Defiance

Loubna Mrie was raised a staunch Syrian Alawite, the same sect as then President Hafez al-Assad. Her mother's father helped plan the coup that saw Hafez seize power in 1970 and bring the Alawites out of hiding and into a position of total control. Her father was intimately involved in Hafez's government as an enforcer and assassin.When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011, she attended a protest against his son Bashar's government out of curiosity and her life changed forever. When she returned to her grandparents' home in Damascus, her family called her a traitor. Unable to look back, she plunged ahead into a life of activism - in opposition to both the regime and her abusive father - with unimaginable consequences. Loubna's father was exiled, her mother murdered and her boyfriend, Peter Kassig, an American, was executed by ISIS.This memoir will tell her story in her own words.