Marina Nemat is an Iranian author and former prisoner of conscience imprisoned at the age of 16 for criticizing Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime. During her two-year incarceration in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison, Nemat was interrogated, tortured, faced execution, and coerced to marry a prison guard who had raped her. After the guard was killed, Nemat was released and fled to Canada. “Prisoner of Tehran,” her memoir chronicling her experiences in Iran was published in 2007 became an international bestseller. Nemat’s second book, “After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed,” was published in 2010 and recounts her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt. Nemat was the recipient of the European Parliament’s inaugural Human Dignity Prize in 2007, the Grinzane Prize in 2008, and the Morris Abram Human Rights Award from UN Watch in 2014. Nemat was an Aurea Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College. She sits on the board of directors for the Canadian Center for Victims of Torture and currently teaches memoir writing at the University of Toronto.