Living In Hell is a captivating account of an Iranian woman's mean life in Islamic Iran where she fought against the social, political and religious injustice being practiced as Islamic law. The author cautions the world about a nuclear Iran: "The Government of Iran has no mercy on the opposition. Since coming to power in 1978, it has killed more than 130,000 of its own citizens while denying responsibility for any inhuman acts at home or abroad."

Ghazal Omid survived the Islamic Revolution and the eight-year Iran/Iraq War, which killed half a million people; when virtually every day was a 9/11 day. Constantly harassed by government "watch dogs," she escaped a kidnapping plot by jumping out of a speeding car. She endured a harrowing prison encounter where she saw mothers and their babies being held in fetid cells indefinitely. Abducted and threatened with arrest for taking pictures of the Abadan oil refinery and of fellow students and teachers at university in Isfahan, Omid was marked for an orchestrated death sentence, common for such minor offenses against the regime. The author fled her native Iran only when it became impossible for her to continue delivering her message. With the help of sympathetic university and embassy personnel and black market documents, she made her way through France and Holland to become a refugee in Canada where she is now a citizen.

The book recounts an insider's view of the revolution, the US embassy hostage crisis and the war. Having studied Islam for 17 years and counseled with many Shiah scholars, the author knows Islamic law. Her studies, documented in the Afterword, address many questions people have about Islam. Her research affords insight into why Muslim countries seem to be prone to terrorism and examines the link between poverty, ignorance and terrorism. She alerts the reader that terrorism breeds and thrives on fear, citing a famous Persian proverb, "Fear is the twin brother of death." She contends it is possible to stop terrorism and offers sound advice to that end, emphasizing that we need to know our enemy and why they became terrorists. She explains the true meaning of "Jihad," who can legitimately order it and when people should be concerned in hearing the word.

Living In Hell protests the mindless oppression of women. Omid's personal life and the family abuse she endured, with no one to confide in, will strike a familiar chord with essentially expendable women in Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyz and other Middle East countries where male dominated societies perpetuate barbaric "honor" killings, allowing families to murder their daughter or sister with little risk of punishment. This horrific crime, which has no basis in true Islam, is still common in Iran, which has regressed in human rights since the so-called Islamic Revolution. The frustration of true Shiah leader's with radical Islamic behavior is exemplified by the late Grand Ayatollah Broojerdy's rebuke to a man who accused a Mullah of theft, "Don't say a Mullah became a thief; it is the thief who became a Mullah."

Ghazal Omid calls herself "A Rebel With A Cause" because her thinking does not mesh with her cultural heritage. Omid has been called an "American Patriot" in Iran and a "Muslim Terrorist" in the U.S., illustrating the fine line between patriotism and discrimination. She makes the point, "Being born into a culture that has been linked to terrorists or a religion, which has been used by them, does not make one a terrorist." In her words, "We don't have to like one another but we need to respect one another."

"Somewhere inside this ungainly behemoth of a memoir lies an absorbing account of a middle-class girl's life in Iran. Yet only the most patient reader will follow the travails of Omid (a pseudonym meaning 'lost soul') from conception into middle age. After five introductions that each repeat approximately the same point (women are ill treated in Iran), Omid launches into extensive backgrounds on both sets of grandparents; her shrewd, bigamous businessman father (whom she hates); her mother (on whom she blows hot and cold); and her brothers (her feelings range from dislike to hatred). Omid appears to be a contentious person as well as a grievance collector, and her clashes with family, friends, teachers and, later, when she emigrates to Canada, employers, seem more personal than political. The protracted detailing of grudges becomes so numbing that when genuine iniquity occurs — she claims to have been raped and briefly kidnapped — a reader's reaction is somewhat muted. In the 150-page Canadian section toward the end, Omid quarrels incessantly with her brothers (who also emigrate), becomes anorexic, has plastic surgery and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Iran would seem to be the least of her worries. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"What is most riveting...is [Omid's] striking journal of personal pain within her abusive family....Omid wrote most of Living in Hell in a single month while under a therapist's care, imbuing the work with a powerful sense of urgency. Passionate and commanding." Kirkus Discoveries

"[A]t a time when Westerners are avidly reading memoirs about Iran, such as Christopher de Bellaigue's In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs and Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels, it's good to be able to share the memories of a writer who lives here." Vancouver Sun

"Reading this saga is worth the effort...for the author's insights into Iranian and Islamic culture and the lunatic fringe that has taken charge of her native land." Daily Oklahoman

"[T]his book is a passionate plea for more tolerance, understanding, and respect in human relationships....Living in Hell is worth seeking out." Nuvo