Customer Reviews

My Life as a Traitor: An Iranian Memoir

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Zarah takes us through her days in Evin, a notorious prison in Iran. She spends 30 days of sheer torture for making comments and protests against the government. She gives us a history of her childhood, the politics in Iran, and information on her family dynamics. Every other chapter discusses what happened to her in Evin Prison (she was brutally beat and humiliated). It's hard to believe someone could go through what she went through. She is an excellent writer, intelligent, and strong (although she doubts her strength often throughout the book). I would love to see a follow up to this book on how she coped after getting out and how she feels living away from her family (she now lives in Australia).

This is one of the tougher books to review because I had mixed feelings while reading this book. On the one hand, I was frustrated with the author's maddening (at least from my point of view) level of naivete, self-indulgence, tendency towards moral relativism, and obvious hypocrisy in regards to life and how the world work etc... On the otherhand... the author readily admits to the above shortcomings (perhaps not the moral relativism) with astonishingly honesty and clarity. It's an amazingly well written book; easy to read, insightful, entertaining, horrific at times etc... and most importantly--> written with complete honesty. All of which makes one want a part II of the author's story post Iran. Highly recommended.

This is one of the most moving memoirs I have ever read. It is the story of Zarah, a college student who dares to become involved with her fellow students as a political activist. She is snatched off the street one day and sent to Evin prison. Only after being beaten and tortured for days is she allowed her day in court, though she has already been pronounced guilty.

Zarah's story is told in alternating chapters. One chapter will talk about her days in Evin, while the next tells part of her life story up until the time of her arrest. The latter chapters provide a fascinating insight into what life in Iran is like for young women.

Although very difficult to read, this book is also very inspiring. Zarah somehow manages to hang onto her humanity despite the brutal treatment she receives at Evin, and thanks to her courage we are able to read her fascinating story.

This book is an overwhelmingly sensitive personal insight into the conflict between tyranny and freedom. It deals directly with the inherent tension between the impulse to personal liberty and the drive to control. While dealing primarily with the unspeakable acts of a tyrannical regime, it also shows that tyranny does not require government, but it can exist wherever one person tries to force control on the thoughts and actions of others, even within one's own family. One is reminded of the vicious outbursts on the Huffington Post and MoveOn.org against anyone who disagrees politically. There is little distinction in basic motivation between those in the US government who want to impose the "Fairness Doctrine" on radio talk show hosts in order to shut down opposing opinions and the torture chambers in the Evin Prison under the Ayatollahs. The only difference is in the methods chosen to achieve the desired effect.

Zarah's story should remind us how tenuous is our hold on freedom and liberty. It has been said that a free society is always just one generation away from tyranny. The zealotry of Zarah's cousin shows how deadly ideology can become when it tramples on the rights of others.

This is a beautifully written book. Although it is plain that Zarah had some help with the English language, the spirit of the book is just as obviously entirely her own. With all of its inherent terror, it is also deeply optimistic in that it portrays how the spirit of ancient Persia remains vital and provides a well of resistance that no violence by the Mullahs can ever completely extinguish. This must become essential reading for all people everywhere who cherish freedom and personal responsibility.

that there are still places in the world where such atrocities still exist against women and those who speak out for their freedoms. Zarah Ghahramani gives us a glimpse at her life as a 20 year old college student who wants to learn more about the world and new ideas that don't exist in the one she's living in which ultimately lands her in the infamous Evin Prison in Iran where she is tortured daily.

This should be required reading for all that take the freedoms that we have in the good old U.S.A. for granted. My only fault with this book was the ending. I wanted to know more of the family reaction after she was released, how she managed to get out of Iran and how her new life is progressing.

Highly recommended!

This searing, moving account of torture and imprisonment, as Patrick Clawson wrote in the Middle East Quarterly, could come from any totalitarian country where secret police meticulously record the activities of even the most innocent dissidents, apolitical people who simply want a little free space in their lives. Ghahramani's account of her interrogation in Tehran's Evin Prison is deeply personal and not particularly political in a grand philosophical sense. She comes across as someone who wants to be able to live her life to the fullest, not as a determined democrat burning to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Islamist thugs who control Iran. Indeed, in her approach to life she seems very much like an average American university student.

The contrast between Ghahramani and her prison interrogators could not be more extreme. She is thoroughly Westernized, fully committed to such Enlightenment values as individual self-worth and the inalienability of human freedom. Her interrogators are traditional Middle Easterners, valuing faith above reason, blind devotion above thought, conspiracy theories above facts, personal ties above the law, and groveling before authority figures above asserting their individuality. My Life as a Traitor lays bare the deep cultural divide running through Iranian society.

The book also fleshes out why "totalitarian" is such an apt adjective for Iran's Islamic Republic. Ghahramani shows how the regime is determined to control even the smallest aspects of each person's life. She is shown pictures of her entering and leaving a male student's apartment--a grave offense against the state even though they were simply friends studying together. Comments she made in class that were implicitly critical of the regime were carefully recorded. And of course, partying is an unpardonable crime: Western music would be sin enough, let alone that the women may have been unveiled; people may have danced (even worse, possibly even as couples), and alcohol may have been served.

In such a society, the very concept of liberty is subversive. Ghahramani's account makes clear the striking similarities between Iran's Islamic Republic and fascist Germany or the communist Soviet Union. The obvious differences in the ruling ideology in these three cases is in many ways less what makes them different from the West than the totalitarian control that the three share.

This is an excellent, touching and mesmerizing story of courage and suffering. Ghahramani reveals her innemorst feelings throughout in a disarming way. Well written and interesting from the first to the last page. Brutality and torture are described vividly, yet not in a crude or brutal way. A good read and a must for everyone.

I read this book when it first came out. It has been on my Amazon list since then. I received it last Friday. It came in very good condition! I'm happy I waited.

What a beautiful, moving and emotional memoir! Ms. Ghahramani writes in detail about her days spent at Evin Prison. She shares with her readers her honest thoughts and feelings - she holds nothing back. How wonderfully Ms. Ghahramani intertwined her chapters - those about her horrifying days as a prisoner with those about her childhood and even some history of Iran.

Well written, interesting and a page-turner. After holding my breath throughout the book, I finally let my emotions go at the very end and cried uncontrollably.

I would love to find out more about what Ms. Ghahramani's life was like after she went home - about her healing process and when/how did she leave Iran.

Finished this book in one sitting and cried my way through most of it. Yes, it's somewhat simplistically written, but the author's experience is an everyday experience in Iran. For both men and women, when someone is arrested, and even more so since the election this year (2009), there are forced confessions to crimes not committed, rape, torture and a whole lot more that could fill several volumes. This was their 1979 revolution? This is how a theocracy treats its people?

The spirit of the author, and many thousands more like her, is to be revered and absorbed. I read this book in 2007 and it often comes to mind. It's not only a credit to her that she survived to tell the tale (many don't), but to inspire others with courage, tenacity and survival at such a young age, in my mind, is the secondary point of telling the story. The primary point is to remind us that this is happening every day in places like Iran, while we go about our daily lives, often oblivious to the everyday imprisonment and torture of innocent people in many countries, not just Iran.