Former members of the MEK

MKO former members

Nejat Society Albania’s Conference in Tirana, We are equal

On Sunday, November 26, 2023, a gathering was held by Nejat Society Albania following a public call, at the futsal park in the crowded area known as “Rruga Ura” in downtown Tirana. The event was titled: “We are all equal and we support the basic human rights of all different communities in Albania”.

The event was supposed to begin at 11 am. Over 300 citizens of Tirana gathered in the below freezing temperature at the end of the autumn, and many more people watched the program while passing through the park. The audience wanted to know the Iranian community living in Albania who include some defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

The gathering started by Erisa Rahimi (Idrisi) who announced the program with explanations about Nejat Society Albania and its Iranian members. Then, a new documentary entitled “Biography” produced by Nejat Society in Albanian language was played. The video which displayed the pain and sufferings of waiting families was well received by the audience. Ms. Rahimi introduced Ebrahim Khodabandeh, CEO of Nejat Society.

Khodabandeh delivered his speech online. He first thanked the participants for their presence, as well as the authorities in the Albanian government, who have given members of Nejat Society a sense of security in Tirana.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

He stated, he stated that apart from any political issue, this is an issue of human rights for the families who want to have contact with their loved ones taken as hostages in the MEK’s camp. and requested the authorities of the Albanian government to provide the means to fulfill this request as soon as possible. He drew the attention of the Albanian statesmen to the gross violation of human rights inside the MEK camp in Albania.

Then, the documentary of the gathering of families in front of the Turkish Embassy which represents interest section of Albania, in Tehran was shown along with its final statement in Albanian language, which had an immense impact on the participants and even the television network staff who were present on the scene. The film made them upset.
Erisa Rahimi continued the program introducing Soraya Abdallahi, the head of the Mothers’ Organization of Nejat Society, and pointed out that she had been deprived of contact with her only son for 22 years.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

Abdullahi, the mother of Amir Aslan Hassanzadeh, who is trapped in the MEK’s camp in Albania, started speaking online. On behalf of all the families, and especially on behalf of all the mothers, he requested the people and the media of Albania to convey the rightful request to communicate with their loved ones to the ears of the Albanian statesmen, so that maybe after decades this right and this request will be fulfilled. During Abdullahi’s speech, a number of Albanian mothers who participated in the scene were crying and those present were deeply impressed.

Hamid Agh Atabai, one of the defectors from the Cult of Rajavi and a member of Nejat Society Albania, gave a speech. He first spoke about his experiences inside the MEK, which was new to the attendees. He also spoke of the so-called resistance units of the MEK and the threat this organization poses to the security of the people of Iran and to the security of the Albanian people. He expressed his personal dark experiences during his years of stay in the MEK camp in Albania and how his life changed after being rescued from this destructive cult.
The speeches of Khodabandeh, Abdullahi and Atabai were interpreted live for the audience, by the host of the event, Erisa Rahimi.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

Then the messages of support from the friends of Nejat Society, including the human rights activist Naimeh Jongtsai, the famous writer Mr. Leonard Nika, and pastor Christian Kotori, who were supposed to give a speech but could not be physically present due to holidays and vacation, were read.

The final statement of the meeting, signed by the participants, was read aloud.

November 29, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The Albanian Kristal TV report on the Nejat Society Albania conference in Tirana

The Albanian website Kristal TV published a report on the big gathering of the Nejat Society Albania in Tirana.

The report reads:

The great conference of Nejat Albania – Confessions and human calls
A conference on human rights was held last Sunday morning. The event took place in Tirana with many participants where they were present and closely followed the entire event.

