Summarize of “Prisoner of Tehran”

Summarize of “Prisoner of Tehran”

Nemat Marina wrote a book “Prisoner of Tehran” to share her life story when she was in Evin political prison in Iran. In the book Part One, She mention that she arrived in Toronto airport on August 28, 1991 along with her husband and her son. They were staying at her brother’s house at first and 9 years later her husband and she finally bought a house. She begin to lost her ability to sleep because of her memories in the prison in the past was haunting her. She began to write her memories down. She gave her story to her husband to read, and it took him 3 days before he finally read them. After her husband finish reading her story, he asked her for forgiveness that he been ignorance about her life in prison all this time of 7 years of their marriage. In 2005, Nemat had met an Iranian lady at social dinner. They found out that they both were in the same prison at the same time. They made several phone call after they met to share about their story in prison, and finally Iranian lady decided to stop sharing this story because it was painful memories to her and she just want to forget what happened in the prison.

In Part Two of the book, Nemat said she was arrested on January 15, 1982. She was only 16 years old. Earlier that day in the morning, it was darker and colder than usual. After her father left to work, she made herself a cup of tea and head of to church. She met Andre, an organist guy in the church, they like each other and they had met at the church a few months before. Andre and she haven’t seen each other for a while because she was sick and hadn’t been to the church recently. Andre offered to walk her home because she still look sick. She thought about two of her friends Sarah and Sirus that had been arrested and sent to Evin, political prison. The day that her friends got arrested, she was at home and her mom asked her if her friends have done something wrong, her mom was worried for her. She thought back about principal at her school who was a revolutionary guard and she knew that her name was on the list. Nothing she could do but to wait. The night that she got arrested, she was about to go to shower before the revolutionary guard rang her house bell. The guards went inside her house and straight in to her room, they found western novels. They took her into a car, her parent was shocked and could not help her. The guard drove her to the Evin political prison, they suggested her to tell the truth to avoid the pain. They blindfolded her when they arrived. They brought her into a room, sat her on a chair. Ali, the name of a guy in the room started to questioning her about her Christianity and other questions and she gave him answers. He asked her questions if she was a member of communists or antirevolutionary group, she denied but he did not believe her. Ali continued to request her to give the lists of people who join her groups, she denied to co-operate because she knew nothing about those people. He still did not believe her and thought that she was lied and decided to torch her. Hamehd, a revolutionary guard handcuffed her up on the bed and whipped her feet with cable for 16 times but they still did not get the answer that  they want and he stopped torching her. Ali said that she was stupid try to save other people and hurt herself instead. She asked Ali to go to the bathroom and she collapsed inside. When she woke up she was in the small cell and Ali was still with her and a doctor give her an injection. She thought about her grandmother before went back to sleep.

In Part Three of the book, she wrote about her memories when she was a child. There were four people lived in her house which were her father, her mother, her grandmother, and she. Nemat has one bother but he left home to study at the university. Her mother had a salon and her father own a dance studio.  She was very close to her grandmother, they used to go to the market together in the morning. They went to church together every Sunday, and walked in the park together. Her grandmother was Russian women who met her an Iranian grandfather and followed him to Iran after the world war two. One Sunday Nemat and her grandmother went to visit her grandmother’s friend and her grandmother’s friend offered her an angel figurine gift. Her grandmother’s friend told her that this figurine will be her angle guard. She accept the gift and she was very happy. One afternoon she went to the park with her grandmother again and this time was different. Her grandmother called her different name and her grandmother did not feel well so they went back home earlier than usual. Her parent took her grandmother to the doctor next morning and doctor discovered that she has a liver cancer. Her grandmother knew that she was dying soon and she gave Nemat a box and a key. Inside the box were her written life story that she want Nemat to keep. One morning she woke up and went to her grandmother’s room and discovered that her grandmother was already passed away. Her father was crying and the house was covered by sadness. She said goodbye to her grandmother one last time. She grabbed an angel figurine, she started to pray and she fell asleep. She dreamt about the angel guard and discussed about the death.

In Part Four, she work up in the small cell with the pain on her shoulder. Hamehd was kicking her to wake her up and told her that they will take her to arrest her friends. Hamehd putted her in the car and went to her Minoo’s house which was one of her friend from the school. The guards arrested Minoo and putted Minoo in the car and sat next to her. Minoo was terrified and started to cry. They arrested another 4 people before headed back to the prison. They blindfolded her as soon as they arrived at the prison. She was sitting in the hallway before Hamehd called her name and took her outside with one of the girl. She was stumbled along the way until Hamehd told her to stop walking and removed her blindfolded which later she discovered that she and another 4 prisoners were about to get executed. One of the girl tried to run away and she got shot. The guards tied them all up to the poles, Nemat closed her eyes and prayed, preparing for her death. Just before The guards about to pull the triggers, a sound of speeding car came toward to them. That was Ali with a piece of paper on his hand, and after Hamehd read the paper, the guard untied her and Ali took her in the car. She did not want Ali to take her and she want her life to be ended at this point. Ali took her to the cell and told her that Ayatollah Khomeini, a friend of his father reduced her death to life sentence in prison. She did not want anybody to save her. Ali gave her a bowl of soup and left the cell.  She thought about her friends from school Sarah, Sirus, and Gita before she fell asleep.

In Part Five, she wrote about the time when she was in element school. She had to stay away from her mother’s salon after school, she had to be careful not to spill her drink on the table because she didn’t want to upset her mother. Sometime when she was naughty, her mother would locked her outside the balcony. One day she decided it was better to get punishment rather than being locked up. She dropped pins from the balcony on others people head who were walking on the street, and asked them to talk to her mother to let her inside. Her mother was even more upset with her and scared her by telling her that she was leaving, did not want to handle Nemat's naughtiness anymore. Namet was crying and bagged her mother not to leave. Her mother agreed that she would not leave and exchanged with her good behavior. Nemat accepted the deal. Later after school, Nemat stayed in her room and read the books. Her mother was very happy to see her new behavior. Nemat finished all her books and ask her mother to buy her a new book but her mother only allowed to buy one book a month because of financial problem. Nemat began to save her own money to buy more books. One day she lied to her mother and went to a book store, she met Albert, the owner of the book store. Albert adored her and sold her a book even Nemat did not have enough money. Nemat finished reading the book twice within three days and she wanted a new book. She did not have enough saving and she did not want to ask her mother so she decided to sell her pencil box to her good friend Sarah. After she got the money she went back to a book store to buy a new book but Albert did not charge her this time. He gave her books to borrow. Nemat was very happy. She went to Albert’s book store for 3 years and one day after her twelfth birthday, she went to a book store but all of the books were gone. Albert was moving to the United State to stay with his son. He gave Nemat her favorite books. Nemat was very sad and hugged him to say goodbye.

My response…
I am moved by her stories for what she had been through. What a horrible time of her life that once had been taken away from her happiness. At least those horrible times are over but at the same time I feel sad for those who did not make it or didn’t get a chance tell us their stories. It makes me wonder, how many lives of young innocent people have been sacrificed for our freedom that we take for granted.