Marina Nemat is an Iranian author and former prisoner of conscience.
A young civic activist, she was imprisoned at the age of 16 for criticizing Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime. During her incarceration in the infamous Evin Prison, she was tortured and faced execution, but was rescued by a prison guard.
Her reprieve came at a heavy price however: the guard guaranteed her safety, and that of her friends and family, if she converted to Islam and married him. Nemat did so and has been courageously outspoken about her experiences in the forced marriage that followed, including the sexual abuse she suffered.
After her husband died, she remarried and fled to Canada with her new husband in 1991. She has since published two books: Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir, and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed.