The association Nejat Albania, under the slogan “We are all equals” gave strong sensitizing messages giving a special importance to the Iranian community in Albania who have chosen to live freely in Albania and forming their families here and a life from the beginning.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

Ebrahim khodabandeh, as a supporter of the Nejat Society in Iran, gave a big thank to the Albanian institutions that have supported the Iranain community in Albania not only by integrating them as best as possible in various professional fields, but also by giving them an opportunity to create a life they had missed inside the MEK camp.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

Ebrahim Khodabandeh, the head of the Nejat Society, said that the MEK organization keep its members locked up and deprive them of basic human rights. The MEK claimed that it would form an opposition that promises democracy and freedom, but they took away from the members the right to communicate with their families, and they took away the right to live freely.

The association Nejat Albania operates in the framework of the integration of this foreign community in Albania and has made it possible for them to protect the status of human rights by enabling re-contact with their families in Iran and creating a stabilized life in Albania.

Hamid Atabay

Hamid Atabay former member of the MEK and now a member of Nejat testified his own dark personal experiences that accompanied him in his years of staying within the MEK camps. He described how his life has changed since the establishment of Nejat. He further shows that staying in the MEK means being a person without rights.

Part of this conference was also a mother who still has her son in the MEK camp who said that she has had no contact with her son for many years.

the Nejat Society conference in Tirana

Soraya Abdollahi said: the MEK took away our right to feel the love of our children, our children have fallen prey to a huge fraud. I am very excited when I see the support of Albanian citizens through this conference because it gives me hope to meet my son, Amir Aslan.

I also appeal to the Albanian institutions and the Prime Minister himself to make it possible for the mothers to meet their children, but also to tell them the bitter truth that camp leaders destroyed those people lives only for their own interests.

November 28, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The Albanian News 24 TV Channel interviews Ali Zamani

Ali Asghar Zamani is a former member of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization and the current member of the Nejat Society office in Albania called Nejat Albania.
He managed to escape the group camp on Thursday, September 14th, 2023.

Zamani joined the MEK in 2003, together with his family –his wife, son and daughter—because the MEK agents had promised him to transfer them from Iraq to Europe and help them find a good job and a happy life there.

But soon he realized that he was deceived; the MEK did not provide them any possibility to go to Europe and get asylum there. Instead, all the family were separated from each other. They could hardly ever see each other.
News 24; the Albanian 24-hour news television channel has recently interviewed Ali Zamani on his experiences with the MEK. The Albanian Balkan Web also published a report on the interview. The
report reads:

Ali Asghar Zamani

“I escaped from the Manza camp after 20 years”, the confession of the former mujahedin: Here’s what happens inside

The Iranian Mujahideen, otherwise known as the “Iranian opposition”, have been in exile for a long time.
The Iranian People’s Mujahideen Organization (MEK) was founded in Iran in 1965 by a group of radical students who combined Marxism and Islam.
Although there are no exact official data, the number of Mujahideen sheltering in the Manza camp is thought to be 3,500.

Ali Zamani is a former Mujahed who was able to escape from the Manza camp after 20 years of being in the MEK.

In an interview with moderator Çenkuela Hasa, he revealed how he became part of this organization, his escape and his new life in Tirana.
He told FitStation on News24 all the experiences of these years.

“In the beginning, I joined the MEK with the idea that our path alongside this organization was towards Europe or America, but I soon realized that this was not true.

I entered the MEK with my wife and two children, they forced us to separate because for them family did not exist, the men lived separately and the women separately. For 20 years, I watched the boy only from afar and could never speak to him inside the camp, while I never saw my ex-wife again after we entered the camp. It still continues to be there. MEK controls everything, psychological pressure was the hardest part, to control thoughts, actions. I am happy that I was able to escape after 20 years” – said the former Mujahedeen.

November 13, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

MEK defectors, Shahbaz and Soleimani were released from Karrec

On November 8th, 2023, Mehdi Soleimani and Hassan Shahbaz Hosseini, who were detained in the Karrec refugee camp in Albania for almost a year, were released, Nejat Society Albania reported. They are defectors of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and members of Nejat Society Albania.

MEK defectors, Shahbaz and Soleimani were released from Karrec

Shahbaz and Soleimani were detained almost a year ago. According to Nejat Albania, after proving that all accusations were invalid, they were released unconditionally.

