The Threat of Cults

Sara Moein has directed the film "The Children of Camp Ashraf", which caused reactions. Photo: Håkan Elofsson

Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a terrorist group

Stockholm| Increased security to show Children of Camp Ashraf documentary

“The children from Camp Ashraf” is a documentary about four people of Iranian origin who were sent to Sweden as children in the 90s. Their families belonged to the militant, religious and Iranian resistance movement Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which is politically far left and has been described as sectarian. Until 2009, the group was labeled as terrorist by the EU.
Camp Ashraf, mentioned in the film’s title, was a military camp in the desert of Iraq. The film depicts how the children lived and grew up there, until the camp was bombed and 1,000 minors were displaced. The parents remained in the military camp to continue fighting, while the children in the film were placed with mujahedin members in Sweden. One of the participants later returned as a child soldier to Camp Ashraf.

“I thought the story was very interesting. It is about the children of former young idealists who create a resistance movement out of fighting spirit, but end up sacrificing their own children for a top-run and sectarian organization. Ultimately, the kids want answers, but they’ll never get them because the parents are locked up in a military base”, says Sara Moein, the film’s director.

In connection with the documentary “The Children from Camp Ashraf” shown during the Gothenburg Film Festival in January, members of MEK held a demonstration at Götaplatsen where they protested the film. In a speech, it was claimed that it is the Iranian regime had produced the film with the aim of harming the movement.

Hanif Bali came to Sweden as one of the unaccompanied children in the 90s and participates in “The Children from Camp Ashraf”.
Photo: Iga Mikler

“It was strange to see people demonstrating against a film they had never seen,” says Sara Moein. “This was the first time the film was shown, no one outside the film crew had seen it. But I was prepared for this to happen, because this is how the mujahedin react to all scrutiny.”

Gothenburg’s film festival brought in security guards who were on site during the screenings. According to Mirja Wester, CEO of the Gothenburg Film Festival, the festival had a dialogue with the filmmakers before the premiere to increase security:

“In consultation with them, we decided to have increased staffing at the screenings in case something should arise that would be inconvenient for them. We had security guards because we didn’t know if anyone wanted to interrupt the performances.”
According to Mirja Wester, it was still relatively calm during the four screenings of the film during the festival.
– Our report from the security guard was that it was not a particularly threatening position, but rather expressions of opinion from the stands after one of the screenings. It may happen that the filmmakers have a different picture of what they experienced afterwards.

A video recording shows people who claim to be connected to the MEK acting aggressively and loudly in the movie theater after one of the screenings in Gothenburg. They scream that the film is full of “lies”.

Sara Moein has directed the film “The Children of Camp Ashraf”, which caused reactions.
Photo: Håkan Elofsson

“It is not a story where words stand against words. That they used child soldiers is proven, and they are still violating international laws by doing so. There is also much evidence that hundreds of children have been placed in foster care on false grounds,” says Sara Moein.

She describes the life depicted in the film as “a piece of migration history”:
“They are perhaps the first wave of Swedish child soldiers who go abroad and it is a contemporary, unspoken, big Swedish scandal.”

Gothenburg’s film festival has had talks with Tempo documentary film festival ahead of the screenings in Stockholm. Ida Thorén, festival director of Tempo, says they have increased security for the next two screenings, with extra staff on site:
“We have planned it more carefully and it is well thought out. But we have not received any particular indications that it would be needed. But the documentary engages and there will be a lot of people there, so we want to be well prepared,” she says.

Ida Thorén also mentions that Tempo has received emails from people who want to share their experiences because of the film’s theme, but that everything was done in a pleasant tone.

Sara Moein, who worked on the film for seven years, says she is looking forward to showing “The Children from Camp Ashraf” in Stockholm:
“The festivals have both done a good job. It takes a lot of work and energy to talk about security, but Tempo has taken security measures. I feel quite safe. Tempo does not waver in any way, the film is allowed to be shown and given the space it deserves.”

“The Children of Camp Ashraf”

Will be Screened at Tempo Documentary Film Festival on Wednesday and Thursday.
Directed by Sara Moein, produced by Linda Mutawi. Executive producers: Gellert Tamas, Kristina Åberg, Tarik Saleh.
Depicts the lives of four people. The common denominator is that they came to Sweden as unaccompanied refugees during the 90s and that their families belonged to the Iranian political resistance movement People’s Mujahedin.

