about the difficult art of healing wounds and taking command of one’s own story.

DAGEN NYHTER,  By Helena Lindbald

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The documentary Children of Camp Ashraf directed by Sara Moin is about the lives of four Swedish citizens who were the children of the MEK. Under the order of Masoud Rajavi, they were smuggled to Sweden where they were handed over to the families of the MEK sympathizers, and suffered serious traumas.

Amir Yaghmai is one of these four people who was later smuggled to Iraq as a child soldier and joined the army of the MEK. Atefeh Sebdani, Hanif Bali and Parvin Hosseinnia are three other children of Mujahed parents who are now in their forties, successful Swedish citizens who narrate the traumas of life under the control of MEK in Sara Moin’s documentary.
On May 30th, Amir Yaghmai, who always raises awareness about the truth of the MEK and his personal experiences from childhood to youth in the group on social networks, wrote about the broadcast of the documentary in his account on X:

Hi Friends
Good news!
Just wanted to let you know that the documentary “Children of Camp Ashraf” will be broadcast on SVT1 on Monday 17th June at 22:00 (after the main evening news) but will be available on SVT Play from Sunday 16th June.

It is worth to mention that the broadcast date of the documentary coincides with the anniversary of the arrest of Maryam Rajavi by the French police in 2003. The arrest of Maryam Rajavi, under the order of French Judiciary on charges of terrorism and money laundering, led to the initiation of a series of self-immolations by members of the MEK in protest against her arrest.

These self-immolations were carried out under the instructions of the leaders of the MEK cult. Among the people who set themselves on fire were two child soldiers: Neda Hassani and Hamid Orafa. Neda Hassani died due to the sever injuries and Hamid Orafa was disabled for the rest of his life. Have the filmmakers deliberately chosen the date for the first release of the film to the general public after screening in festivals?

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