Marina
Nemat was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran. After the Islamic Revolution
of 1979, she was arrested at the age of sixteen and spent more than
two years in Evin, a political prison in Tehran, where she was tortured
and came very close to execution. She came to Canada in 1991 and
has called it home ever since. In 2005, she was a finalist in the
CBC Literary Awards in the Creative Non-Fiction Category, and in
2006, she produced a documentary named Walls like Snakes for
CBC Radio. Her memoir of her life in Iran, Prisoner of Tehran,
was published in Canada by Penguin Canada in April 2007, has so far
been published in 23 other countries, and has been an international
bestseller. MacLean’s Magazine has called it “…one
of the finest (memoirs) ever written by a Canadian,” and The
New York Times has called it “…a Gripping
personal history…” On December 15, 2007, Marina Nemat
received the inaugural Human Dignity Award from the European Parliament.
She has been offered a fellowship at University of Toronto’s
Massey College, where she begins working on her new project, which
is about the effects of torture on children, in June 2008.
Marina
Nemat was born in 1965 in Tehran, Iran. After the Islamic Revolution
of 1979, she was arrested at the age of sixteen and spent more than
two years in Evin, a political prison in Tehran, where she was tortured
and came very close to execution. She came to Canada in 1991 and
has called it home ever since. In 2005, she was a finalist in the
CBC Literary Awards in the Creative Non-Fiction Category, and in
2006, she produced a documentary named Walls like Snakes for
CBC Radio. Her memoir of her life in Iran, Prisoner of Tehran,
was published in Canada by Penguin Canada in April 2007, has so far
been published in 23 other countries, and has been an international
bestseller. MacLean’s Magazine has called it “…one
of the finest (memoirs) ever written by a Canadian,” and The
New York Times has called it “…a Gripping
personal history…” On December 15, 2007, Marina Nemat
received the inaugural Human Dignity Award from the European Parliament.
She has been offered a fellowship at University of Toronto’s
Massey College, where she begins working on her new project, which
is about the effects of torture on children, in June 2008.
Watch "The
Story of Dance in Iran" narrated (in Persian) by Marina's father 