According to the report, these guys never gave up. They refused to sign the paper to announce that they allegedly voluntarily leave Albania.

MEK defectors at Nejat Albania Office

Last year six former members of the MEK were detained as illegal refugee. Four of them had been released earlier. Nejat Society Albania express its gratefulness to defense attorney Irwin Grabova and the authorities of the Albanian government, who finally released these innocent Iranians.

November 11, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The story of a single Mujahed father and his three sons

Having been forced by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to divorce his wife, Heidar Babai had to raise his three kids alone. He left the MEK in the early 1990s because he did not agree to divorce his wife, Nasrin Yunesi. Massoud Rajavi had ordered all married members of the group to divorce their spouses. A few years later Rajavi ordered members to give their children over to the MEK human traffickers to smuggle them to Europe and North America.

Nasrin and Heidar had two children, Hammed and Hamaad when they left Iran to join the MEK in Iraq. Under the order of the group, first, Heidar left his wife and two sons for Iraq and went there through Pakistan border. Then, Nasrin and Hamaad were smuggled to Iraq by the MEK agents. The MEK agent had coerced Nasrin to leave the six-year-old Hamed in Iran.

Heidar was in the MEK’s camp in Iraq when he talked to Nasrin on the phone, and he found out that Hamed was not with her. He shouted at the poor woman who was already mourning for her older son. “I shouted at Nasrin,” Heidar writes in his memoirs, “But I knew that it was not her fault. She was in that path because of me.”

Heidar Babaei and his three sons

Once, Heidar, Nasrin and Hamaad gathered in Camp Ashraf, Iraq, they could maintain their family center for a while. Heidar and Nasrin used to work in different units of the MEK army, Hamaad was kept in the buildings established for Mujahedin’s children. At night, they would stay with each other in their room in Eskan buildings.

In July 1988, Heidar took part in Forough-e Javidan, the MEK’s cross border operation against Iran, financially and logistically supported by Saddam Hossein. He was seriously wounded, hospitalized for several months. It took him a long time to be allowed to call Nasrin. Nasrin was crying, she could not believe her ears. She had been told by the commanders that her husband was killed.

Forough-e Javidan was a catastrophic defeat for Massoud Rajavi who had the illusion to capture Tehran in three days. He wanted to justify his failure not by his logical thinking but by blaming members for being preoccupied by wife and life!
Therefore, the order for forced divorce was issued. Heidar did not obey the order. He kept on seeing Nasrin and Hemaad. For a short period of time, they were the only family who would still go to Eskan to be together at nights. He had to walk a long distance in dark to reach Eskan. Nasrin got pregnant with her third son, Pooyan, but the MEK leaders did not let Heidar know about it. They forced Nasrin to stop the family visits.

Following the order, a lot of the MEK members announced their willingness to leave the group. It was not just a simple request to leave a normal group. In order to leave the cult-like structure of the group, members had to be indoctrinated, punished, imprisoned and if none of the tactics succeeded, they were surrendered to Iraqi authorities. Heidar was lucky to be able to gain a passport for himself and his family, but ultimately he had to leave Iraq without Nasrin and Pooyan.

A few months took Heidar and his second son Hamaad to reach Netherlands. They lived in refugee camps. At the time, Massoud Rajavi had issued his second order to totally collapse MEK families. This time, he had ordered the separation of children from their parents. Nasrin had to leave the two-months-old Pooyan to MEK human traffickers. They had taken him to Netherlands, but the MEK authorities did not want to give the boy to his uncle Siroos who lived there.

Heidar made efforts to get his little son back. The poor baby was left with a MEK female defector who wanted to use him to take refuge from Dutch government. His brother, Siroos could finally take the baby. When Heidar reached Netherlands and saw his son for the first time, named him Pooyan.

