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 * //Prisoner of Tehran//** **By Marina Nemat**

This packet is the product of collaboration between Barbara Hodne, K. C. Harrison and Kris Cory, along with essential contributions and feedback from colleagues in PsTL and CEHD. It is designed to support effective student learning and development through work with //Prisoner of Tehran//.

1. Introduction to working with //Prisoner of Tehran//
 * Table of Contents**

2. Connecting Prisoner of Tehran to FYI and FYE components

3. Chronology of Events in book

4. Unit Guides: Major Topics/Themes, Chapter Synopses and Suggested Topics for Discussion and Reflection
 * Part 1: Chapters 1 – 8
 * Part 2: Chapters 9 – 15
 * Part 3: Chapters 16 – end

5. In Class Group Work Ideas

6. Writing Assignments and Blue Book Questions

7. Additional Resources

**1. Introduction to Working with __Prisoner of Tehran__**
Nemat’s memoir is an extraordinary story. A girl is imprisoned without more radical cause than an expectation that her calculus class would focus on calculus. After imprisonment, she escapes execution because a prison guard falls in love with her. He seeks a pardon for her from the Ayatolla himself, and pulls her away from her death at the last moment possible. She is forced to marry this guard to save her family and herself. Ironically, the guard’s family provides her with a sense of intimacy and connection that she never knew in her own. When her guard/husband is killed, his family is instrumental in securing her release from prison and returning her to her home of origin.

The sometimes unfathomable circumstances Marina Nemat recounts might recall Paul Rusesabagina’s unflinching account of what people are capable of (both the good and the bad) in times of crisis. In //Prisoner of Tehran//, however, Nemat does not position herself as a hero in the way that Rusesabagina does (while continuing to insist he is “an ordinary man”.) Still, Nemat’s memoir explores many themes that have been brought forward by both of our previous common books, //An Ordinary Man// and //A Lesson Before Dying//: belonging and community, understanding across difference, agency and restraint, revenge and forgiveness, and silence and voice.

Each person and each FYI team or learning community will find their own way to use this book, to connect it to other important ideas, resources and texts that fit your style and concerns, and the focus of your classes. Don’t feel obligated to “teach the book” like a literature instructor; rather, we hope you will approach the book as a prompt for discussion and reflection around important topics and skills that are central to our FYI class, our FYE program, and our department and college mission. (See Connecting to FYE goals, below).

· It is not critical that students master every name, political event or episode in the book. Depending on what themes you choose to emphasize, you will use specific information in the book to provide support or evidence for developing those particular ideas.
 * A few things to remember**:

· Many of the themes in this book connect well to all of our first-year programming. Engaging diversity (developing collaboration and community), and effective communication (the power of written/spoken voice), for instance, are central to learning and development outcomes of 1525W.

· What you choose to emphasize will, of course, depend upon your course’s disciplinary perspective and the the elements of the text and the themes that best fit your FYI team’s interest and focus.

o For example: The food-themed FYI might work with the book by examining the way that cooking and food represent a connection and form of nurturing and community for Marina with her husband’s family that she was deprived of in her own family. Students might take the issue of prison conditions from the book and work outside the book by researching food and nutrition in prisons here in the US.

The idea is that there is not one correct way to work with the book. The aim of this packet is to spur ideas.


 * FYI reminders:**

However you choose to engage the book, remember that:

a) Marina will be here on November 10, so students should have finished or begun work with the book at this point;

b) Providing time for both open discussion and structured assignments is important;

c) You can integrate themes from the book into topics for other assignments. Required elements for writing assignments in the Writing Intensive FYI include: common book-related writing, experiential writing, reflective (journal) writing, and research-based writing, the capstone presentation. Your work with Nemat’s memoir can accomplish or be connected to many of these.

**2. Connecting** //**Prisoner of Tehran**// **to FYI and FYE Components**
The four SLOs and SDOs for 1525W provide a framework for thinking about how to use //Prisoner of Tehran//. Each outcome engages themes that connect to many aspects of Nemat's story and emphasize core concerns of FYE and PsTL.


 * 1) **engaging diversity** (working together, amidst difference; forming community, amidst difference);
 * 2) fostering **accountability and responsibility** (development of an individual moral compass, reflecting on the individual in relationship to family, community and other institutions, examining the shaping and function of ideals and ideology);
 * 3) developing **effective citizenship and integrated learning** (consideration of how knowledge and skills can be applied to our daily lives, and how these translate across areas of study, across communities, and across a variety of activities and work as we continue to develop)**;** and
 * 4) **effective communication** (exploring writing as a framework to give experience meaning, writing as healing, writing as public action) --

In the chart below, we have mapped how teachers might connect central themes in //Prisoner of Tehran// with the Student Learning Outcomes and Student Development Outcomes for 1525W, the common question, and StrengthsQuest activities. Many of these course components overlap or reinforce similar concepts and threads in the memoir.
 * Engaging Diversity (SLO) || **In the book**: Nemat provides some sense of history and the diversity of Iranian society, including Marina’s family’s own religious and ethnic background; Marina makes connections across difference within many communities (family, church, inmates, friends, nation)

