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 incarceration for two years in the infamous Evin Prison, she was interrogated, tortured, faced execution, and was raped by prison guard who she was coerced to marry. After the guard was killed, Nemat was released and fled to Canada. “Prisoner of Tehran,” her memoir, was an international bestseller and is currently being adapted for film. Nemat’second book, “After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed,” was published in 2010 and recounts her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt.After Nemat was released from prison, she remarried and fled to Canada with her husband in 1991. Nemat was the recipient of the European Parliament’s inaugural Human Dignity Prize in 2007. Nemat was an Aurea Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College. Currently, she sits on the board of directors for the Canadian Center for Victims of Torture and teaches memoir writing at the University of Toronto.