The single father and his two sons had to stay in a refugee camp for two years. He was then given a house by the government. His efforts to contact Nasrin in the MEK was totally futile. “Each time I tried to contact her via the MEK offices, she would call me in a few days and would insult me,” he recounts. “This was not my Nasrin, the love of my life. She was always polite; she would never shout at me. I was sure that she was under pressure by the MEK to make me stop looking for her.”

The next step for Heidar was the reunion of Hamed who had been left wandering among his dad’s and mom’s relatives in Iran, for six years. Heidar went to Turkey, he organized Hamed’s departure from Iran. He paid too much money to get Hamed’s passport to take him to his home in the Netherlands.

Now he was responsible for raising three sons who missed their mother very much. “My sons always miss their mother,” he writes. “Especially Pooyan who has never seen her. I was the only father who would take his son at school. Pooyan always witnessed other children whose mothers were waiting for them.”

Today, Heidar’s sons are grown up, but Nasrin is not allowed to visit them yet. She is still barred from the outside world in the MEK’s headquarters in Albania, called Ashraf 3. “I am sure that Nasrin has no access to the Internet,” Heidar writes. “She has not been able to read my memoirs, but the MEK has brought her to their TV channel to show me that she has no intention to leave the group, but I know that she is kept there against her will.”

November 8, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The collapse of Ali Asghar Zamani’s family, the outcome of joining the MEK

A family of four was collapsed immediately after they joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Ali Asghar Zamani, his wife and their two children were recruited by the MEK agents, in 2003.
The Zamanis did not have any idea that they were going to Iraq to the military Camp Ashraf. The MEK agents had promised them immigration to Europe to build a happy life there. But, for years their destination was the isolated camp in Iraqi deserts where the family fell apart.

Ali and his wife were forced to divorce. His initial resistance against this order did not work. His wife was finally separated from him. There is no married member in the MEK.

Their 17-year-old son was coerced to wear military uniform and their little daughter was taken back to Iran. Since then, they could hardly ever see each other. “During the twenty years of membership in the MEK, I could see my son four or five times, from long distance,” he recounts.

The group leaders wanted to hand the little girl to human traffickers to take her to Iran, but Ali refused. The leaders told him that he should scarify his daughter for the group cause. He promised them to get his daughter to Iran by his own and then turn back to Iraq.

After he left his daughter to his mother in Iran, he got back to Iraq, this time to save his son but it was not a simple process. He was not allowed to visit his son. In the MEK, family relationship was forbidden; leaving the group was considered treason. Breaking these rules would lead to punishment. “They didn’t show my son to me, and if I happened to see him, I would be under commanders’ control; we couldn’t talk or contact each other,” he writes in his official announcement for leaving the group. “Because any kind of family contact was considered against the organization’s ruling.”

However, Ali succeeded to talk to his son after the group was relocated to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport. Ali got sick but his son could manage to visit the UN officials in the camp. He was aided to leave the MEK and to immigrate to Europe.
The father got stuck in the MEK for about a decade more. He was not able to leave the group until last month. “As a dissident member, I was jailed in a room when the Albanian Police raided Ashraf 3 two months ago,” he writes. “When the Albanian police came to the camp for inspection, they locked me in the proper room where I was living. Two members watched over me so that I could not go to the police and ask for asylum.”

Finally, he could ditch his commanders on a day that they had come to Tirana to do some errands. He escaped the group and surrendered himself to Police. He was welcome. He joined Nejat Society Albania that aided him get back to free world.
“The life in the MEK was full of suffering; we were under constant suppression in the MEK,” he says. “I could not meet or call my children in all those 20 years but since I left the group I can talk to my son and his family every night.”

Ali Asghar Zamani had a family of four before their involvement in the MEK. Today each member of the family is in a separate place. His wife in in Ashraf 3. His son is in a European country. His daughter is in Iran, and he is looking for a new life in Tirana, Albania.