(SLO) || **In the book**: Marina makes choices that have major consequences for herself and others, including choices related to religion, marriage, sexuality, and when and with whom to share her story. She exercises many forms of agency but also faces many forms of restraint. What values or ethics guide her choices? How does she address questions of revenge and forgiveness?
 * In class**: Students might consider their own background and communities they are part of ||
 * Accountability/Responsibility

Integrated Learning/ Lifelong Learning (SDO) || **In the book**: Nemat includes early stories about her relationships with her parents, her grandmother, her school, her first love, etc. How do these early experiences shape Marina and what role do they play in her future development and actions? What supports and defines Marina’s sense of responsibility to herself and to others?
 * In class**: Students might consider own choices and consequences of choices – what forms of agency are open to them and what restraints limit their agency? ||
 * Effective Citizenship

(SDO) || **In the book**: At the end of the memoir, Nemat advocates speaking out and telling stories. We also see the power of the written and spoken word highlighted in other places: the bookstore, her friend’s body, at protests, etc.
 * In class**: Students might consider experiences that we learn from and how we apply them to other areas of our life. ||
 * Effective Communication


 * In class**: students might ask what issues in the world around them that demand attention? What stories need to be told, written about, publicized? What needs to be communicated and how does context (not only audience, subject, and purpose, but also political and institutional demands or restrainsts) determine or affect what approaches to communicating can be used and which will be most effective? ||
 * StrengthsQuest || **In the book**: Marina, even at a young age, seems to know her own strengths and weaknesses; she sees certain experiences and events as ways to developing talents into strengths, Marina is able to see others’ strengths (even her captor’s) and this enables her often to communicate across difference.


 * In class**: Students might identify own strengths and abilities and how these might be honed in important ways to facilitate development in challenging areas. ||

**3. Unit Guides:** **Major Topics/Themes, Chapter Synopses and Suggested Topics for Discussion and Reflection**
This reading guide divides the book into three “chunks”; we envisioned the readings to be spread over three weeks, but you should feel free to decide for yourselves how much time to devote to the book and what kind of reading schedule fits your course. The reading guide, the sample activities and projects that follow are meant to inspire. We hope you will take pieces that you are interested in, toss out pieces you are not, and revise everything in ways that work well for you and your team.

** Chronology of events in the book **

 * April 22, 1965 Marina is born
 * Sept 7, 1978 Jaleh Square massacre
 * Nov 4, 1979 Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam seize American embassy & 52 hostages Jan 16, 1979 Shah is forced in exile
 * February 1979 Khomeini returns from exile
 * 1980 Iran/Iraq war
 * Early 1980 Abolhassan Banisadr becomes first elected president of Iran (p. 133)
 * June 1981 Banisadr impeached for opposing executions and warning against dictatorship (165)
 * August 1981 Banisadr’s replacement is killed by bomb exploded in prime minister’s office (165)
 * 1982 Marina imprisoned at age 16
 * Sept 26, 1983 Ali murdered
 * Mar 26, 1984 Marina is released from prison (258)
 * July 18, 1985 Marina and Andre marry
 * March 1987 Marina and Andre leave Tehran for University of Sistan and Baluchestan
 * 1988 Iran/Iraq war ends
 * 1991 Marina arrives in Canada (sees brother after 12 years; he left for Canada in 1979)
 * 2000 Marina is haunted by memories and is compelled to start writing her story
 * 2003 Media report: Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi dies from injuries in Evin prison
 * 2005 Details of Zahra Kazemi’s torture are revealed by doctor
 * 2007 //Prisoner of Tehran// is published

Part One: Chapters 1-8 (pp. 1-102)


 * MAJOR TOPICS/THEMES**
 * **Actions and their consequences**
 * **Family and community**
 * **Movements for political and/or social change**
 * **Religious faith and religious diversity**


 * CRITICAL CONCEPTS AND TERMS**

· **Political prisoner** · **Christian Catholicism and Islam (Zoroastrianism mentioned but not explained)** · **Distinction between Islam (the religion) and Iran’s Islamic government**

Marina is safe and successful in Canada, but “This is when I lost the ability to sleep…. I was a witness and I had to tell my story” (2). So she begins writing. Her husband reads her manuscript and asks forgiveness “for not asking” (3).
 * CHAPTER SYNOPSES**
 * Chapter 1**

Chapter begins with the daytime events of January 15, 1982, just before Marina is arrested. Then she gives background about events in the fall of 1981, when some of her friends were imprisoned in Evin. Then she returns to January 15, 1982, when she is arrested in the evening and taken to Evin Prison. This chapter also gives Marina’s family history (Christians who left Russia after revolution. It ends with Marina’s interrogation and torture (14-21).
 * Chapter 2 Imprisonment and torture**

