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My Life as a Traitor by Zarah GhahramaniCry her beloved country
Date: June 23 2007
Emily Dunn
ZARAH GHAHRAMANI'S story of torture and abuse in the grip of Iran's secret police, of protesting in the streets and of her bare-skinned defiance of Sharia dress code appears to make her an ideal pin-up girl for groups in the West opposed to the regime of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.
Ghahramani was given just such an opportunity earlier this year when meeting publishers in the United States for the release of My Life as a Traitor, her memoir and account of a month spent in Tehran's feared Evin prison. She said no.
Robert Hillman, a writer from Victoria's Yarra Valley and Ghahramani's co-author, could not understand at first why she would reject an alliance that would have raised her profile and helped her book become a potential bestseller
"They told her there were virulent anti-regime groups in the United States and they asked whether Zarah would be prepared to address them at meetings and cater to their take on the regime. She wasn't prepared to be recruited in that way," Hillman says. "She wasn't prepared to compromise herself."
I love my country to death," Ghahramani explains. "I have a passion for it. I love what I had and I hope one day I will get it back. Besides, it is a book about oppression. There are people who are seriously oppressed in the United States and around the world. It could happen anywhere."
She was born in Tehran in 1981 - two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic, overthrowing the US-supported Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi - to a Kurdish-Iranian father and Zoroastrian mother. Ghahramani grew up with comparatively more freedom of expression than that permitted under Islamic law outside the home. Among family and friends she could remove her veil, argue and discuss politics with her father and was considered equal to her brothers and male cousins.
Read more...
Available in Australia (released June 23rd) at all good bookstores.
Not yet available in the USA, but you can pre-order at Amazon.com:
Date: June 23 2007
Emily Dunn
ZARAH GHAHRAMANI'S story of torture and abuse in the grip of Iran's secret police, of protesting in the streets and of her bare-skinned defiance of Sharia dress code appears to make her an ideal pin-up girl for groups in the West opposed to the regime of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei.
Ghahramani was given just such an opportunity earlier this year when meeting publishers in the United States for the release of My Life as a Traitor, her memoir and account of a month spent in Tehran's feared Evin prison. She said no.
Robert Hillman, a writer from Victoria's Yarra Valley and Ghahramani's co-author, could not understand at first why she would reject an alliance that would have raised her profile and helped her book become a potential bestseller
"They told her there were virulent anti-regime groups in the United States and they asked whether Zarah would be prepared to address them at meetings and cater to their take on the regime. She wasn't prepared to be recruited in that way," Hillman says. "She wasn't prepared to compromise herself."
I love my country to death," Ghahramani explains. "I have a passion for it. I love what I had and I hope one day I will get it back. Besides, it is a book about oppression. There are people who are seriously oppressed in the United States and around the world. It could happen anywhere."
She was born in Tehran in 1981 - two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic, overthrowing the US-supported Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi - to a Kurdish-Iranian father and Zoroastrian mother. Ghahramani grew up with comparatively more freedom of expression than that permitted under Islamic law outside the home. Among family and friends she could remove her veil, argue and discuss politics with her father and was considered equal to her brothers and male cousins.
Read more...
Available in Australia (released June 23rd) at all good bookstores.
Not yet available in the USA, but you can pre-order at Amazon.com:
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