Marina Nemat

I'm so excited about working with Carolyn Forde!

Transatlantic is happy to welcome Marina Nemat! 👋🏻

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 ex*****on. She came to Canada in 1991 and has called it home ever since. Her memoir of her life in Iran, PRISONER OF TEHRAN, was published in Canada in 2007, has been published in 30 other countries, and has been an international bestseller.

In 2007, Marina received the inaugural Human Dignity Award from the European Parliament and, in 2008 the Grinzane Prize in Italy. She was the recipient of the Morris Abram Human Rights Award from UN Watch in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2014. In February 2017, she received Premio Ceppo Pistoia, a prestigious award given every year in Tuscany, Italy. In 2008/2009, she was an Aurea Fellow at University of Toronto’s Massey College, where she wrote her second book, AFTER TEHRAN: A LIFE RECLAIMED, published in 2010.

Marina has spoken at high schools, universities, and conferences around the world, including University of Milan, Oxford University, Yale, Tufts, Berkeley, and Stanford, to name a few. She has served on the Board of Directors at the CCVT (Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture), Vigdis (a Norwegian charitable organization that provides legal and other forms of assistance to female political prisoners around the world), Writers in Exile at PEN Canada, and the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation in the U.S.

She has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the School of Continuing Studies at University of Toronto and currently teaches memoir writing at the SCS.

Marina is represented by Carolyn Forde.

Welcome to Transatlantic Marina!

Transatlantic is happy to welcome Marina Nemat! 👋🏻

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 ex*****on. She came to Canada in 1991 and has called it home ever since. Her memoir of her life in Iran, PRISONER OF TEHRAN, was published in Canada in 2007, has been published in 30 other countries, and has been an international bestseller.

In 2007, Marina received the inaugural Human Dignity Award from the European Parliament and, in 2008 the Grinzane Prize in Italy. She was the recipient of the Morris Abram Human Rights Award from UN Watch in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2014. In February 2017, she received Premio Ceppo Pistoia, a prestigious award given every year in Tuscany, Italy. In 2008/2009, she was an Aurea Fellow at University of Toronto’s Massey College, where she wrote her second book, AFTER TEHRAN: A LIFE RECLAIMED, published in 2010.

Marina has spoken at high schools, universities, and conferences around the world, including University of Milan, Oxford University, Yale, Tufts, Berkeley, and Stanford, to name a few. She has served on the Board of Directors at the CCVT (Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture), Vigdis (a Norwegian charitable organization that provides legal and other forms of assistance to female political prisoners around the world), Writers in Exile at PEN Canada, and the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation in the U.S.

She has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the School of Continuing Studies at University of Toronto and currently teaches memoir writing at the SCS.

Marina is represented by Carolyn Forde.

Welcome to Transatlantic Marina!

I am so happy that my short nonfiction story, Red Shoe, has been longlisted for CBC’s Nonfiction Prize! I have been unable to post the link on Facebook becaise it’s a news story. So ridiculous. But you can go to CBC’s website and look for long list nonfiction prize 2023.

https://jordanharbinger.com/799
A podcast with Jordan Harbinger. Let me know what you think!

Marina Nemat | Surviving Inside an Iranian Prison | Jordan Harbinger Human rights activist Marina Nemat is the author of Prisoner of Tehran: One Woman's Story of Survival Inside an Iranian Prison.

A part of one of the messages that has brought me peace (from a 17-year-old boy): "I come from Iraq and I absolutely love Iran's culture and history . I listened to a podcast you were featured on . and to be honest i have never really felt emotions or really anything while listening to someone's story or sadness whether online or face to face but yours extremely touched me even though we do not share the same suffering i still felt the pain in your voice and the fact you had to laugh throughout the podcast episode and crack a few jokes here and there really amazes me..."

A New Year's wish:

The red bird's song
Is a magnificent beauty
Carved from feathers and flight,
More so now than ever
When the lake is white and smooth
And the cold unforgiving.
Is it singing about grace and forgiveness?
Is it asking how to be kind
In the midst of cruelties and loss?

The pause of the deer
Is a moment of silence deeper than the cutting wind,
So I wish you peace,
The kind that the forest gave me wrapped in a leaf,
and I let it swim in the waters of June,
All the way to the turtle that lives in the bay of happiness.

I hope the gift breathes under the ice
and gives and loves in firestorms and blizzards of disappointments and regret and the memory of all that's gone.
May it keep us steady, warm, wise, and furious
In our own mysterious, unmapped ways.

-Marina Nemat

Thank you, Wendy Kaur, for this article in Elle US.

