My Life as a Traitor

The biography focuses on analysing the life of the author, Zarah Ghahramani and her imprisonment in the infamous Evin Prison. After taking part in student demonstrations at Tehran University,^[5] Ghahramani was taken, by police, from the streets of Tehran and put into this prison, where she was tortured and beaten.^[3] When in prison, she was subject to not only beatings, but psychological torture, only retaining her sanity via scratching messages to fellow prisoners.^[1] She is kept in the prison for almost one month, and is released after being driven to a distant desert outside of Tehran, where, at the time, she was unsure of her fate and whether or not she would be executed or released.^[1]

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented that "she [Ghahramani] recounts her beatings with dignified anger in this vivid, sometimes horrifying memoir, My Life as a Traitor mixing scenes from prison with sensual memories of her life before what her father called the regime of the primitives."^[6] Firoozeh Dumas comments that the book is "a compelling story...a must read for anyone interested in understanding the complex nation that is Iran."^[7] The Sunday Telegraph wrote that the book is "Beautifully written, it's horrifying, enlightening and, ultimately, uplifting."^[8] The book was shortlisted for the 2008 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.