Two of the participants in the film are the politician Hanif Bali and the writer and activist Atefeh Sebdani.
The film is nominated for the Tempo documentary prize.

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March 6, 2024 0 comment

The new documentary Children of Camp Ashraf was screened at the Gotenborg Film Festival in Sweden

Former members of the MEK

Atefeh Sebdani: the world will know more about this fanatical, terrible cult

Following the premiere of the documentary, “The Children of Camp Ashraf”, Atefeh Sebdani, wrote about her feelings on her Likedin account. Sebdani is one of the four children of Mujahed parents whose life story is documented by the director, Sara Moien.

Atefeh has recently debuted with the gripping autobiography My Hand in Mine. It is a story about growing up with no one to hold on to but yourself, of abuses that are skillfully covered up by the Mujahedin-Khalq (MEK) and a society that fails to see the vulnerable child.

Read her post on Linkedin after Sara Moien’s film was finally played in the Swedish Goteborg Festival:
They say you should face your fears. I don’t know how many times I’ve done it in my life, or how many more times I’ll have to do it.

It was a full circle when the world premiere of our documentary happened to be in my hometown.
It feels strange that years of recording and hard work from the production have now led to this. That the world will know more about this fanatical, terrible cult. That I kept this project a secret for so long and now can finally talk about it!

The cult did everything in its power to stop the film, harass the festival and production, and smear us protagonists. They have put out terrible press releases about us and their fear is seeping through.

I’ve felt every emotion imaginable this week. Fear, sadness, shock, joy, euphoria. It’s been overwhelming.
But what an important and beautiful documentary film. Sold out every day and a historical chapter. Don’t miss it when more chances come next, keep your eyes open and please support us.

This is what I wrote on my Instagram the day before the premiere:
Will I feel scared tomorrow?

I wanted to lie and say no to you, that I am now invincible. For, I am not alone. For, history is carried by more people now.
But I will be in the same city where those who hate me the most are, the cult member I grew up with. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t care.

They say you should face your fears. I don’t know how many times I’ve done it in my life, or how many more times I’ll have to do it.
One thing at a time. Tomorrow, is a day to remember, a day to celebrate.

Many thanks to SVT Sara Moein Parwin Hoseinia Amir Vafa Linda Mutawi Hanif Bali Nima Sarvestani Iraj Mesdaghi Max Sebdani Jacobson Tell Aulin and so many more.

February 5, 2024 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Stockholm and Koln prosecutors should take action for MEK children, ex-member

Hanif Heidarnejad, former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) has focused on the cases of children of the group who were smuggled to Europe and North America under the order of the group’s leader Massoud Rajavi.

Atefeh Sebdani is one of those children who published her autobiography a few months ago. The book was welcome among Swedish public opinion. As a journalist, Heidarnejad has published a review on the book raising the case of children who were systematically abused in the Rajavi’s ruling system as a legal case in Sweden and Germany:

The painful experience of Atefeh Sebdani and many other children who were separated from their families by the MEK teaches us that non-democratic forces, including the People’s Mojahedin Organization, do not have the authority to be among the Iranian opposition forces. First of all, this organization should be held accountable in a fair court and before the eyes of public opinion due to policies that violate human rights in its organization or due to character assassination and pressure on defectors and opponents.

At the end of 1991 the MEK separated hundreds of children, who lived in the camps and bases of the group in Iraq, from their parents and sent them from Iraq to different countries in Europe and North America . The number of these children is between 700 and 900. In this way, the MEK leaders deprived children of their parents and destroyed the foundation of family. The MEK has never published any report about the fate of these children, and there is no information about the condition of many of them.

More than 120 of those children were sent to Sweden. Atefeh was five years old at that time, and along with her two younger brothers, she was one of the children who left Sweden. In the past 30 years, she carried the pain and emotional wounds caused by separation from her parents. Sometimes, these pains during teenage years and the beginning of her youth pushed her to thinking of suicide. She could not find answers to any of her questions, she could not trust anyone, and life had no meaning and purpose for her. Despite all the difficulties, Atefeh started a family, became a mother and succeeded in family, work and social life.