Marina Nemat Was Nearly Executed in Iran When She Was 16. Now, She Looks at Her Home Country With Fear—And Hope When Mahsa Amini died in police custody this September, Nemat had an unshakeable feeling: Amini’s fate could have easily been her own.

The brutality and massacre in the hands of the Iranian regime is not new, but it has now risen to the surface. This is chapter 12, from "Prisoner of Tehran":
"Early in the afternoon of May 1, 1982, Taraneh and five other girls were called to Evin's office over the loudspeaker. Silence fell upon the prison. Everyone knew that the other five girls from this group were sentenced to death, but I was the only one who knew about Taraneh. As usual, Taraneh was sitting in a corner reading the Koran. She was the only one who had been called from our room. Everyone froze and stared at her. She stood up as if she were going for a little walk to stretch her legs. I went toward her, but she looked at me and shook her head. She grabbed her small bag, which was hanging from a hook, and her larger bag, which was on top of the shelf, walked over to me, and pushed them in my arms.
“You know I don’t have much stuff. This is it. Find a good way of getting them to my parents.”
I nodded. She put on her chador and walked out the door. I knew that my friend was going to her death. If I screamed until my throat bled, if I hit my head against the wall until my skull cracked, it would not save her. With Taraneh’s bags in my arms, I stood in the middle of the room for a long time until my legs gave out. All day, not a word was said. We preserved the silence as if it were capable of preserving life, of performing a miracle. We waited, prayed, and cried silently, our lips moving without a sound. But the day came to a silent end and the horizon filled with reds and purples and the night crawled into the air. We listened for gunshots, and soon they came, as if glass clouds were falling from the sky."

Woman, Life, Freedom! This is "Colour of Freedom" for all who have suffered from the tyranny of the Islamic Republic.

https://imanhabibi.bandcamp.com/track/colour-of-freedom?fbclid=IwAR2yd5MvatyUKAPq-qo3rBTgWwf8IkLF68MsPwNSbLKCC59dkiPOOF_X42I

Colour of Freedom, by Iman Habibi, Amir Haghighi, Timothy Corlis, Vancouver Peace Choir track by Iman Habibi

If you are in Toronto on Saturday October 29, please go to this amazing event. The choir will be singing “Colour of Freedom”. I wrote the words, and the amazingly talented Iman Habibi wrote the specracular music! Don’t miss it! And it is so timely in support of brave Iranian women!

2022-23 Orpheus Concert Season: Journeys The Orpheus Choir of Toronto announces it's 2022-23 concert season, Journeys, exploring themes of social importance, and collaborating with artists from diverse choral and cultural traditions.

The Revolutionary Guard arrested me at home late at night when I was 16. Some of my schoolmates were taken from school in broad daylight. We were tortured, beaten, held in solitary confinement, and some of us r***d. many were hanged or murdered by firing squad. Arresting schoolgirls in Iran is nothing new. Atrocities continue. The murderers who did this should have been stopped a long time ago. Now it seems like their days are finally numbered.

I am so worried about Evin’s political prisoners, who are some of Iran’s best. The regime lies and lies, so we can’t believe what they say about what happened in Evin and what was the cause of the massive fire and gunshots.

Evin prison fire: Several dead after fire at Iran's notorious detention centre It is unclear if the fire is linked to recent protests, but many protesters are being held at Evin prison.

My fifteen-year-old classmate, Shahnoosh Behzadi, was executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the fall of 1981. Forty-one years ago. She was the sweetest, kindest person I have ever known. She was tortured and then executed. She was brutally murdered about 3 months before I was arrested. There are many mass graves in Iran. They scream to be opened. We need memorials. We must talk about these atrocities. We must remember. We must learn. These days, the horrors of Evin are alive in my body and soul. I remember. I remember. I remember. And I hope that one day, Iran will know and remember, too.

A little chat about Iran and the protests...

Conversation with Marina Nemat Marina gives us a brief history lesson on Iran and provides some explanations as to why there is unrest now. She also gives some insights as to why many Iranians have chosen to live in Richmond Hill. Marina Nemat – Author

Just wrote an opinion piece for the CNN.

Opinion: In Iran, beauty is a mortal sin | CNN Mahsa Amini is dead because she let the world see a few locks of her hair. She was 22-years-old, beautiful, and full of hope and promise, writes Iranian human rights activist Marina Nemat.

A new podcast. I've already received lovely notes from listeners.

Podcast | This Is Actually Happening This Is Actually Happening is a podcast about what happens when everything changes