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Title: My Life as a Traitor: An Iranian Memoir
ISBN: 0374217300
Author:
Zarah Ghahramani
Publicate Date: 2007-12-26
Publish: 2007-12-26
List Price: $23.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.24
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Two worlds in conflict
This book is an overwhelmingly sensitive personal insight into the conflict between tyranny and freedom. It deals directly with the inherent conflict 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 Ayatolahs. 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.
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2: A fascinating (true) tale of cruelty and hope
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.
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3: Lays bare the deep cultural divide running through Iranian society
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.
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4: Should be required reading
This is a story of a woman's ordeal of humiliation and torture for no reason other than she desired some small freedoms in her life and the lives of her people.
With much of what we see in the news daily, it is easy to see Iran and its entire people as our enemy. This is not the case and we should never forget the people there who long to just be allowed to wear pink shoes and feel the sun on their hair.
Well done Zarah, great book, I hope everyone reads it and I am happy to know that you have found freedom and peace. I pray that the country of Iran will also find freedom and that it's people will know the joy of pink shoes and sunshine.
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5: my life as a traitor
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.
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