Maryam Rafiee was only a teenager when her father, Hossein Rafiee, was first imprisoned in Iran for expressing his political views. Unable to see or speak to him, she wrote him letters that she could never send. She recorded the things she wished she could tell him: thoughts on school, home, the family's struggle to free him, and―most importantly―her own hopes and dreams. Fifteen years later, in the wake of her father's second imprisonment, Maryam offers these letters to the world, to reveal the suffering undergone by prisoners of conscience and their families. Her story is one of hope, courage, and love in the face of tyranny.
Maryam Rafiee was born in 1983 in Tehran, Iran, and has worked as a chemist, a conservator of cultural heritage sites, and an archaeologist. She is the author of numerous articles on the cultural heritage of Iran. She currently lives in Ontario, Canada, where her personal essays on her experiences as an immigrant and as a daughter of a political prisoner have appeared in local and international newspapers.