Marina describes her relationship with grandmother (23-28), the history of parents’ marriage (28), and her grandmother’s illness and death (31-36).
 * Chapter 3 “Grandma had been my refuge…and now she was gone”**

Marina is taken from Evin Prison to witness her friends’ arrests; she herself is taken to be executed, but Ali saves her at the last minute after appealing directly to Ayatollah Khomeini to reduce her sentence to life in prison. Ali returns her to the prison, where she is frightened and confused about why Ali saved her.
 * Chapter 4 Firing squad**

Marina describes her mother’s temper and her threat to leave the family. Marina takes refuge in books and discovers Albert’s second-hand bookstore, her lending library for three years till Albert leaves for America. Marina finds acceptance and affection at Sarah’s house; attends government-funded Zoroastrian junior high school for girls of diverse faiths.
 * Chapter 5 Books**

Marina awakens in Evin Prison. Ali takes her to Building 246, Room 7, which is about 25’ x 17’ and houses about 50 girls; Sarah tells her torture story and news that Gita was executed
 * Chapter 6 Sarah in Room 7**

Marina remembers her family’s cottage by the Caspian Sea, where she was free to move about, spending whole days outside with her friends. She explores religious beliefs with Muslim and Christian friends as the Islamic revolution is building. Her boyfriend Arash (active in Islamist movement against the Shah) disappears after the Jaleh Square protest, where the shah’s army gunned down protesters.
 * Chapter 7 Arash**

Marina observes Muslim rituals as practiced by her cellmates; Taraneh asks about rape of virgins; Sarah is hysterical after hearing firing squad. Marina reflects on her near-death experience and on whether Arash would have supported the new government created by the Islamist revolution (“No. Arash was good and kind; he would never have accepted such injustice. Maybe we would both have ended up in Evin” [99])
 * Chapter 8 Taraneh, Sheida and Sarah in Evin**


 * SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION**


 * //Actions and their consequences//**

It is difficult to understand why Marina Nemat is kept in prison for so long or what outcome the government expects from her imprisonment. What seems to be the purpose of Evin prison—punishment, rehabilitation, or something else? What //should// be purpose of prisons?

In this repressive political atmosphere, some characters advocate silence as safer than speaking out, while others argue that people have to speak up and stop being afraid. What would you have advised Marina to do when her aunt was warning her not to get involved and her friends were encouraging her to join their protest rallies?

Ali tells Marina, "Don't try to be a hero. You could lose your life for it." When she refuses to list the students involved in her school protest, is she trying to be a hero? What //is// a hero in a situation like this?

Create a list of everyday incidents in which a person might have to decide whether or not to //get involved//. Then rank them on a continuum from low risk to high risk. Finally, consider this: at what point would you say the choices change from insignficant to very significant (or even life-changing)? At what point did Marina know she was making life-changing decisions?

What are the risks in speaking up, even in places and at times when you are told it is safe to do so? For example, what keeps people from speaking their minds openly in a college classroom? What are the gains and losses in keeping quiet?


 * //Movements for political and/or social change//** (relates to Effective Citizenship)

What people or groups have you heard about that advocate radical changes within the United States today? What are all the views you have heard about those people or groups?

Marina tells us that the Islamist Revolution in Iran was started by idealists like Arash opposing the injustices of the Shah’s regime. But when she sees the injustices of the new Islamist government, she is sure those were not the outcomes her friends had hoped for. Think about the difference between ideal and real outcomes of social projects you have heard about. What other stories can you tell of movements that did or didn't produce the results people had hoped for. What helps or prevents us from realizing idealistic goals?

//**Religious faith and religious diversity**// (relates to Engaging Diversity)

In these first eight chapters, how much does Marina learn about the beliefs and practices of her Muslim friends? //How// does she learn? Are these respectful exchanges? In other words, would you say she is doing a good job of expanding her understanding of other faiths, or would you say she could be taking more and better steps toward understanding others?


 * //Family and community//** (relates to Engaging Diversity)

To what extent does Marina find support and acceptance in each of these places: her family home, Albert's second-hand bookstore, Sarah's house, and her prison cell. What are the factors that make Marina feel more accepted and appreciated at one place than another? What is her role in building strong or weak connections to the people around her?

