Prisoner Of Tehran

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Product Details

Author : Marina Nemat
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780670066124
Edition : 1
Number of Pages : 304
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-03-23
Publisher : Viking Canada (AHC)
Release Date : 2007-04-03

ASIN : 0670066125

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Customer Reviews

Nemat's controversial memoirs are a powerful and excellent read (2008-03-24)

Some other reviewers of this book have suggested that Nemat's accounts of her experiences in Iran's Evin prison in 1982 are inaccurate and nothing more than historical revisionism. I am not Iranian and my knowledge of the Islamic Revolution is limited, so I can't validate the authenticity of the events Nemat writes about; but as a reader of this book I can only try to understand the pain and guilt the author feels about her imprisonment and subsequent marriage to a prison interrogator.Nemat's memoirs are about more than remembering the foot lashings she endured and the rumoured rapes that occurred within Evin's walls. She survived the physical pain; what she struggles with more fundamentally are her circumstances as a woman who receives somewhat better treatment than the other prisoners as she is the object of a powerful interrogator's affections. Does she love or hate the man who ultimately saves her from execution? As his wife, can she persuade him to intervene on behalf of other women in Evin? Can she live with her guilt over her religious conversion, a conversion she made to save her own family's lives? I found her internal struggles to be a compelling set of circumstances about which I wanted to know more. At the book's conclusion, it appears that Nemat has made peace with herself, although she is shaken by the brutal torture, rape, and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi in the summer of 2003 inside Evin.These memoirs are not meant to be an impartial and objective history textbook. This is one woman's story, beautifully and eleoquently written, and I am glad she was able to tell it, free from the walls of prison. [Amy MacDougall]

Truth or Fiction? (2007-09-27)

I'm halfway through this book and with each chapter I'm becoming more and more skeptical. The storyline is unbelievable and seems more like a bad movie than actual events ~ for example, the author is about to be executed and at the last second a car arrives with papers changing her sentence from death to life in prison. Who ordered the change? A prison guard who fell in love with her on first sight when she was entering the prison. After seeing her for the first time, he leaves the prison for four months in order to get over his love for her. He then returns to the prison and asks her to marry him. She doesn't want to agree because she's in love with some other boy outside the prison, but she says yes. The guard effortlessly brings her outside the prison for various day trips ~ eg. to see the new house he bought for her, and moves her from the dormitory she shares with 50 other prisoners into a private cell. There are other events that play like a movie - a fellow prisoner she befriends is taken away to be executed. She hands the auther her belongings, asking her to give them to her parents. The author stands in the room, motionless, clutching the belongings and watches as the friend is taken away. She hears the gunshots shortly thereafter. I could see the movie scene playing in my mind as I read these passages. My gut feeling is some of the events did happen ~ perhaps the author did spend time in the prison, however it seems a lot of the events have been "creatively embellished" (made up entirely?) and dramatized.

eye opening adventure! (2007-07-25)

Nemat's memoir is about love, faith, courage, desire and bravery. The book illustrated an eye opening adventure in to a historical era. The words painted a vivid delineation of life in Evin prison from a stand point of a petrified and rattled young girl. The remarks and words in this book aroused and galvaniced every emotion in ones body and showed bravery and determination. It illustrated a picture of violence against innocent people, it is the voice of all the faultless and immaculate people who suffered and are still suffering in Evin and other prisons. The books showed how far courage and faith could take a perosn and it inspired me to appreciate life as it is.

Testimant of humanity (2007-07-25)

This book was beyond a mere biography or a simple tale of series of tragic events in the life of an innocent teenage girl. It beautifully illustrates the capacity of humans to revive, to see through the darkness and change course. Its a tremendous read. I think the author is a brave woman who refuses to see the world in black and white.

fictitious account (2007-07-24)

There are a number of memoirs by Iranian women prisoners published in Farsi. Since the publication of Prisoner of Tehran, many of these writers and other former political prisoners have critiqued it heavily. According to these critics, most of her accounts do not correspond and corroborate with the accounts given by others, including living witnesses. What she is covering up, again, according to Farsi language critique by former political prisoners, is the type of relationships that existed between the prison guards and the women prisoners. The kind of priviledges that she seems to be afforded, the marriage, etc, puts her in the category known as 'tavabi', meaning, prisoners who recanted and became collaborators. Some of the factual information, including the info about her husband/interrogator/prison guard/guardian are incorrect and do not match the accounts given by other prisoners who were inside Evin at that time. The crux of the issue is that this book is passing as memoir/historical document - pumped up by non other than Penguin - while much of it is inaccurate and/or fabricated. The uproar is partly beause this part of the Iranian history, during which thousands of people were massacred in prisons, thousands more imprisoned, and hundreds of thousands exiled is coming into light for the rest of the world - outside the Farsi-speaking communities - for the first time through a book that is falsifying the history. It's a question of who gets to talk and what facts get out. If it is to pass as historical testimony, it has to be accurate. Nemat's critics say that this book simply is not accurate. People find it offensive because so many have lost so many and so much during that period. and nobody is happy with a hollywood-type account.

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