My Life as a Traitor: An Iranian Memoir

At age twenty, Iranian student Zarah Ghahramani was arrested on the streets of Tehran and taken to Evin prison, where political dissidents and criminals were held in brutal conditions. Her arrest followed an act of modest defiance: adjusting her headscarf to feel sunlight on her hair. This led her to political activism driven by youthful idealism, despite her parents' pleas for caution. In prison, Ghahramani endured psychological and physical torture. She maintained her sanity by scratching messages to fellow prisoners on latrine doors and drew strength from memories of her childhood in an affectionate family that valued tolerance and freedom of thought. After a show trial, she was driven into the desert outside Tehran, uncertain whether she would be executed or released. She was left to walk back alone. Ghahramani's memoir recounts these experiences and examines how power seduces and deforms. Written in prose of dignity and force, the book documents her individual struggle against state oppression and her journey to reclaim herself.