**Part Two: Chapters 9-15 (pp. 103-195)**

 * MAJOR TOPICS/THEMES**
 * **Friendship and loyalty**
 * **Family**
 * **Agency and constraint**


 * CRITICAL CONCEPTS AND TERMS**
 * **Hejab and the Muslim value of female modesty**

Marina describes life in the city now as dominated by curfews, tanks and fear. Schools have been closed, and the streets are empty except for angry and potentially violent demonstrations. Sarah tries to recruit Marina to join the protests against the Shah. Marina explains hejab. Marina describes her relationship with Arash’s family; she goes to them when she discovers that Arash was killed at the Jaleh Square protest. Key historical events are introduced (Jaleh Square massacre, American embassy hostages, Shah forced in exile; Khomeini returns from exile and declares provisional government)
 * CHAPTER SYNOPSES**
 * Chapter 9 Revolution: “Four seasons of loss and grief”**

Marina’s parents visit and she decides not to tell them she has been sentenced to life in prison. Sarah learns that Sirus is dead; she responds by starting what will become a ritual—writing good memories on her body. After narrowly escaping Hamehd torture, Marina thinks “Did the world know about us? Was anyone trying to save us? Deep in my heart I knew the answer to both of these questions was no” (127). Sarah celebrates her seventeenth birthday in prison with Sarah and Taraneh. Sarah attempts suicide by hanging.
 * Chapter 10 Losing hope**

Marina tells the story of walking out of Calculus class, precipitating the student strike that led to her arrest. Khanoom Bahman shows her a list of the school’s troublemakers, with her name on it. A crack-down is imposed all over the city and even her cottage life is restricted. Marina considers suicide, but rejects the idea. Key historical events are introduced (Iran/Iraq war of 1980; Ferdosi Square protest against repression of the revolutionary government, Abolhassan Banisadr is elected president).
 * Chapter 11 The Strike**

Taraneh and five others sentenced to death are called on the loudspeaker. The inmates spend the day dreading the sound of gunshots, which they hear that night.
 * Chapter 12 Taraneh is executed**

Ali declares his love, says he wants to marry Marina and gives her three days to decide. He also tells her that if she tries to escape this marriage, he will punish her family and Andre.
 * Chapter 13 Ali proposes—and demands a yes**

Marina describes her first meeting with Andre and her friendship with Aram, Arash’s brother, who will soon emigrate. Marina arranges for a translation of her grandmother’s life-writing and learns that her grandmother’s first love was killed at a demonstration against the Russian czar. Marina risks going to rallies and briefly meets with Shahrzad, a political activist. Gita is arrested and Sarah panics.
 * Chapter 14 A perpetual state of mourning**

Marina agrees to marry Ali and requests move to Room 7, away from her friends (Marina does not want them to know of her marriage). Her health deteriorates as she agonizes over Taraneh’s death; after nightmares, headaches, vomiting, hospitalization, Ali nurses her with chicken soup and takes her out of Evin for drives. Marina meets Ali’s family and decides she respects his father. She converts to Islam in preparation for marriage, but worries about betraying her God. Marina is allowed to see Andre “to say goodbye.”
 * Chapter 15 Conversion**


 * SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION**


 * //Friendship and loyalty//**

Consider the ways that Marina and her cellmates support and sustain each other. What strengths do they draw on to help each other survive? Do you recognize any of the talent themes profiled in our StrengthsQuest materials?


 * //Family//**

At the end of chapter 15, Marina decides that she respects Ali's father, Mr. Masoovi. Why is that an important decision at this stage in the book?


 * //Agency and constraint//** (relates to Accountability/Responsibility and Effective Citizenship)

Marina wonders, “Did the world know about us? Was anyone trying to save us?" How //could// anyone save them? Who would have that power? Is she talking about //us//?

When Ali proposes marriage, does Marina have any choice? What power does she have at that moment and what restraints limit her power?

Reading the translation of her grandmother's life writing, Marina learns that her grandmother's first love was killed in a demonstration against the Russian czar. Why is this story important? (Alternatively, tell students that this is another example of the pattern of a) oppression, b) revolution and change and c) new oppression--and then ask a follow-up question.)

Marina speaks up in class and asks her teacher to get back to the subject of calculus. This begins a sequence of events that ends with Marina being reported to the police. Look closely at the story of the strike. Did Marina's name belong on a list of troublemakers?

Officials at Marina's school give the list of "troublemakers" involved in the strike to the police. Consider whether there are any parallels in high schools in the United States today. What are the free expression rights of students in public high schools under the First Amendment? (You might consult: Haynes, Charles, et al., eds. //The First Amendment in Schools//. Alexandria, VA: First Amendment Center, 2003. Or you might search "school to prison pipeline.")



**Part Three: Chapters 16-epilogue (pp. 197-306)**

 * MAJOR TOPICS/THEMES**
 * **Family**
 * **Abuse, revenge, empathy and forgiveness**
 * **Finding meaning in life after traumatic experiences**
 * **Silence and speaking out, on both personal and political levels**


 * CRITICAL CONCEPTS AND TERMS**
 * **Immigrant vs. refugee**
 * **Post-traumatic stress syndrome (and recovery from trauma)**
 * **Global awareness and global citizenship**


 * CHAPTER SYNOPSES**

When Ali takes her outside Evin, Marina develops a friendship with Ali’s sister, Akram. Marina confronts Ali about murdering people in Evin; he retaliates by raping her. After deciding that “I had to find some goodness in this pain or it was going to drown me,” Marina asks Ali to help Sarah, and he asks her to help Mina, a young girl recovering from torture. Marina tries to convince Mina to live her life.
 * Chapter 16 The interrogator’s wife**

