They wish to see him deposed so that Ayatollah Khomeini can take his place and institute Iran as an Islamic Regime. Arash was a supporter of Khomeini and decided that he would attend a rally at Jaleh square. Unfortunately, while at the rally, Arash is killed by military men sent by the Shah to repress the rebellion against his leadership. This has a profound effect on Marina and marks her first brush with death related to political warfare. At the time she learns that Arash was in fact dead, the Shah was deposed from leadership and was replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Ayatollah went ahead with his plan of instituting Islamic law as Iran's statutes. One day at school, Marina's calculus teacher was speaking about politics as opposed to calculus. Marina put up her hand and said, "I don't mean to be rude, Miss, but can we please go back to our main subject?" (Nemat, 2007, p. 122) With this one statement, a chain reaction of events were put into motion that lead to her incarceration at the hands of the Revolutionary Guard.
This brings us to the first major conflict in the memoir: Marina Nemat's belief that her incarceration at Evin prison by the Iranian government was unjust and inhumane. By using the TRIP model of conflict analysis, we can study the dynamics of this conflict in a thorough manner. Firstly, the topical goals of Marina and the Iranian government are vastly different. Marina believes that her religion of Russian Orthodox Christianity is just as valid a form of worship as the Muslim religion. She also has a love for Western literature and fashion. She simply wants to live her life on her own terms, to find love and to discover what happiness is to her. The Iranian government, on the other hand, desires that the whole nation of Iran would be united under Islamic law.