October 24, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

The release of Gholamreza Shekari from the refugee camp in Albania

Nejat Society Albania is pleased to announce that Gholamreza Shekari, who was detained in the Albanian refugee camp in Karrec last year, was released unconditionally today, October 21st , 2023

Shekari, together with three other ex-members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq MEK) were asked by the Albanian authorities to either accept the voluntary departure from Albania or wait for assignment in the refugee camp. They refused to accept to leave the Albanian territory.
Ali Hajari was released earlier in this regard but two others, Hassan Shahbaz, Mehdi Soleimani are still detained in the camp.

Nejat Society Albania is grateful to Albanian authorities for their prompt cooperation, as well as the respected lawyer of the Society, Mr. Ervin Grabova, who made many efforts during this period.

We are looking forward to the unconditional release of Shahbaz and Soleimani.

Nejat Society – Tirana

October 21, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Conference of the Albanian Nejat Society in Tirana

On Sunday, October 15, 2023, a conference was held by Albanian Nejat Society in the conference hall of the Hotel Mondial, Tirana, to try to connect the members trapped in the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK, MKO) with the outside world and bring the voice of their waiting families to the people and statesmen of Albania.

ٍErisa Rahimi

Mrs. Erisa Rahimi, who was responsible for the translation and management of this conference, first introduced the conference panel members and explained the purpose of the conference to the participants.

Human rights activist Ms. Naime Gjongecaj, Mrs. Kela Solulari, Mr. Ali Zamani, Mr. Mohammad Reza Sediq, Mr. Mostafa Beheshti, and Mr. Musa Jaberifar from the members of the Nejat Society of Albania, and Mr. Aldo Solulari, the media manager of the Nejat Society, were present in the conference panel, as well as Ms. Soraya Abdollahi, who was connected online from Iran, delivered speeches.

Ms. Naimeh Gjongecaj, a human rights activist

First, a video footage of the gathering of families in front of the International Red Cross in Tehran and also the Turkish Embassy, which protects the interests of Albania, was shown. In this conference, Ms. Naimeh Gjongecaj, a human rights activist, who chaired the conference, gave a speech. She emphasized that all the mothers in Albania should be the voice of the families in Iran and asked the attendees at the conference that everyone should do everything to make the voices of the mothers heard.

Mrs. Erisa Rahimi said something about Ali Asghar Zamani’s escape from the MEK camp and asked him to explain more and describe how he escaped. In his speech, Mr. Zamani gave explanations about the organization’s tricks and the way members were deceived and his family was abused by the MEK, and then he talked about leaving his seven-year-old daughter in Iran and being away from her for several years, and pointed out that by escaping he was born again. He expressed his happiness of being in the free world and at the end of his speech he thanked the Albanian government and especially the Albanian police for their help and support.

Conference of the Albanian Nejat Society in Tirana

Mostafa Beheshti was the third speaker of this conference. In his speech, he talked about the fact that the MEK prevented him from communicating with his mother, and he talked about his mother’s death, and he talked about the last words of his mother on her sick bed, which impressed everyone present.

The next speech was by Musa Jaberifar. Mr. Jaberifar said that he spent 13 years of the best period of his life for the Iranian people, but the MEK deceived him and abused him and forced him to cut ties with his family. He said: “I know that it is hard for any listener to believe this, but this is the truth, in the MEK, we did not have the right to communicate with the family, even in the form of sending letters. Even if we remembered our parents and sisters and brothers, we would be impeached. The MEK considers the family as its enemy, and every member of this organization is forced to believe this.”

Mohammadreza Sediq was the other speaker of this meeting. He welcomed and thanked the guests of this conference in Albanian language. In his speech, which impressed the audience, Mr. Sediq said: “My mother came to Iraq and waited for days at the gate of Camp Ashraf, but the MEK did not inform me that my mother was waiting at the gate of the camp. The officials of the organization threw stones and pieces of irons at the families and called them mercenaries of the Iranian government. While the fathers and mothers who were behind the gate of Camp Ashraf were all elderly. The MEK had a hysterical hostility towards families and they said that the family is the enemy of the MEK and they distance members from the war with the regime in Iran. I always had one dream and that was to return to my homeland Iran one day and kiss the hands of my parents. But unfortunately, I faced the death of my mother and now if I return to Iran, instead of kissing my mother’s hand, I have to kiss my mother’s gravestone. Some of you are mothers and you understand well the separation of mother from child. But Rajavi brought these calamities to us.”