Marina has honest conversations with Ali’s sister Akram and with Ali about his work at Evin. After Marina accuses Ali of responsibility for deaths at Evin, he says he has tried to make changes and says, “In a way, we’re both captives.” Marina rejects suicide again. When Marina discovers she is pregnant, she rethinks her feelings about Ali. When Ali is murdered in front of Marina, as retaliation for resigning his job, Marina miscarries and grieves for both her baby and Ali. Ali’s family arranges for Marina to be released from prison; she reunites with her family and Andre.
 * Chapter 17**

After Marina is released from prison, she realized that “No one wanted to know… Ali had been right. Home wasn’t the same, because I wasn’t the same. The comfortable, safe innocence of my childhood was lost for good” (270). Marina and Andre prepare to marry, but she cannot bring herself to tell him about Ali and everything else that happened to her.
 * Chapter 18**

The death of a Canadian-Iranian journalist in Evin prison gets international press. Marina writes, “If the world had paid attention earlier…many innocent lives would have been saved. But the world had remained silent, partly because witnesses like me had been afraid to speak up. But enough was enough. I was not going to let fear hold me captive any longer” (301).
 * Epilogue**


 * SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND REFLECTION**


 * Family**

What does Marina learn from her experience as a member of Ali's family? For example, how does her experience with Ali's family change her perspective on her own family? Have you also had experiences that gave you new insights into the ways people in your own family relate to each other?


 * Abuse, revenge, empathy and forgiveness**

Does Marina forgive Ali? In what ways does she forgive, or not forgive, him? Would you have a similar perspective, in her situation, or do you think you would react differently?


 * Finding meaning in life after traumatic experiences**


 * Silence and speaking out, on both the personal level and the political level.**

How does Marina decide when to be silent and when to speak up? What does her story have to tell us about our own decisions?

To what extent is this a book about learning to communicate effectively? What are all the lessons Marina must learn or all the skills she must develop before she can effectively communicate her experience?

What is the message in this book about joining social change movements? Once you decide that Marina's Nemat's message is, think about this: Does her message apply to you or other people you know? Why or why not?

**4. In-Class Group Work Ideas:**
 * Engaging Diversity Activities:**

__Self/character assessment__: Students use the “mosaic of diversity” (see attached) to identify personal, family, and cultural attributes that shape their points of view. On the same day, or during a subsequent class, have students work in small groups to fill in the mosaic for characters in //Prisoner of Tehran//: Marina, Ali, Arash. Discuss how mosaic shapes response to specific situations, using examples from the book (e.g., Marina’s response to torture; Ali’s response to increasing extremism at Evin).

__Role playing__: Hand out cards to students in small groups identifying different characters and a particular interaction in book (e.g., Ali’s proposal, prison interrogation, conversation with fellow prison survivor). Students respond to situation from characters’ viewpoints (e.g., What might Marina’s mother advise her to do under torture to reveal her friends’ names? What is Ali’s justification for compelling Marina to marry him?).

__Mini- Research Assignments__: Assign students individual or group short-term research on Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian faith in general and as practiced by different groups in Iran. This could proceed in several ways: 1. Hand out index cards with research prompts: e.g., What percentage of the population in Iran is Christian? Find a description the advantages of //hejab// by a Muslim woman. 2. Have students identify their own questions on cards; exchange and discuss in class to minimize redundancy and ensure diversity of inquiry. During the following class, have students discuss findings in C/M/Z groups, then pass cards to another group (i.e., C-->M; M --> Z; Z --> C). Repeat (M --> C; Z --> M; C --> Z). Talk as a large group about what was surprising, confusing, interesting about research and findings. What further questions do we have? How best to go about answering them? (If class time allows, ask students to design a follow-up assignment, activity.)


 * Accountability/Responsibility Activity:**

__Agency and Restraint__: If students have completed the “mosaic of diversity” self-assessment during a prior class (see above), have them re-examine it through the lens of “choice.” Which factors involve choice (e.g., we can’t choose our age; how much choice--if any--do we have about our gender, race, economic status, religion)? Add to mosaic other sources of constraint on individual behavior (laws, social codes, etc.); repeat activity for characters’ mosaics. What forces limit Marina’s choices? What freedoms is she able to exercise within these limits? Discuss in small or large groups.

__Mapping Agency__: If students have not used the “mosaic of diversity,” an alternative activity could have students map an “architecture of agency and constraint.” Students work individually to map personal freedoms they are allowed, together with constraints on action and choice (parents, society, government). How do these forces both limit and enable different forms of personal freedom? Students then discuss “maps” in small groups, and work together to map the “architecture of agency and constraint” for Marina Nemat. Present maps to larger group for discussion.