When Atefeh and her two younger brothers were separated from their parents, she was five years old. The brothers, one was three years old and the other was still an infant. The children smuggled from Iraq to Western countries included the following age groups (age calculated based on the year of birth and not based on the month and day of birth): 17 years old: 3 people, 16 years old: 15 people, 15 years old: 17 people, 14-year-old: 16 people, 13-year-old: 22 people, 12-year-old: 31 people, 11-year-old: 59 people, 10-year-old: 67 people, 9-year-old: 102 people, 8-year-old: 96 people, 7-year-old: 98 people, 6-year-old: 90 people, 5 years old 51 people, 4 years old: 55 people, 3 years old: 50 people, 2 years old: 23 people, 1 year old: 33 people, under one year old 20 people, unknown 22 people.

In her own experience, Atefeh Sebdani talks about herself, her two brothers and two other children who had been fostered by an Iranian family who were sympathizers of the MEK. She explains that this family received huge monthly payments in the name of these children and went on luxurious trips with the money, but these children had the least facilities and were not taken to trips. The example of Atefeh Sebdani, along with the example of Amin Gol Maryami in Cologne, Germany, shows that the MEK has been purposefully defrauding government offices for many years in two countries, namely in Sweden and in Germany. In the name of children, the group has deceived the authorities and pocketed the taxpayers’ money under the cover of taking care of children.

In her interview with Farah Shilandri, Atefeh Sebdani explains that not only her, but many other separated children who were raised by the MEK or their supporters, were subjected to physical violence or even rape by their guardians. Some of those children suffered dreadful fates such as addiction, attempted suicide, and prostitution. They suffer from pressure and constant mental-psychological discomfort for their whole lives.
The public prosecutor’s offices of Stockholm and Cologne should take action and try the leaders of the MEK before the court by referring to several cases that show the systematic crime committed by the group against children in this organization for the following reasons: Violating the rights of children and separating them from their families, violating the laws of illegal entry and exit to countries, illegally keeping children in the hands of unauthorized persons, physical and sexual violence against these children. In cases where they were aware of it, making money through defrauding government offices in the name of children, illegally sending some of these children from their countries of residence in European or North American countries to Iraq, and recruiting children as child soldiers, which in some cases lead to their death. If the prosecutors of these cities are aware of these cases, why have not taken action yet? This is a question that will be clarified over time.

November 15, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Traumatic experience of Masoumeh Chaheh in the MEK

Masoumeh Chaheh was only 23 years old when the MEK commanders left her alone in deserts of Iran-Iraq border where she was raped. The outcome of that trauma is that she has been kept in a psychiatric institution for 20 years now.

Masoumeh Chaheh and her brother Hamid Chaheh joined the MEK’s headquarters in Iraq in 2002. At the time, Masoumeh was 23 and Hamid was 20. A few months later, Masoumeh was the one who revolted against the cult-like regulations and suppressive system of the group. She asked to leave the group, but it was no simple.

Hamid Chaheh

Hamid left the MEK in 2014 after the group was relocated in Albania. Only after his defection from the Cult of Rajavi, he learned about his sister’s heart-breaking fate. Today, near a decade after his defection he has found the courage to speak out. In an Interview with former MEK member Siamak Naderi, he gave testimony about his own experience as a member of the Cult of Rajavi as well as his sister’s.

According to Hamid, the MEK commanders had promised him to send his sister back to Iran with the company of one of their trusted agents –who were actually smugglers. Eventually, Masoumeh reached her aunt’s house in Tehran with bloody hands and in a state of mental breakdown. She would repeatedly say that several men in black chased her and raped her. Their other sister recounted the traumatic story for Hamid years later.

Masoumeh living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients

Since then, Masoumeh has been living in a governmental welfare center for mental patients. Based on Hamid testimonies only after ten years of psychotherapy, Masoumeh could speak about her experience as a member of the MEK, at Camp Ashraf. Today, she can explain what had happened to her in front of the camera of one of her family members, which is shown in Siamak Naderi’s TV show. “It was very hard,” she says in her purple hospital pajamas. “All day, they forced us to run and to work hard.”

She is 44 years old now, but she looks much older. Almost her entire hair has turned white. She is not able to stay home with her family more than one week per a month because she is always at risk of getting uncontrollably nervous.

The brother of Masoumeh, Hamid has lately come to term with himself in order to speak out about his sister’s distressing experience in only a few months of involvement with the Cult of Massoud Rajavi. As an expert and researcher on the MEK, Siamak Naderi is the first person to interview these two heart-broken siblings.