Another speaker was Kela Solulari. Mrs. Solulari expressed her happiness at the union of Iranians and Albanian families and people. He considered the Albanian Nejat Society as a platform for the release of members and the meeting of families and said that we should be the voice of families and members trapped in Albania. He said that we should not fail in this direction and we should do our best.

Aldo Solulari, media media manager of Nejat Society

Aldo Solulari, media manager of Nejat Society, was the last speaker of this panel. Mr. Solulari mentioned the Albanian Nejat Society as the only hope for the release of the trapped members of the MEK to make the voices of the families heard.
After the conference panel members finished their speeches, Mrs. Erisa Rahimi introduced Soraya Abdollahi to the conference audience. Ms. Abdollahi impressed all the participants in the conference with her words and visual communication. He talked about his many years of trying to meet her only son, Amir Aslan Hassanzadeh, and talked about the MEK’s obstruction to communicate with her son. Ms. Abdullahi asked the young people present at the conference not to be deceived by the MEK and considered this organization a threat to the national security of Albania. She asked all the audience, especially the mothers who participated in the conference, to be the voice of expectant mothers in Iran and open the way to meet the captive children by referring to the Albanian government.

At the end of Ms. Abdollahi’s speech, Mrs. Erisa Rahimi asked all the participants of this conference to sign the final statement of the conference to support the release of the members trapped in the MEK and to give access to the families in Iran to their loved ones. All participants expressed their solidarity by signing the final statement of the conference.

At the end of the conference, a celebration was held for the escape of Ali Asghar Zamani at the Hotel Mondal restaurant by the members of the Albanian Nejat Society for all the participants of the conference. The cultural and publicity department of the Nejat Society of Albania will soon show the films of this conference and the celebration of Ali Zamani’s freedom.

October 16, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Dr. Alfred Ebrahimi to visit Nejat Society office in Tirana

Dr. Alfred Ebrahimi, a psychiatrist and deputy of Lija penitentiary, attended the villa of Nejat Society in Tirana and met with members of this office. In this meeting, he conveyed the congratulatory message of the Head of the Penitentiary to members of Nejat Society Albania and thanked for the bilateral cooperation in line with the common goals of knowing as much as possible about the destructive cult-like mind control that has plagued many young people in today’s era.

In this meeting, while welcoming Mr. Ebrahimi and his companions, Sarfaraz Rahimi talked about the special goals of Nejat Society in reaching the voices of families who are unable to communicate with their loved ones, and also about rescuing members of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from mental captivity. He praised Dr. Ebrahimi for his efforts to deradicalize prisoners in order to return to society.

Dr. Alfred Ebrahimi to visit Nejat Society office in Tirana

In this meeting, Ali Zamani, who has recently escaped from the MEK, talked about mental and emotional pressures that were systematically imposed on him and other members of the group and the methods of mind control and brainwashing that are applied within the Cult of Rajavi.

Then Khalil Ansarian explained about the psychological pressure systems that are applied to mEK members on a daily basis in a jargon called “current operation”. He also gave a detailed explanation about the limitations of relationships and gender discrimination and the purpose of these programs, which greatly impressed Dr. Ebrahimi.

Erisa Rahimi, the Albanian member of Nejat Society Albania, delivered the CEO of Nejat Society with complete explanations about the two decades of activities of the society inside Iran and outside Iran, as well as the message of the representative of mothers of MEK hostages, Mrs. Soraya Abdullahi. Dr. Ebrahimi thanked Nejat and its officials.
Hamid Atabai appreciated Dr. Alfred Ebrahimi for his practical support for Nejat Society and emphasized that Dr. Ebrahimi has used all his capacities in the Albanian society to help defectors of the MEK.