 * Effective Citizenship Activity:**

__Personal or Political?__: On pages 14 and 134, Nemat describes walking out of her class after challenging her teacher to discuss calculus and not political “propaganda.” When the other students follow her, the incident is labeled a “strike” and causes Marina to be identified as “antirevolutionary.” When interrogated Marina insists that she is not political, and throughout her story remains committed to exploring the personal effects, as opposed to political causes, of the Iranian revolution. Stage a classroom debate or panel discussion that addresses the questions: Is Marina’s walk-out a “political” act? Is her memoir a “political” book? What is the difference between Marina and her friend Shahrzad (a member in the communist group Fadayian-e-Khalgh, discussed on page 16)?


 * Effective Communication Activity:**

__Chapter Titles__: Nemat numbers her chapters, but does not title them. Have students work in groups to identify major plot developments and themes of each chapter, then decide on a title. Ask each group to present their proposed title to the rest of the class and describe their decision process. Use disagreements that arise within or among groups as an opportunity to discuss diversity of reader response. How does your point of view, life experience, shape the “messages” you glean from reading?

 __Group Communication__: Consider the ways that Marina and her cellmates support and sustain one another. What roles do they play? Do individual characters clearly have particular strengths? To what extent are these roles that we might see in any group working together? Have students work in small groups to consider these (or other book-questions) and observe their own group roles.

5. Writing Assignments
Below are a variety of prompts that could be adapted to meet the FYI requirements for common book writing assignments, including reflective writing, experiential writing, and research-based writing. These could also be adapted for blue book exams.

By the end of the book, Marina Nemat has discovered a few things she knows for sure. Write an essay in which you explore her path toward discovering any one of the following beliefs:
 * Essay on Belief: Personal and Universal**
 * I had to find some goodness in this pain or it was going to drown me (214)
 * God gives life and He is the only one who can take it away (237)
 * Life is precious, don’t let go, live again (241)
 * Violence is pointless (245-246)
 * If the world had paid attention earlier…many innocent lives would have been saved. But the world had remained silent, partly because witnesses like me had been afraid to speak up (301).

What ideas, experiences, or events in the book led her to that lesson? Then consider this question: Each of these ideas seems universally accepted. If so, why are they also so frequently violated?

Although this book is Marina Nemat’s personal story, her experience should be important to anyone who cares about human rights, particularly freedom from torture and degrading treatment; freedom of opinion and the right to peaceful assembly and association. If you were asked to speak to a student group on campus about the average citizen’s responsibility to protect these rights, which aspects of Marina Nemat’s story might you use to support your position? (Note: To write this essay, you’ll have to decide what your position is. What do you personally believe is the average person’s responsibility in this area?)
 * Human Rights and Responsibilities**

Many stories of people who survived trauma emphasize that person’s amazing resilience and ability to overcome the aftereffects of traumatic experiences. But not all survivor stories end this way and clearly not all survivors would say their stories have happy endings. Which message would you say Marina Nemat has chosen? Write an essay in which you consider the message Marina has chosen to glean from her experience, and weigh it against the alternatives.
 * Trauma**

In the “Acknowledgements” at the end of the book, Nemat thanks her husband, Andre, and writes, “I strongly believe you are the most honest and faithful individual God has ever created. Your goodness defies laws on nature” (303). Nemat’s portrait of her first husband, Ali, is far more complicated. Write an essay in which you explore Nemat’s (and your own) view of Ali. Is he a "good" person? Be sure to explain how you define your terms.
 * Moral Ambiguity: Who is "good"?**

It is difficult to understand why Marina Nemat is kept in prison for so long or what outcome the government expects from her imprisonment. What seems to be the purpose of Evin prison—punishment, rehabilitation, or something else? What //should// be purpose of prisons?
 * Prisons**

Write a one-to-two-page "memoir." This isn't much space to tell your life story, so you will have to make some important choices: What details will you include or exclude? What is most important for your audience to know about you? Is there a single incident that could demonstrate the essence of who you are? (Follow-up assignment/discussion: What was difficult about this assignment? How did you decide what to write about? What are the effects of your narrative choices?) (Alternate follow-up activity for a literature/writing class: Identify the tone of your memoir. Is it cheerful, sad, regretful, triumphant? Re-write your memoir using the same details, but describing them with a different tone. Remember that your goal is to imagine interpreting events in a different way, not to be entirely truthful. How does HOW you tell the story affect WHAT the story MEANS?)
 * Memoir**

Consider the act of writing in your own life. What has it meant or accomplished? Where and how is writing presented in Nemat’s memoir?
 * Life Writing**

In this book, the answer to that question is both yes and no. Write an essay in which you explore Marina Nemat’s experience of individual people making a difference and those same people (or others) being //unable// to make a difference. What factors seem to determine a person’s ability to create change? Ultimately, how far does she decide one person’s power can reach?
 * Can one person make a difference?**

Marina Nemat doesn't position herself as a political activist or a "hero," and yet the choices she makes--to stand up to her teacher, to share her story with others--make a difference in her world. Write about a time that you have made a difference, however small. What choice(s) did you make? How did you arrive at your decision? What were its effects? Did these effects surprise you?
 * How have you made a difference?**

