A Memoir of Faith and Love That Cannot Be Silenced

By Suzanne Donahue    |   Thursday, October 23, 2014 - Off the Shelf

I have been reading a lot lately about Jon Stewart’s new film, Rosewater, the story of a journalist imprisoned for 100 days because of an interview he did about the country's presidential election and it made me think of the haunting and heart-wrenching memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, that Marina Nemat wrote about her years as a prisoner in Evin Prison during the early days of the Iranian Revolution and the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Nemat was a young Christian teenager who, before the Revolution lived with her parents  in an apartment in Tehran. She was not untouched by the unrest of her country – a boy she loves disappears after an encounter with the police -- but she still was free to read what she wanted, hold hands with a friend in the street, ask questions. Several of her friends protested against the Shah’s regime and although Marina participated in demonstrations alongside them, she did so against general injustice never taking a side for or against the Mojahedin, the Marxists, The Shah or other groups. A little naïve perhaps but what 15 year old is not naïve about her ability to change the world?
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