Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir

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

Marina Nemat was arrested as a teenager, tortured, forced into marriage and spent over two years in prison. Right from the beginning, you know the story ends well: she has re-married, this time to the man she loves, has two children and emigrates to Canada. After several years here, she and her husband are able to afford a nice home, the children are doing well in school, the neighbours have become friends. That's when he nightmares start. For the first time, Marina feels compelled to talk about what happened to her as a teenager.

Hers is an important story for what it teaches us about life in a totalitarian regime. Grown men torturning children for crimes such as writing a critical article for their school paper, or asking a math show more teacher to please teach math and not political or religious dogma. A world of fear and strong power imbalances. She also gives us a glimpse into how women supported each other in the prison.

I sensed, at times, that she downplayed the horror or fear she was likely feeling. She was a young girl forced to marry and sleep with a prison guard, yet she speaks more of his kindness to her than of her pain in being forced into this situation. There are depths of feeling she hasn't shared, or perhaps has yet to come to terms with herself.

Ms. Nemat says she needed to tell her story; I think we need to hear it and think about what she is saying. show less

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 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 show more 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 truly don't know what to think about this book. I'm in a strange place, because I actually met the author and heard her speak, and what she said was bold, impassioned and horrifying. She spoke well and seemed extremely genuine.

In fact, that's the reason I picked up the book.

Then, I read the book. And I'm not sure if it was the narrative voice she used, the way she phrased things, but overall, I found the book...well, to be honest, I found it a touch self-serving. In several different instances, she relates conversations where others told her she was brave, she was tough, she was beautiful. Maybe they happened, who am I to say they didn't, but even still, it seems a little conceited to toss them all in the story.

Spoilers:

And then show more there's the story. To be honest, if this had been presented as fiction, I would have hated it and torn into it for being far too coincidental. Why? She's imprisoned in a cruel place, but one of the overseers seems to take a shine to her. She's about to die and, with seconds left, she's spared due to this same person's impassioned pleas to the Imam. She's forced to marry the man, and, though he forcibly rapes her, she feels...not love, but at least something for him. She ingratiates herself into his family by relating a dream to her barren sister-in-law who, using a Christian prayer in an Islamic home, finds herself pregnant. Then,just when her husband manages to set things in motion to get her freed, she gets a full reset: he's killed and she loses his baby. Her murdered husband's family carries out his dying wish and gets her released. Her one true love waits for her and marries her, even though that's a crime punishable by death.

End of spoilers.

Again, maybe it all happened, who am I to say it didn't? But it's remarkably neat, isn't it?

Like I said, I don't know what to think about this book. show less

Full review:

http://readingthroughlife.ca/prisoner-of-tehran-review/

Short version:

For the most part, I enjoyed the way that Nemat told her story, especially how she details the way she felt at different points in her life and this experience, and how things changed for her over time. Many of the hardships that she endured were re-told in such a way that you almost felt like you were there with her, inside her skin, experiencing the Islamic Revolution for yourself. You could feel the fear and uncertainty.

At other times, though, the narrative was confusing and convoluted. It wasn't always clear right away when Nemat went back or forward in time, making it somewhat difficult to figure out the exact chronology of events. That usually wasn't show more too hard, though. What was more jolting was the language in many places - it was almost as if the author was trying too hard to make this into a literary memoir. show less

This is a compelling book that one seems to have no choice but to read quickly. However, it is not notable for its stylistic merit or insights into the emotional experiences of political prisoners. The reconstruction of dialogue is particularly weak and wooden. Seeing Ms. Nemat interviewed is by far the more gripping and powerful experience. I understand that there is some controversy over the whether the incidents recounted in the memoir actually occurred as reported.I'd be curious to read memoirs by others who survived the Evin for comparison. Certainly some aspects of Ms. Nemat's experience seem to be characteristic of the Evin prison experience as reported by the news media--the lack of a trial (at which the accused is actually show more present)and the use of bastenado. As a western reader, I had trouble believing that an interrogator, even one with Ali's apparent status, would actually have the power to marry a prisoner and take her in and out of the prison, including on holiday to the Caspian Sea, but truth CAN be stranger than fiction. If Ms. Nemat says this was her experience, (and having seen her interviewed), I feel I have no reason to doubt her.

I also found Ali's attachment and marriage to Nemat and his family's willingness to embrace her as a daughter almost unbelievable in its bizarreness. Perhaps the marriage and the family's acceptance of it might have been more credibly conveyed if aspects of Iranian culture (including attitudes towards conversion to Islam and political prisoner "rehabilitation") had been communicated more clearly. Ms. Nemat explains that she revealed to her interrogator-husband's sister the threats her brother Ali had made to force Marina into marriage. Although the sister was shocked, there appears to have been little reaction beyond this. Surely there was some sort of ripple effect on the family? The whole thing just seems too odd to be understood by a westerner unless more information is provided. I feel the book is strongest in the parts where Ms. Nemat focuses on her early experiences at school, her family holidays near the Caspian, and her description of her first love for a young man who later dies in a demonstration for the revolution. Nemat's Russian grandmother's story is also fascinating. Ms. Nemat indicates her mother destroyed her grandmother's handwritten memoir. Perhpas it might have been possible, though, to hear a little about the status of and perceptions about non-Muslims (Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Baha'i's) within Iranian society prior to the Islamic revolutio--just for context. I was surprised that the memoir, written in maturity many years after the fact, seemed unsophisticated compared to the way Ms. Nemat presents in person. I know she was a teenager when the events recounted occurred. The details in the book feel somehow "unprocessed", however. I wonder how the memoir might have read if the author had recorded her memories in her native tongue and then had had them translated by a professional translator. Perhaps the book would have been more emotionally resonant and deeper. Perhaps more context could have been provided about the society of Tehran before and after. I'm aware that a teenager wouldn't know all of this, but as an adult, Ms. Nemat could probably have done this. Unfortunately, some clumsiness in the writing interferes with the reader's full appreciation of the horror of Ms. Nemat's experiences.

The memoirist's troubled and strained relationship with her parents could have been explored further. What was it about her parents that made them unwilling even to allude to Marina's two years in captivity. The experiences of other female prisoners would have been welcome additions to the text. Perhaps more could have been documented without dangerously betraying too many identifying details. In the final analysis, I think that this is a powerful story that might have been served better if Ms. Nemat had told her story to a skilled and accomplished writer. show less