The Women's Prison Book Project offers volunteers the opportunity to provide reading materials to incarcerated women across the country (see http://www.wpbp.org/pages/volunteer.html). Women and transgendered people are invited to help with mailings that take place every Sunday from noon until 3pm at the Arise Bookstore (2441 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis). If you choose to volunteer with WPBP--or another organization serving prison populations--reflect on your experience and how it connects to //Prisoner of Tehran//.
 * Volunteer Experience and Reflection**

What aspect of Nemat’s story are you still wanting to understand more fully? Select an area to do more contextual research to support a deeper grasp of the issues and events that surround Nemat’s experience.
 * Research**

In 1953, following Prime Minister Mossadeq's nationalization of Iran's oil reserves, the United States C.I.A. led a government coup that allowed the Shah to return to power. It was Shah Pahlavi's increasingly autocratic regime that led to the Iranian Revolution in 1978, and the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The coup, known as Operation Ajax and authorized by President Eisenhower, was the first time the U.S. had openly overthrown a democratically-elected government. Iran has since emerged as a major opponent of U.S. foreign policy, an effect that historians refer to as "blowback." In the words of Stephen Kinzer, author of //All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror// (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2003): "The world has paid a heavy price for the lack of democracy in most of the Middle East. Operation Ajax taught tyrants and aspiring tyrants that the world's most powerful governments were willing to tolerate limitless oppression as long as oppressive regimes were friendly to the West and to Western oil companies. That helped tilt the political balance in a vast region away from freedom and toward dictatorship" (Kinzer 204). Write an essay that explores the relationship between past and present U.S. relations with Iran.
 * U.S. Role in Iran**


 * Blue Book Exam Prompts**

__Some tips on giving Blue Book Exams in class__:


 * Select a question or prompt for the exam at the beginning of your book unit, so that you can prepare the class for the question, or make certain that you write a prompt or exam after considering what has come out of class sessions on the book.
 * Consider what you want students to be able to do, discuss or demonstrate when they write about the book, so that you build these element in class, before the exam.
 * Scaffold in-class low-stakes writing assignments that help students practice timed, in-class writing.
 * Have students regularly do short writing activities in class, and build to longer mini-essays.
 * Select a few mini-essays to use collectively (make a transparency or copies) to discuss how to develop strong central ideas or claims, how to organize ideas (making lists or outlines of ideas before starting to write), how to avoid simply recounting what happens in a book and develop an analysis or argument instead. These are things you will probably be responding to when you grade the exams, so it is important to build student awareness of these BEFORE they take an exam.
 * Allowing students to use books during the exam enables the use of specific details or quotes from the book. An open-book exam facilitates the practice of finding and using evidence to support arguments or interpretations. This kind of work with a book asks students to become intimate and familiar with the text.
 * Encourage students to write in their books, or to mark pages and passages with notes. Successful writing about a book comes out of interacting actively with the book, "making it theirs." This will also cut down on time during an open book exam that students spend looking for things.

__Sample Questions__:


 * The guiding question for this class is How Can One Person Make A Difference? How does Nemat’s story of both agency and restraint respond to this question? Does she make a significant difference? In what realm or way? Write an essay that examines what Nemat's experience says about the possibilities and limitations on individual action?


 * Nemat's memoir details her own suffering (physical, psychological, emotional), but also her own moral and intellectual development. What does Nemat's story suggest about the relationship between human suffering and individual development?


 * Should we consider Nemat’s story a call to action or a story of individual healing? Explain your response using specific examples from her memoir.


 * A coming-of-age story is one in which a character, by the end of the story, has developed in some way, through the undertaking of responsibility, or by learning a lesson. When a person comes of age he or she typically moves from innocence to awareness, and often develops the ability to understand the moral consequences of his or her actions. Is Nemat's story a coming-of-age story? Write an essay in which you discuss Marina’s development in the memoir.

A video of Marina Nemat in Canada that begins with her recounting the moment of her imminent execution and being saved by the arrival of Ali, the guard who rescues her and forces her to marry him. []
 * __Resources on Nemat and the Memoir__**
 * Meet Marina**

A brief essay introducing Marina Nemat and her memoir []
 * Author Profile**

Listen to Nemat's memoir read by Actor Arsinée Khanjian on this //Between the Covers// podcast, which was produced by Heather Brown. []
 * Podcast of Prisoner of Tehran**

In this interview Nemat discusses reaching the point (20 years after her imprisonment) of being able to tell her story, the central role of memory and stories in her survival, the combination of good and evil in humans, her ability to see the humanity of her torturer, and the Stockholm syndrome. []
 * Scott Simon’s NPR interview with Marina Nemat**:


 * __Resources Related to Iranian Politics and History__**

[|**http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/**]
 * Tehran Bureau** (an independent source of news on Iran and the Iranian diaspora dedicated to bringing journalists and readers together in a way that is not possible inside Iran. This virtual bureau is a partnership between Iranian born and raised Kelly Niknejad and Frontline. The site includes video and stories on a range of issues, as well as a forum for readers' comments.

