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A review by kristy_k
Rosewater: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival by Maziar Bahari, Aimee Molloy
5.0
This is a book everyone should read. Bahari, a journalist who was raised in Iran but became a Canadian citizen and later worked in London, goes to Iran to cover the 2009 elections. There, while reporting on the post-election protests, he gets arrested and accused of being a spy. He then endures months of harsh and vicious interrogations in an Iranian prison.
Bahrari alternates between telling of his time in prison and talking about his family and upbringing in Iran during the regime change. So many of what he said was hard to fathom and grasp as it is so far removed from what we here in America have ever had to deal with. We are not tortured for voicing our opinions; we do not live in fear of a family member being taken simply because they sat alone with the opposite sex or owned a book the government deemed evil.
It is truly saddening, infuriating, and eye-opening to hear about what he, and many other Iranian citizens endure. So many of them do not agree with their government but when the alternative is imprisonment, torture, or death, what else can they do but try to live under its rule?
Bahari is able to give a voice to many of those citizens, to shine a light on the dark practices inside those Iranian prisons, and show how hard it is to break the human spirit.
Bahrari alternates between telling of his time in prison and talking about his family and upbringing in Iran during the regime change. So many of what he said was hard to fathom and grasp as it is so far removed from what we here in America have ever had to deal with. We are not tortured for voicing our opinions; we do not live in fear of a family member being taken simply because they sat alone with the opposite sex or owned a book the government deemed evil.
It is truly saddening, infuriating, and eye-opening to hear about what he, and many other Iranian citizens endure. So many of them do not agree with their government but when the alternative is imprisonment, torture, or death, what else can they do but try to live under its rule?
Bahari is able to give a voice to many of those citizens, to shine a light on the dark practices inside those Iranian prisons, and show how hard it is to break the human spirit.