In recent months, those who care about developments inside Iran, its uprisings, and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) have noticed a new narrative emerging on Persian-language social media as well as some major news outlets: child soldiers within the MEK.
At first glance, it appears that an independent journalist or an amateur filmmaker has spontaneously decided to investigate and expose this extraordinary subject out of personal care and motivation. However, upon closer examination of the extensive propaganda and exploitation of this narrative inside Iran, it becomes clear that the primary audience and beneficiaries of this coordinated campaign are not in Europe but rather within Iran itself.
Quite surprisingly, the topic takes a front seat in the sham trial orchestrated by the clerical regime in Tehran. In this show that is trying to mimic a judicial process, the regime urges European countries to extradite MEK members while attempting to intimidate Iranian society about any affiliation with the organization.
L’enquête du Monde sur le groupuscule terroriste MEK
Gazal Golshiri a interviewé les témoins malheureux instrumentalisés par cette organisation criminelle comme des Enfants-Soldats.https://t.co/dk94Icux3B pic.twitter.com/78Lxg2hqDV
— IRNA Français (@Irnafrench) June 10, 2024
The campaign initially surfaced in Germany’s Die Zeit magazine, followed by a so-called documentary film screening in Sweden, and then an article in Le Monde on Saturday, June 8. The message is very clear: the writer or filmmaker, who has produced their content at the behest of particular beneficiaries, claims that the MEK, the only coherent and unified organization that has fought against the clerical dictatorship for the past 45 years, is worse than the regime itself.
Iranian state media then systematically translated the content and highlighted this narrative, slamming the millions of young people who chanted “Death to Khamenei,” by stating, “Don’t risk your lives in vain. Those who took this path before you are worse than we are.”
However, one of those depicted by the filmmaker or journalist as a victim, AKA a former “child soldier,” someone who supposedly should not have been allowed to join a resistance movement fighting against a brutal dictatorship, has now created a program debunking the regime’s lies.
This person, now in his 40s, moderates a political platform. According to the Iranian regime, he should have been executed like thousands of other under-age political prisoners. But instead of cowing to the slander against himself and his friends, he presents documented evidence showing that the motives behind the coordinated effort were far from being aligned with human rights and the love for mankind. This program has been broadcast on Simaye Azadi, and an English version can be viewed below.
