Marina Nemat tells her story of surviving horror in Iran

For many Canadians, it is easy to take the small freedoms for granted.

For Marina Nemat, that will never be the case.

Nemat was born and raised in Iran and moved to Canada in 1991. For more than two years prior to her move, she was a political prisoner in her home country, and experienced the unthinkable.

“I was tortured, raped and put in front of a firing squad,” she said before speaking to a crowd of Hatters at the public library. “Though the firing squad was a mock one, they killed many of my friends. I have now published two books about my experiences as a prisoner in Iran, and I do a lot of talking in many places around the world.”

One of the first things Nemat tells her crowd is she does not write things down to say — she just speaks from experience, things she hopes will make an impact on each audience she faces.

“My message is hard to put into one sentence, because it’s a 45-minute talk,” she said. “But it’s about how the average citizen tends to become indifferent. We are all busy, have car payments, a mortgage and stuff like that. We have problems, issues and we just have life. In the meantime, really bad things can happen where we live. If you look at the past and what’s happening in the U.S now, no one can say our democracy is immune to becoming a roadkill of political agendas.

“A lot of the time, people sit at home and blame the politician, but it’s the citizens to blame a a lot of the time. Voting in Canada sits around 32 to 39 per cent — that’s sad. I think it’s good for people to hear some of the things I say.”

Now with a husband, two sons, two published books and a new life, Nemat says she does live with post-traumatic stress disorder, but loves her life in Canada.

“Canada is amazing,” she said. “When we were trying to get out, we said we would only go if everyone could go — Canada was the first place to respond to us, to say ‘come liver here.’”

Nemat will be speaking today at the Medicine Hat College library at 10 a.m.