Rosewater Maziar Bahari Summary

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I chose to read Rosewater: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, by Maziar Bahari. This novel describes his time in prison and his job as a reporter. It also gives readers a glimpse into Iranian politics and a different perspective that offers more detail than what is shown on network television news. Bahari worked for Newsweek Magazine as a news correspondent. At the time, he was reporting on the 2009 election in Iran. He grew up in Iran with his family but left to avoid mandatory military service. All men were required to serve in the military, as Iran was six years into the war with Iraq (18). Bahari left Iran in 1986 after graduating high school. He was smuggled into Pakistan, then moved to Canada. In Canada, Bahari studied
Bahari returned to Iran to report on the upcoming presidential election. In this election there are four candidates: Mehdi Karroubi, Mohsen Rezaei; the main political battle is between Mir Hossein Mousavi and the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (3). Bahari uses his mother’s house in Tehran as an office, when working in Iran. Both Bahari’s father and sister had been arrested and imprisoned, previous to himself. The most shocking thing I've read so far were the brutal beatings and killings of not only the protesters but of innocent bystanders too. Citizens were peacefully demonstrating in the streets of Iran because they wanted a recount of the votes. The people protesting were Mousavi supporters; they wanted to be heard after the apparent false re-election of Ahmadinejad. The demonstrations quickly turned into rioting when the police released tear gas, attacking people and shooting their weapons in the air and at the protesters. Bahari told of multiple instances of anti-riot police attacking people for no reason. For example, he described a driver who honked his car horn at policemen on motorcycles, who were blocking the road. Three or four officers got off their bikes and starting smashing the car windows with