A brief (2-1/2 minute) slide show narrated by BBC journalists covering the public reaction and events in Tehran immediately following the announcemnet of the Shah's departure from Iran. []
 * Islamic Revolution 1979 Slideshow**

A timeline that begins with the Sasanian dynasty ruling Persia in 224 AD and reaches to present day Iran. []
 * Timeline**

A PBS Newshour timeline of events from the Reza Khan's coup in 1921 to 2009. []
 * Key Events in Iran Since 1921**


 * Maps**: []

As the site itself explains: "In the absence of a well-documented, comprehensive and permanent source of information on Iran, or formerly and widely known as Persia, that can accommodate many viewers' needs and wishes we decided to create a source, which could provide information on all aspects of Iranian/Persian history, art and culture. Therefore, in compliance with the needs of those who are concerned with Iran/Persia and its issues, in 2001 **"Iran Chamber Society"** was founded as a non-partisan and non-profit organization with the aim to promote Iranian culture and history. By actively publicizing historical and cultural findings and issues in a format that is accessible for the world community at large, Iran Chamber Society aims to create a global awareness about Iranian society and eradicate the misunderstandings and misconceptions about Iranian society, and to play an educational role as well. []
 * Iran Chamber Society**


 * __Resources Related to Human Rights and Prisons__**

[]
 * The Human Rights Center:** "Assists human rights advocates, monitors, students, educators, and volunteers access effective tools, practices, and networks to promote a culture of human rights and responsibilities in our local, national, and international communities." (Mondale Hall, U of M)


 * Center for Victims of Torture** (a local organization dedicated to helping survivors of torture heal and build healthy lives and communities, provides direct services to survivors, also trains community members, clinicians, volunteers and educators) []

A BBC article that reports on condition in Evin when Iran for the first time opened the gates of its biggest and most notorious prison to a group of foreign and local journalists. []
 * "Inside Iran's most notorious jail"**


 * Women’s Prison Book Project** (a local organization that provides reading materials to women prisoners and that is dedicated to educating the public about the condition of prisoners) []


 * __Resources Related to other Iranian writers__**

//Persepolis// is a memoir in the form of a graphic novel about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi’s voice and experience provide a rich companion/comparison with Nemat’s. In this interview she talks about fear, speaking out, rebelling as a teenager, the value of education, pop culture, leaving her home country, and human beings’ relationship to repression and what is forbidden. She specifically mentions the directors of schools giving lists of student names to the Guardians of the Revolution, and the potential for imprisonment and execution. This is one of the reasons that Satrapi’s parents send her to Austria when she is 14. http[|://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1283520]
 * NPR Fresh Air interview with Marjane Satrapi (author of //Persepolis//)** –

Saberi, a native of North Dakota talks with Terri Gross about her new memoir //Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran// in which she describes her arrest and four month imprionment in Evin after she is convicted of being an American spy while working as a journalist in Tehran. []
 * NPR Fresh Air interview with Roxana Saberi**


 * __U of M Student Groups__**:

[]
 * Persian Student Organization of Minnesota**: "The mission of the Persian Student Organization of Minnesota (PSOM) is to foster a safe and friendly environment for students and members of the non-campus community to participate in planning Persian cultural events. Furthermore, PSOM aims to serve the Persian community of Minnesota in pursuit of a deeper sense of Persian culture, diversity, and historical awareness through education and cultural events."


 * Persian Language and Cultural Exchange**: PLaCE is a group for students of Persian languages (Farsi, Dari, Tajik) at all levels of learning who want to have fun working on conversation and listening skills with native speakers. This is not a class - this is hanging out, joking, talking, arguing – and often eating - with cool folks. There is some structure to prevent us from wasting time or lapsing into speaking English, but we don’t tolerate boredom well.

[]
 * Al-Madinah Cultural Center**: "Our goal is to create a better understanding and appreciation for the diverse culture of Islam through educational, social and community activities at the University of Minnesota and grooming the leaders from our campus community"

muslimsa@tc.umn.edu
 * Muslim Students Association**: "The MSA hopes that Muslims and non-Muslims can better understand each other and that Muslim students can have the resources necessary to their success in college easily accessible to them."


 * __Other Local Connections__:**


 * Iranian-American Society of Minnesota**

[]
 * Mizna:** an organization based in Northeast Minneapolis, encompassing and presenting the many facets of Arabic art, culture, language, music, etc. Mizna's has an award-winning journal, published since 1999 of Arab American literature in the United States.


 * Persian Food in Minneapolis**

[]
 * Shiraz** 6042 Nicollet Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55419 612.861.5500


 * Caspian Bistro** 2418 University Ave. SE: Minneapolis, MN 55414: 612-623-1113

We would like to create an online listing of book-related events for students and staff to contribute to and use as a resource for activities, outings, etc.