Book Review: Prisoner of Tehran

I recently read a novel called Prisoner of Tehran, a true story based on the life of Marina Nemat’s memoirs as a prisoner during the 1970 Iran revolution.

When Marina was 16 years old she was taken from her home and arrested for opposing the Islamic Revolution. The crime that took Marina to prison was that she took part in a protest against the president’s regime. Along with taking part in a protest Marina also stood up to a teacher at school for not sticking to the curriculum and discussing political propaganda instead.  For this, Marina was sent to the famous Evin prison, tortured to the point where she could barely walk; she had a death sentence.

Amazingly, a well known guard named Ali admired Marina’s bravery and fell in love with her. Ali saved Marina from a firing squad right before she was taken to her death. Eventually Ali had had her life sentence reduced drastically, and in return she was expected to convert to Islam and become his wife.

What I got from this story is how dangerous it can be to mix religion and politics. During the Islamic Revolution in Iran thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured and killed for speaking out against the government. The people in power punished so much people to such an extreme and used religion as an excuse. The oppressive people in power hurt so many people and destroyed so many lives because their form of government was apparently based on “Islam”, anyone who spoke out against the government therefore spoke out against God.

Now I don’t know what your guys believe in, and/or if your believe in God, but I would like to point out that any God, (whether your Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Buhhdist), does not need protection from any of us human beings; so hurting others and claiming to be “protecting God” is pretty useless. This is something I saw many of the Muslim extremist do in Marina`s story, and unfortunately many others in present times.  I find it so sad to see how people can take such a beautiful religion and warp it into something so hateful and dangerous.

This is one of most moving, powerful and astonishing book I've read in a while, (won’t lie though, I don’t read that many books).
In a blunt tone that makes her dramatic descriptions all the more compelling, Marina Nemat describes how she became a political prisoner in the early days of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary government. It's no wonder that this novel took two decades to get started before she was able to talk about and write about this story and tragic experiences. Prisoner of Tehran is the book of the year for me, and I would recommend it to anyone. 

Source: Alison Latta from Flickr

I’m currently looking for a new good book to read, if you guys have any suggestions please let me know!