Aldo Solulari, media manager of Nejat Society Albania, also explained the current political situation of the MEK in Albania and Maryam Rajavi’s escape from this country.
Mrs. Ela Dada, the manager of legal affairs of Nejat Society Albania, also spoke about the criminal action of the MEK leaders for preventing members from contacting their families.
Nejat Society Albania and Dr. Alfred Ebrahimi hoped to continue further cooperations.

October 2, 2023 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

What is it like being child of an MEK member?

At the age of five, Atefeh Sebdani from Iran was put on a bus with her little brothers. They ended up in Gothenburg and grew up in a Mujahedin affiliated family. Her autobiography is unimaginably dark – but also very readable, GP’s Nina Morby thinks.

“All my childhood I thought that the word death was equated with the word martyr in Persian”, writes Atefeh Sebdani in his autobiography “Min hand i min”, which stands out in the large range of I-literature that dominates contemporary Swedish prose. The reader soon becomes aware of what the book is not: namely, another auto-fictional depiction of middle-class boredom and existential misery.

Sebdani’s story begins in Iran, a few years after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The mullahs have overthrown the monarchy and installed an authoritarian, Islamist republic with little tolerance for dissent. Her parents are affiliated with the People’s Mujahedin, the Marxist-Islamist opposition group that desires a secularized and democratic Iran. The father is convinced that fighting for the Mujahedin is the only right thing, the mother is politically uninterested but has no other choice.

Atefeh Sebdani

Believing it is the best for Atefeh, the mother puts her and the younger brothers on a bus with an unknown destination. After many agonizing days and nights, they finally end up in Gothenburg, with another Mujahedin-affiliated family who is running the fight from Sweden. Atefeh is asked to call the adults mom and dad, and the other children siblings. At the age of five, she herself has already assumed the role of parent to her little brothers.

It is clear from the beginning that Sebdani’s autobiography hides a darkness, but exactly how dark it is cannot be imagined at first. The years that come after arriving in Sweden are a struggle to fit in and to stay above the surface. Atefeh’s foster mother forces her to do household chores while disapproving of her entire existence. During the dinners, she asks the family to openly air what bothers them with Atefeh, who is puzzled by how it all fits with the Mujahedin’s feminist ideology.

Ultimately, “Min hand i din” is a story about the author’s own upbringing, but through it also emerges the image of Gothenburg in the 1980s, as it could appear from the eyes of an immigrant girl.
Even worse, however, is the foster father’s constant abuse, his sexual harassment, the relationship she is then forced into with her foster brother. She feels like “A body that only existed. A body that obeyed the other body in the room. A body that was a maid. A nuisance. A body to have sex with”. Dejected, she takes out a razor blade in the shower, ready to end her life. Then she remembers the promise she made to her mother: to take care of her younger brothers.

Despite all the darkness, the book is pleasant to be in, thanks to the author’s flexible language. Atefeh Sebdani, who by day works as an engineer and lecturer, writes matter-of-factly and with a clear forward movement where every sentence is carefully formulated.

Here and there the story is interspersed with italicized, shorter and more poetically written texts that resemble diary extracts. There, Sebdani writes about the longing for the mother, about the memories from the first years in Iran and Iraq. As a reader, you become greedy for these small excerpts, which offer another layer closer to the author’s innermost core. They could have been more.

But it’s a parenthesis. Overall, “Min hand i min” is a very readable autobiography that provides insight into what it is like to escape from one country and grow up in another, and what it means to be a woman in an environment where male desire rules.

Reading it is like being welcomed into a girl’s room, getting to share the author’s many secrets, and being lulled into the belief that most things will, in the end, be good.

By Nina Morby – Goteborg Posten – Translated by Nejat Society

October 1, 2023 0 comments

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