“Defiance takes my breath away. A nail-biting tale of astonishing courage.” —Jeannette Walls #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle
“A heartbreaking account of a young woman’s struggle for freedom against the rampaging forces of fanaticism and tyranny . . . Unforgettable.” —Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and The Human Scale
A stunning memoir of personal rebellion and political awakening from a young woman raised to be loyal to a brutal regime—and the unimaginable cost of choosing freedom
Every day at school, Loubna Mrie pledged allegiance to Bashar al-Assad. His portrait hung over every blackboard, and her textbooks reminded her that without the president, Syria would fall into chaos. Her family, part of the Alawite minority that ruled the country, revered him. Her grandfather helped bring the Assads to power; her father, a formidable businessman with close ties to the regime, ruled their household with absolute authority. In her world, loyalty was survival. Dissent was betrayal.
But everything changed in 2011, when the Arab Spring reached Syria and Loubna stumbled into an anti-government protest. What she witnessed—the courage, the blood, the brutality—ignited something in her that would not be extinguished. She joined the resistance, fearlessly proclaiming her Alawite identity to show that unity was possible and risking her life as a photojournalist documenting the war for Reuters and other international outlets. Her defiance would come at a devastating cost: the loss of loved ones, the community that now considered her a traitor, and ultimately her country itself. Leaving behind everything she knew, she would have to find a new home within herself.
Defiance is the unforgettable account of one woman’s fight for freedom—against a dictator, a father, and the weight of inherited belief. From the streets of Aleppo to exile in New York City, it offers an electrifying portrait of moral courage in a time of unimaginable violence. Told with clarity, fury, and grace, Defiance offers a rare ground-level portrait of what it means to wake up, to resist, and to become.
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