Marina Nemat

In a truth is stranger than fiction memoir, Marina Nemat writes about how speaking her mind in 1980 Tehran, Iraq got her arrested and sent to the political prison, Evin. All she wanted to do was actually learn calculus in her class, not Islamic doctrine. But speaking up, peacefully protesting and leading others to walk out of class, go her name on a list of troublemakers.

During her 2 years, 2 months and 12 days in prison, she is saved from certain execution by an interrogator who falls in show more love with her and has enough clout the Ayatollah Khomeini to get her sentence commuted to life in prison. This same interrogator threatens her with the death of her family if she doesn't marry him. Through a serendipitous series of events, she is released from prison and builds her life again.

Currently living in Toronto, Canada with her husband (not the interrogator) and children, Nemat wrote this memoir as a way to come to grips with the memories which kept intruding into her life.

Nemat brings to vivid life the horrid life many Iranians lived after Reza Shah Pahlavi was deposed in the revolution in 1979. She also illustrates how suspicion and totalitarianism create violence. This is a worthwhile book, one which gives a graphic view of life in prison and the oddities that made up her life and escape from execution. show less

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12549014

I find memoirs by people from other countries interesting, as a rule. I especially like it when I can read two or three books about the same approximate time period from different perspectives, as it gives me a more rounded feeling for the country and the time. So this book interested me. I had read Reading Lolita in Tehran, which took place not long after the main events in this story. Both illuminate what show more Iran was like in the early days of the Islamic Republic of Iran (the country is still Islamic).

Marina Nemat was arrested at age 16 for activities against the state. She was in high school at the time, opposed to the new Islamic state and vocal about her objections. She was in the infamous Evin prison in Tehran for over two years.

Her story reads like a novel. Early on, she is rescued from the firing squad seconds before she would have been dead. Later, her rescuer, an interrogator at the prison, wants her to marry him, threatening harm to her family if she does not. He is assassinated, but lives long enough to ask his family to bring Marina back to her family.

I am not the only one who is skeptical about the details of this story. Several persons who were in Evin Prison around the same time have even written letters to the book publisher, saying she is not telling the whole story and is making some things up. For example, they say that anyone who would be permitted to marry an interrogator would have to be an informant. And they say the rescue from execution is simply not believable.

I would love to hear corroboration from some of the persons who were there, most particularly the family of the interrogator she married. Other prisoners who were in the same rooms with her might also be able to confirm some facts. I have not found this kind of information online, but I'm not saying it isn't there.

I found it a highly readable book with a lot of details about the regime and the prison. Worth reading, but with some skepticism. show less

Sådan historia! Marina Nemat är en kvinna man ska beundra, hon är modig, god och ärlig, och så har hon skrivit en jätte bra bok om sitt liv under en tid när hon var 16 år och sätts i fängele av den islamiska regimen i Iran. Hon skriver jätte bra, många målande beskrivningar så man ser allt framför sig och känner all den smärta som finns. Jag älskar Fånge i Teheran som trots all ondska även innehåller godhet och kärlek. : Gripande historia, kvinnornas situation i Afganist

I found this to be a fascinating, well-written memoir, and highly recommend it. The author's story is certainly worth telling. Arrested as a political prisoner at age 16, she was sentenced to death for "crimes against the state" after Iran's Islamic Revolution. Marina's life was saved by a guard who fell in love with her; she was then forced to marry him on pain of her family being harmed. Marina's story made me feel grateful to live in a country where such things don't happen. I also found show more it very impressive that she did not paint everything in shades of black and white, and was even able to show the human, kind side of the guard who threatened her loved ones, married her against her will and raped her.

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the Middle East. I think it would also be good for use in the college or high school classroom. show less