My Life as a Traitor

My Life as a Traitor (2008) by Zarah Ghahramani. At the age of 20, Ghahramani was arrested and taken to Iran's infamous Evin Prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held in conditions of legendary brutality. Born in 1981, she had lived her entire life under the Mullahs, the fundamentalist Muslims who had overthrown the Shah and still rule Iran. Not realizing the seriousness of her actions, she had joined in student protests at the university where she went, and now found herself in serious trouble. At Evin, she was subjected to psychological and physical torture and beatings, forced to undergo grueling interrogations and other humiliations. But she managed to hold on to her sanity, and her story makes for insightful reading about Iran and its people. Grade: B+