Amir Yaghmai, former child soldier of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) explains some points about “Children of Camp Ashraf”.
Children of Cam Ashraf is a documentary directed by the Iranian journalist and film maker Sara Moien. The film is based on the life story of four of near a thousand children of MEK members who were separated from their parents in 1991 and were smuggled to Europe and North America.
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.