September 10, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

We Make Hope Happen for MEK Members

Members of the MEK are isolated from the outside world. Even inside the group, they are often made isolated from their peers as part of the group’s regulations and even punishment. They are not allowed to have intimate relationships with their comrades and family members –if they are members of the group too. leaders of the MEK use cult-like practices to maintain their control over members, a ruling system that forces members to stay single, to work hard without payment, to wear the group’s dress code in particular forced hijab, to forget family, friends and normal life. One of the outcomes of such a suppressive ruling is suicidal ideation.

Suicidal ideation is associated with depression and other mood disorders. Under the manipulative system of the Cult of Rajavi, most members are at risk of suicidal ideation. They are depressed, suppressed and helpless. They perceive no image of a normal life outside the group. In one sentence: they have lost hope.

Several members of the MEK have so far committed suicide. On the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day Isa Azade, a former member of the group, presents a list of MEK members who committed suicide under the suffocating ruling of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, on his Facebook account. According to Isa, the reason for so many suicidal attempts –of which several succeeded- was that hope and love has been killed by the leaders of the MEK. He recounts the heart-breaking stories of these people:

Parvin: She fell in love, but love was forbidden in the MEK. This was her crime that led her to commit suicide.
Kamal: He was also in love. He did not want to obey the rule of “Forced Divorce” but he had no way out. He killed himself.
Alan: She was teenager, smuggled from Germany to the MEK’s camp in Iraqi deserts. MEK commanders forced her to wear hijab and military uniform. They trained her as child soldier. They told her that she could never get back to Europe. She shot herself in head.

Shamsollah: he was fed up with the mafia system of MEK commanders. He killed himself a few days before the group’s relocation from Iraq to Albania.

Isa Azadeh also writes of Minoo, Masoumeh, Mehri, Zahra, Marjan, Homa, Yasser, Elias, Soheil, Khodam and Saeed. They all committed suicide because they had lost hope under the excruciating pressure of Rajavis’ ruling.

Each year on September 10th, World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is valued by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). WSPD marks global commitment to suicide prevention. It is organized to raise awareness about suicide prevention and mental health. On the occasion of this day, IASP consider the importance of holding on to hope every day.

Nejat Society and its sister organization in Albania, the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) are two entities founded by defectors of the Cult of Rajavi and families of members of the cult who are still taken as hostages inside the group’s Camp Ashraf 3, in Manez, Albania. Nejat and ASILA’s main mission is to keep the light of hope burning. All their activities are directed to create a sense of hope for every member of the Cult of Rajavi. Hope is a key ingredient for life and can be an antidote to suicide and a powerful tool to break the metal and physical bars of the cult.

By Mazda Parsi

September 9, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

The journalist is threatened with death by the MEK

Criminalistics expert Ervin Karamuço has stated that yesterday in the MEK camp in Manez, Durres, a journalist was threatened with death.

Invited to “ABC e Mangjesi”, he revealed that at the morgue they told him that they should do the news as the mujahedin wanted.

Criminalistics expert Ervin Karamuço

“It has not been said at all, but yesterday a journalist was threatened with death. They told him that he is looking at this victim here, that the journalists went to the morgue. “Don’t think about doing the news differently because you will also become like this”, they told a journalist girl and I was surprised. I said: ‘How is that possible? What did you say? What is this threat that becomes? For what reason?’. That even these phone calls that are made are censorship and tell me, why are you talking, did you become a collaborator with Iran, did you sell us out? I am a professor who speaks up when I see 15 injured policemen, the moment my State Police are hit, I speak up. I have the messages here, but they are not of a threatening nature, that’s why I don’t publish them”, said the expert.

We remind you that inside the camp there was allegedly a raised base that was in violation of state regulations. The control was ordered by SPAK after there were suspicions that the residents inside the camp were intercepted by people infiltrated by Iran.

by SOT.COM.AL

June 21, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

The fate of the MEK children similar to that of Indian children in Canada

The story of children of the Mujahedin Khalq is very similar to that of children in Residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada. The schools existed from the 17th century until the late 1990s. During the 19th and 20th centuries, a formal system for the residential schooling of Indigenous children was established and expanded throughout Canada.

