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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Marina Nemat say to the boat? You're dock-ing on my time.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Prisoner of Tehran)

Marina Nemat
Born (1965-04-22) 22 April 1965 (age 61)
Tehran, Iran

Marina Nemat (Persian: مارینا نِمت, Russian: Марина Немат; born 22 April 1965) is the author of two memoirs about her life growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and fleeing Iran to go live in Canada.

Life

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Nemat's grandmothers were both Russian, and she was brought up in a Russian Orthodox Christian family in Tehran.[1] Both her grandmothers had married Iranian men before the Russian Revolution of 1917, and all four of her grandparents fled from Russia to Iran as part of the wave of migration that started after the revolution.[2][3][4][5] Her father worked as a dance teacher, her mother as a hairdresser. She was a high school student when the secularizing monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution. As a student Marina Nemat opposed the oppressive policies of the new Islamic government, attended demonstrations and wrote anti-revolutionary articles in a student newspaper.[6]

On 15 January 1982, at age 16, Nemat was arrested and imprisoned for her views against the revolution.[6] She was tortured in Evin Prison and sentenced to death. She was rescued by a prison guard, who also obtained commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment. However, after five months of imprisonment, it became clear that the guard had developed an attachment to Nemat and intended to force her to marry him.[7] Nemat married the guard and was released from prison; he was later assassinated.[6]

Nemat later married Andre Nemat.[8] They escaped to Canada in 1991 and have two sons. Nemat worked at the Aurora franchise of the Swiss Chalet restaurant chain, and wrote her life story into the book Prisoner of Tehran.[6][7]

Nemat sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) and Vigdis, a Norwegian charitable organization that provides assistance to female political prisoners around the world.[9] In addition, she is the chair of the Writers in Exile Committee at PEN Canada, a member of the International Council of the Oslo Freedom Forum, and has been a volunteer at her church’s Refugee Committee since 2010.[10][11]

Literary career

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Her book Prisoner of Tehran (2012) has been published in 28 countries and has been an international bestseller.[12][13] In April 2012, a theatre adaptation of the book was staged at the Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto under the direction of Maja Ardal.[14] In 2014, Nemat collaborated with Motus O dance theatre to create a multi-disciplinary work based upon the memoir "that merges spoken word, dance and theatre." In November 2016 the production was performed at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.[15][16]

She was an Aurea Fellow at Massey College, Toronto, in 2008/2009, where she authored her second book, After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, which was released in 2010.[11][17]

She authored a third book, Mistress of the Persian Boarding House, a work of historical fiction inspired by the life of her paternal grandmother, released in July 2026.[18][19]

She is a graduate of the certificate program in creative writing at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto,[20] where she now teaches memoir writing part-time.[21] She speaks about her experiences to high school classes, universities, and conferences.[22] She is a regular participant in the Oslo Freedom Forum.[10] In 2012 she was a guest speaker at the San Francisco Freedom Forum of the Human Rights Foundation.[23]

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Nemat, Marina (2008). Prisoner of Tehran. Free Press. ISBN 978-1-416-53743-4.
  • Nemat, Marina (2010). After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed. Viking Canada. ISBN 978-0-670-06462-5.
  • Doda, Christopher; Nemat, Marina, eds. (2017). The Best Canadian Essays 2017. Tightrope Books. ISBN 9781988040356.
  • Nemat, Marina (2026). Mistress of the Persian Boarding House. Viking. ISBN 978-1-037-80331-4.

Awards

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Marina Nemat was awarded the first Human Dignity Prize in December 2007, given by the European Parliament. The Human Dignity Prize celebrates "those working toward a world free of intolerance and social injustice."[24]

In 2014, she was awarded the Morris B. Abram Human Rights Award by UN Watch in Geneva.[25]

References

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  1. ↑ Nordlinger, Jay; Nemat, Marina (15 January 2020). "The Terrible Drama of Iran". Ricochet Q & A (Podcast). Archived from the original on 29 April 2023.
  2. ↑ Nemat, Marina. "Christmas" (PDF). marinanemat.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2019.
  3. ↑ Nemat, Marina (2008). Prisoner of Tehran: One Woman's Story of Survival Inside an Iranian Prison. Simon and Schuster. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4165-3743-4.
  4. ↑ Nemat, Marina (29 January 2017). "'I have seen this before. We will not go silently.'". Maclean's. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Bouquet, Tim (21 April 2007). "Pact with the devil". The Telegraph.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Shephard, Michelle (30 January 2005). "The woman without a past". Toronto Star. p. A5.
  7. 1 2 Shephard, Michelle (22 April 2007). "My home, my horror: An Aurora mother's book details her prison ordeal in Iran". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.
  8. ↑ "Flight from Iran". Ottawa Citizen. 15 April 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
  9. ↑ "Marina Nemat Iranian author and former prisoner of conscience, jailed at the age of 16 for protesting Ayatollah Khomeini's brutal regime". Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022.
  10. 1 2 "Marina Nemat". Oslo Freedom Forum. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  11. 1 2 "Award-Winning Author Marina Nemat to Deliver Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights". 2026-07-12. St. Thomas University.
  12. ↑ McDevitt, Neale (20 March 2013). "Marina Nemat: Testifying for Iran's dead political prisoners". McGill Reporter. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  13. ↑ Wildman, Sarah (6 January 2008). "Caught in the Ayatollah's Web". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Soon, Winston (22 April 2012). "Prisoner of Tehran: A true story (Theatre Passe Muraille)". Mooney on Theatre. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  15. ↑ Cook, Alex (6 June 2017). "Saint John's Imperial Theatre Announces Their Twenty Fourth Season". The East.
  16. ↑ "Canadian imprisoned as teenager in Iran brings performance about her ordeal to CMHR". Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 16 November 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  17. ↑ Roy, Piali (4 November 2010). "After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed". Quill and Quire. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "Mistress of the Persian Boarding House". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  19. ↑ Rideout, Kelsey (26 June 2025). "DEAL NEWS - MISTRESS OF THE PERSIAN BOARDING HOUSE by Marina Nemat!". Transatlantic Agency. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "Marina Nemat, Writer". University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
  21. ↑ "Marina Nemat, Writer". School of Continuing Studies - University of Toronto. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  22. ↑ "Marina Nemat speaks at Acton University 2013". Acton Institute. 19 June 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  23. ↑ "2012 OFF in San Francisco". Human Rights Foundation. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
  24. ↑ "In Pursuit of Human Dignity". U of T Magazine. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  25. ↑ Lungen, Paul (20 May 2014). "UN Watch to honour Kenney for 'moral courage'". The Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
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