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Synopsis

Ghazal Omid, Iranian expatriate author of Living in Hell, an autobiography and political memoir has caused quite a controversial stir in ultra-conservative Iranian society. Omid is possibly the first Muslim woman to challenge a traditional taboo in speaking out publicly against child abuse and incest among some Iranian families and to challenge Iranian society which prefers to hush up rather than address this greatly ignored problem and looks down upon the women who have been victimized.

Living in Hell is the true odyssey of her survival of an abusive, family, the Iranian Islamic revolution and the megalomaniac driven, eight-year Iran/Iraq war. It recounts her difficult childhood, her teenage years and young adulthood; culminating in her life-preserving escape from execution by the repressive, post-revolution Islamic Republic of Iran and her continuing struggle to survive in Canada before she learned to stand up for herself and started her new life with a new name and outlook.

Living in Hell takes the reader to the author's family roots. In an almost poetic way she examines her own destiny and that of others like her, making the point that little can be expected from a generation whose fate and abuse was pre-ordained. She explains, without excusing, the genesis of terrorism, rooted in poverty and cultural ignorance created by lack of education and resulting in irrational suicide bombers. Omid shows the reader what life is like for a child in the Middle East, where its toys are empty bullet shells and existence is so bleak that any promise of heaven is welcome, even if the voice is from Satan dressed as Khomani or Bin Laden.

A disturbing truth about Ghazal Omid's life is that it is also the story of millions of Muslim women. As a result of standing up for herself she was shunned by her family which she in turn divorced. Surviving a lonely life was as hard as surviving the Islamic revolution, the Iran/Iraq war and the US embassy hostage crisis, all of which she witnessed up close and personal . Throughout the Iran/Iraq war, with her home in a prime Iraqi target area, she and her mother went to bed at night expecting to be killed in bombing raids. She grew up in an oppressed society that taught children to hate people of different cultures but she refused to hate someone she didn.t know. Strengthened by her Islamic education and curious mind, she was not poisoned by the propaganda of a government that was imprisoning and killing its opponents by the thousands.

An outspoken woman at an early age, she was branded a subversive at her mullah-controlled university because, like Rosa Parks, she refused to sit at the back of the classroom and refused to be silent.

In reprisal, during her university years, she was abducted by the secret police from the streets of Isfahan, the nuclear plant city. She escaped, temporarily, by jumping from the speeding kidnap car. Seriously injured, she was rescued by people on the street but, soon afterwards, was taken to prison and given a Hobson.s choice; sign a document stating the abduction never happened or remain in prison until she did sign it. She describes the fetid prison conditions in which women and babies were being held indefinitely. After being released, she was constantly watched and received threatening letters.

Realizing she was marked for an orchestrated death sentence on trumped up charges, a common occurrence, she fled Iran, thru France to Holland from where, using a fraudulent Algerian passport, she flew to refugee status in Canada; arriving alone, penniless and without language in an alien land. She describes her life in Canada, her personal growth and adjustment to a new culture and how she arrived where she is today; determined to help others with her message.

It is important that everyone knows about her experiences. Her unsuspecting contact with an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell illustrates that the enemy we fear is already living among us but we would not know it if 9/11 had not occurred.

She constantly receives threatening hate e-mail in the genre, "God will send you to the devil and you will roast in hell." Her response; "I'll be sure to pay you a visit." She established her website, www.livinginhell.com, not just to promote her book but also her cause--the liberation of Iran through regime change.

The Iranian government is retaliating by denying Iranians access to her website and succeeded in temporarily shutting it down completely.

Of the many valuable lessons this book teaches, perhaps the two most important are the blessings of Faith and Freedom. Astonishingly, despite the torment Ghazal endured, although she once lost her faith in God, her pilgrimage to Mecca returned her to Islam. Now, she is a defender of true Islam and condemns its perversion as seen in many Islamic countries, including Iran. She contends terrorism is not a part of true Islam but a cancer growing on the body of Islam, consuming it like a flesh eating disease.

Omid especially appreciates the second blessing; Freedom for her is not free or given but earned. Landing in Canada didn't guarantee her a personal key to freedom. She was free from the oppression of the Iranian government but not from abusive family members.

Ghazal calls herself "A rebel with a cause," and encourages others not to be afraid of the unknown; saying she lost much but gained more in her liberating process and feels freedom outweighs past abuse and intolerable traditions. Brought to her knees, she nearly committed suicide before she learned to speak up. She believes if she can do it, any individual from any place on earth can do it too. And says, .What doesn.t kill me makes me stronger..

Ghazal Omid's story both inspires and infuriates people; evidenced by the hate mail and calls she receives from defenders of the Iranian theocracy and the supportive mail, comments and reviews she receives from readers across North America and around the world.