The residential school system harmed Indigenous children significantly by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages, and exposing many of them to physical and sexual abuse. Conditions in the schools led to student malnutrition, starvation, and disease. And, the children of Mujahed parents were separated from their parents under the order of Massoud Rajavi following the first Gulf war in 1991. the MEK’s children were removed from their families in Camp Ashraf, Iraq and were smuggled to European and North American countries.

The goal of Indian residential schools was to assimilate Indians into society. The Canadian government operated Indian residential schools in partnership with the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, among others. However, the goal of Massoud Rajavi was to draw the maximum loyalty and love of Mujahed parents to his own personality.

children in Residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada

The recent discoveries of more than 1,300 unmarked graves at the sites of four former residential schools in western Canada have shocked and horrified Canadians. Indigenous peoples, whose families and lives have been haunted by the legacy of Canada’s Indian residential school system, have long expected such revelations. This is while, a few of the MEK’s former child soldiers dared to speak out about what they have endured in the Cult of Rajavi.

Residential school survivor testimony has long been filled with stories of students digging graves for their classmates, of unmarked burials on school grounds, and of children who disappeared in suspicious circumstances. Many of these stories were heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), which was formed in 2008 and collected testimonies from over 6,750 survivors. The TRC’s 2015 Final Report made it quite clear that further recoveries of unmarked graves at the schools were inevitable.

Children between the ages of 4-16 attended Indian residential school while children of the MEK were between 2 months old to 14 years old when they were separated from their parents. Out of over 700 children, 300 were transferred back to Camp Ashraf Iraq, after they were coerced and officially recruited as soldiers of the MEK’s army. They were given military uniforms and they received military trainings at the age of 13 to 17.

MEK Child Soldiers

Although there are some testimonies given by certain former child soldiers of the MEK, no international foundation or human rights body like Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been established to collect the testimonies.

Amin Golmaryami’s stories was first published in the German newspaper, Die Ziet. His account of being a child soldier of Masoud and Maryam Rajavi’s army was then approved and contributed by other child soldiers of the group including Ray Torabi, Zhina Hossein Nezhad and Amir Yaghmai. They presented their testimonies on child abuse in the MEK cult in Club House platform. They spoke out about MEK’s team houses and foster houses for the children in Europe and North America. They are living eyewitnesses of sexual abuse, forced labor, mental and physical torture against children by the group commanders.

Together with several other former child soldiers, they stayed by the side of Amin Golamaryami when the MEK filed an appeal against Die Ziet magazine. Amin and Luisa Hommerich, the journalist who had interviewed him, won the court against the MEK.

However, their testimonies were not echoed by other news media. The crucial fact is that in modern age, hundreds of MEK children were subjected to modern slavery, child abuse and forced labor. At least two of them, named Yasser Akbarinasab and Alan Mohammadi were killed in the MEK’s child army. Alan was the first love of Amin Golmaryami. He noticed the news of Alan’s death in the MEK’s bulletin in Camp Ashraf when they were both child soldiers of the MEK.

The atrocities of the MEK leaders against the children of their own members should be considered as important as victims of Residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada. The MEK leaders who ordered the separation and the MEK commanders who harassed the children both in team houses and Camp Ashraf should be tried in a fair international court.

By Mazda Parsi

June 12, 2023 0 comment

Ghafoor Fattahian - MEK defector living in France

The cult of Rajavi

Testimony on annihilation of MEK members by their leaders

Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi were disappeared after they criticized the MEK leaders.
Ghafoor Fattahian, a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK, PMOI) testifies about the fate of two of his comrades. He witnessed suppression, torture and disappearance of Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi in the Cult of Rajavi. The group commanders then exploited the photos of their both victims as victims of the Islamic Republic!

Fattahian left the MEK in 2011 after 19 years of membership. He lives in France now. Comparing Maryam Rajavi’s so-called “Ten Point Plan” for “Free Iran” with the reality inside the MEK, Fattahian proves that the group is undemocratic and hypocrite.

Ghafoor Fattahian, a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, living in france

He writes, “In the notorious Camp Ashraf, a lot of members would react Maryam Rajavi’s speeches about free Iran in her propaganda shows because they could see contradictions between what Rajavi said and what was going on inside her camps.”

He even recalls Massoud Rajavi’s reply to members who criticized Maryam: “Maryam and I have to say these words in order to shut the mouths of western politicians”.
Two of MEK members who began dissent at Camp Ashraf were Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi. Fattahian confirms that they were killed by the group leaders after they criticized them for the conflicts between their words and acts.

