Love in a Torn Land

As a young girl living in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Joanna al-Askari had a dream: to fall in love with a Kurdish freedom fighter and join the battle for Kurdish independence. In Love in a Torn Land, bestselling author Jean Sasson tells the remarkable true story of how Joanna lived that dream, surviving nightmarish struggles in pursuit of love and her cherished goal of freedom for the Kurdish people.Raised in Baghdad by an Arab Iraqi father and a Kurdish mother, Joanna spent a childhood filled with fear and uncertainty under the brutal Baathist regime, tempered by joyful summers spent with family in Kurdistan. She shares the girlish excitement of meeting a dashing young Peshmerga fighter at age fifteen, which began a campaign for love that would prove almost as consuming to Joanna as her dream of Kurdish freedom. She also recounts the gritty details of life as a young Peshmerga wife in Kurdistan during the darkest days of the Iran-Iraq War: the horror of being temporarily blinded from a gas attack by Saddam's forces, the terror of dodging Iraqi patrols as she and her husband tried to flee to safety, and the desperate search for a missing relative in an Iranian refugee camp.Again and again, Joanna meets defeat with determination and faces hardship with hope as she navigates the dangers of an Iraq filled with informers, midnight raids, secret police interrogations, and barbaric prisons. Through her eyes and her love for her husband, the splendid world of Kurds and Kurdistan comes alive. From the breathtaking beauty of the mountains and colorful flowers dotting the roadside to feasts, singing, and dancing, Love in a Torn Land offers a captivating portrait of an amazing land and a fascinating culture. Gripping and inspiring, Joanna's tale of tragedy and triumph is a moving testament to the power of love, the strength of the human spirit, and an unflagging will to prevail against the odds.