Actually, actions carry the stronger message. Fattahian recounts:
“These two people were in my unit. Mohammad Ashayer criticized Maryam’s words about free future Iran saying that the MEK itself was not engaged in democracy and freedom for its own members and acted undemocratically inside its base. He would ask how Maryam Rajavi could guarantee freedom of Iranians after the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.”
According to Fattahian, “Aziz Asadi criticized the MEK for lack of freedom of speech and expression”. He would also question the function of the MEK’s so-called National Liberation Army.
Both men were tried in a court under the command of two female commanders, Maryam Akbari and another woman who Fattahian does not remember her name. “The trial lasted for several hours,” Fattahian writes. “The two men were insulted, humiliated and accused of being the agents of the Iranian intelligence ministry during the trial.”

However, Ashayer and Asadi did not shrink from their opinion. Thus, Assadollah Mosana, the MEK’s notorious torturer entered the scene. Fattahian was an eyewitness of the scene:
“Assadollah Mosana along with some of other prison guards and torturers suddenly attacked them. They beat them to death and then they took them out of the hall, and we never saw them again.”
Fattahian tried to find a track of his disappeared comrades, but he could not find anything until two years later. “Kamran Fallahi and I were patrolling around Camp Ashraf,” he says. “We went to the camp’s cemetery and ran into a group of journalists. A large number of photos of casualties of the MEK’s terrorist operators and executed members of the group were hanging everywhere. Kamran and I were shocked to see the photos of Mohammad Ashayer and Aziz Asadi among them. Pari Bakhshai, the high commander of the camp was telling the journalists that they were victims of the Islamic Republic!”

Ghafoor Fattahian and Kamran Fallahi went to Pari Bakhshai and asked her, “When were they killed? They were in our unit” Bakhshai answered, “Good job to tell us about them. We will remove their pictures,” But, eventually Ghafoor and Kamran were kicked out of the cemetery.
This was not the end of the story. Ghafoor and Kamran were summoned immediately after they got back to their unit. “Never talk about what you saw today! It is a red line!” They were told.

May 28, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

The MEK a cult with cartel culture

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is also Known as the Cult of Rajavi. It is considered a cult because it meets all criteria of cults. The MEK is a fanatical armed group, which until 2012 was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Cult is a term, considered pejorative by most people, for a relatively small group which is typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who excessively controls its members, requiring solid devotion to a set of beliefs and practices which are considered deviant outside the norms of society. The MEK is a cult focused on the personality of Massoud Rajavi, the charismatic leader who has been disappeared since 2003 and his third wife Maryam Rajavi has been the self-appointed president of the group for about three decades.

Massoud and Maryam Rajavi

The Rajavis excessively control their members requiring them unwavering devotion to the group’s cause and ideology. They coerce members to work for them without being paid (forced labor). They require members to stay single forever. They coerce a layer of female members in the group’s hierarchy to sleep with Massoud Rajavi.

The MEK is a cartel too. It uses the resources of the enemies of the Iranian government to maintain its position within its members and sympathizers. This has formed a cartel culture around the MEK.

What is a cartel culture? Narcoculture describes the way of life and ideas of drug traffickers. Its existence depends on drug traffickers and drug trafficking maintaining a transnational network of production, transportation, and commercialization of illegal drugs.

Narcoculture in Mexico is a subculture that has grown as a result of the strong presence of the various drug cartels throughout Mexico. These cartels work like a cult. In July 2009, Reuters reported that a cult-like drug cartel was defying President Felipe Calderon in his home state in western Mexico by taking on security forces with a menacing mix of violence, pseudo-religion and gifts for the poor.

This drug cartel was called La Familia. It also wielded great power in local politics, making the organization harder to confront. What began as a means of comfort and protection among the poor and innocent in Mexico during uncertain times has found its way to becoming the foundation and justification for criminality and horrific acts of violence.

This is very similar to what the MEK does in Albania today. The group’s untransparent financial resources helps it launch huge charity campaigns, mobilizing doctors among poor citizens of Albanian villages, buying support among Albanian politicians and journalists. Meanwhile, the violent background of the group with thousands of innocent victims who were killed by the MEK’s terrorists make it very similar to La Familia.

Despite this paid support in Albania and some western countries, the group has almost no credibility in Iran. Houshang Shahabi, an Iranian-born professor of international relations at Boston University says, “They have been politically irrelevant in Iran since at least the mid-1980s and have little to no domestic support.”

As a matter of fact, the cartel culture ruling the Cult of Rajavi answers the question of why Albania would strain itself into one of the world’s most tense geopolitical standoffs, between the United States and Iran, by agreeing to host the MEK which until 2012 was designated as a terrorist group by the United States.

According to interviews conducted by The Guardian and the Intercept with MEK defectors, members spend most of their time working in the group’s troll farms demonizing the Iranian government and fomenting unrest among Iranian youth without presenting themselves as agents of the MEK.

MEK is a destructive cult which acts like drug cartels. It is dangerous because it is funded by hefty sources. Its power is based on money, cult and cartel culture. The Albanian government and international human rights body must take action to stop the MEK cartel grow in Europe.

Mazda Parsi

May 17, 2023 0 comment

The cult of Rajavi

Kids imprisoned in the MEK, former member testify

Former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) speaks of imprisonment of children in the group. He writes about kids who were in custody in the MEK’s prisons because their parents wanted to defect the group.

Samad Nazari was a former member of the MEK who defected the group more than three decades ago. He returned to Iran and then he became one of the founders of Nejat NGO. His auto biography titled “Footprint of the Evil” was focused on the years of his membership and imprisonment in the MEK and defection from the MEK. Nazari passed away in the Fall of 2014.
In 1991, at the time of the first Gulf war, Samad Nazari was jailed in solitary confinement in the MEK’s Debes prison (Askarizadeh camp) near Kirkuk, Iraq. He was punished for his decision to leave the Cult of Rajavi!

Samad Nazari

In two parts of his memoirs of custody inside the MEK, he notifies that women and children were also imprisoned in Debes prison.
He was jailed in his dark and dirty cell in Askarizadeh when the coalition forces bombarded the camp. “I heard the loud noise of 5 bombs that hit the area,” he writes in his book. “A thick suffocating dust entered my cell which was in the basement. I could hear the cries of women and children from the upper floors of the camp. I realized that there were other guests in that prison, those who were willing to leave the group.”

In other part of his horrific memoirs of solitary confinement and torture under Massoud Rajavi’s ruling, Nazari writes:
“In my new cell, there were words written in a child-like handwriting: Mom died, Dad is in jail.” Nazari was curious to know that whose child was in prison. Later, a friend who had been imprisoned in the same cell, told him about the poor child. “The handwriting belonged to the kids of a man called Farhang. He wanted to defect the group in the summer of 1991. Soraya Shahraki, a commander of the group beat Farhang and jailed him. His two kids who were primary students were taqken from school and delivered to him in the cell. Their mother had been killed in the MEK’s cross border operation against Iran, Forough Javidan.”

This was only one of the testimonies of MEK defectors about violation of human rights against children in the MEK. There are numerous cases of children rights abuse in the MEK. The followings are just some of them:

– Nadereh Afshari, former member of the MEK writes in her book of new-borns who had been separated from their parents and had been smuggled to Europe. They were maltreated by a female Mujahed, named Azam who worked in the group’s team house in Coln.

– Mother Esmat, former member testifies about her younger daughter, Jennifer, whose knee was injured because of the military trainings inside the MEK school. Jennifer’s ponytail hair was also cut by the teacher because she had not wear hijab.

– Amin Golmaryami and Amir Yaghmai, former child soldiers testified about sexual harassments they experienced inside the MEK camps.

– Hundreds of child soldiers endured heavy military trainings and even were coerced to launch terrorist operations.

– Many child soldiers were killed in the group’s operations. Maryam Qeitani was only 15 years old when she was killed in Forough Javidan. Having been grown up in the MEK’s bases Asieh Rakhshani was in her twenties when she was killed by Iraqi armed forces because Massoud Rajavi had ordered his unarmed members to clash with Iraqi army.

– Alan Mohammadi and Yaser Akbarinasab were two teenagers who could not stand the dictatorship of the Cult of Rajavi and committed suicide.

To the list, add hundreds of children who were orphaned by the MEK leaders, left in foster families across Europe and North America and were never able to find their parents again.

May 3, 2023 0 comment

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