Trapped in Iran: A Mother's Desperate Journey to Freedom

by Samieh Hezari, Kaylene Petersen (Primary Contributor)

In 2009, Samieh Hezari made a terrible mistake. She flew from her adopted home of Ireland to her birthplace in Iran so her 14-month-old daughter, Rojha, could be introduced to the child's father. When the violent and unstable father refused to allow his daughter to leave and demanded that Samieh renew their relationship, a two-week holiday became a desperate five-year battle to get her daughter out of Iran. If Samieh could not do so before Rojha turned seven, the father could take sole custody―forever. The father's harassment and threats intensified, eventually resulting in an allegation of adultery that was punishable by stoning, but Samieh―a single mother trapped in a country she saw as restricting the freedom and future of her daughter―never gave up, gaining inspiration from other Iranian women facing similar situations. As both the trial for adultery and her daughter's seventh birthday loomed the Irish government was unable to help, leaving Samieh to attempt multiple illegal escapes in an unforgettable, epic journey to freedom. Trapped in Iran is the harrowing and emotionally gripping story of how a mother defied a man and a country to win freedom for her daughter.

Genres: Iran, Memoir, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2016

Reviews

[Mary K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap. That’s what I wrote in about 50 places in the margin. Along with OMG and dear lord and how much more can this woman endure? This is one harrowing story and I dare you to try and read it without knots forming in your stomach and tears in your eyes.

[Juno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book at BEA. I had the opportunity to meet the author and have her sign the book. I only wish I had read the book before I'd met her. I would have loved to have told her how much I admired her courage. My only regret in writing this review is that I can only give it 5 stars.
I picked up the book because I enjoyed Not Without My Daughter. I read the book in one sitting--I could not put it down. The book chronicles the author's courageous journey out of Iran with her daughter. The story recounts her physical and emotional abuse, her failed struggles to leave the country, her supportive family, and how restricted her freedom was as a woman in a male dominated culture. It was a fascinating read and I would reccommend it to everyone.

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book. A must read.

[Patrick Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

TRAPPED in IRAN
A MOTHER’S DESPERATE JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
By Samieh Hezari

with Kaylene Peterson

Trapped in Iran is a memoir that reads like a thriller in that it is a page turner. Once started one must keep reading to the end. It is a great read. The themes are hope and disappointment, trust and betrayal, good and evil, generosity and greed and love and hate, amongst others. In addition it gives a detailed account of what life is like for an ordinary but intelligent and ambitious middle class adolescent and adult female in post-revolutionary Iran under the ever watchful eyes of the Moral Police of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guard.

The story is that of Samieh Hezari who was born in the city of Rasht just south of the Caspian Sea in Northern Iran. She was a perceptive, compassionate, intelligent and ambitious child with educational ambitions who just missed out on a place in medical school in order to qualify as a doctor. Instead she takes a place on a nurse training programme where she meets her future husband, Jabbar, a Pakistani doctor. They marry when she is in her second year of training and move to Ireland where she plans to obtain a place at the College of Surgeons in Dublin in order to pursue her dream of becoming a Doctor. The exorbitantly high fees there, however, make this impossible for the couple on a young doctor’s salary so instead she takes a course in Business Studies at another college and on obtaining her degree she finds work in accounting and finance. The couple have a daughter, Saba, but the marriage subsequently fails and the couple divorce in 2003.

Some years later she returns to visit her family in Iran with Saba for a short vacation. While there she meets a man that she has known since childhood who reveals that he has always been in love with her. She reluctantly enters into a temporary marriage contract with him and this is where Samieh’s nightmare begins. Her new partner turns out to be a violent and narcissistic individual who is extremely volatile and emotionally unstable. She gets pregnant and returns to Ireland to give birth. Her second daughter, Rojha, is born. She is harassed by the child’s father by phone and email but on hearing that he has remarried she feels safe again and returns to Iran so that Rojha can meet her father. Safe, however, she is not and he takes the child’s Irish passport denying her permission to take their daughter out or Iran. A short vacation turns into a five year incarceration from which Samieh makes several escape attempts one of which involves crossing the harsh Zagros Mountains, on the borders of Iran and Iraq, on foot with Rojha only to be turned back by emigration controls when they finally reach the other side. Escape they must as the child’s father has filed a charge of adultery against Samieh which is punishable by stoning to death and he also has a right to full and sole custody of his daughter once she reaches the age of seven years.

The story is gripping and it is filled with tension until the final page. It is peopled by crooks and con artists, greedy lawyers and corrupt officials who often take huge bribes without delivering on their promises. But there are also kind and compassionate characters that go out of their way and put themselves in danger to help Samieh in her desperate plight.

Trapped in Iran is not just Samieh’s story but it is about what happens in societies that are ruled over by regimes that enforce the practice of absolute religious beliefs on their populations in order to exert total control over them. It is about what happens in societies where women are second class citizens with very few rights and are regarded as the property of men. It is also about how corruption and bribery ensure that wealthy and connected people can avoid having to adhere to such arbitrary rules and regulations while the poor and the marginalised are at the mercy of a tyrannical and unjust system.

In the writing of this book Samieh Hezari shows herself to be a brave and tenacious person faced with apparently insuperable obstacles who refuses to accept injustice and the status quo imposed by a fundamentalist autocracy. In so doing she will become, like Malala Yousafzai, another voice for oppressed women struggling to live under such regimes wherever they are in the world. I hope that this is not the last that we will hear from Samieh. I will be very surprised if Trapped in Iran is not on the Best Seller lists around the world for a long time to come and I cannot wait for the movie version.

P M Ireland

[Andy Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an Advanced Readers copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway program. It is very well written and really makes the reader feel for Ms. Hezari and her children. The book chronicles the five year struggle by Ms. Hezari in trying to escape Iran with her daughter facing incredible odds while dealing with unscrupulous people, geographic terrain, and hostile neighboring countries. I had two distinct emotions while reading this book. During the first part of the book I was extremely disappointed in Ms. Hezari's choices (which she herself questions frequently) including relationships, people she trusted, and doing things she wasn't comfortable with. However, by the second half of the book my feelings turned toward compassion for her plight. She deals with multiple individuals who don't come through for her at great personal and financial expense, receives no support from a neighboring country, and gets involved with a man who is quite plainly a psychotic. In the end you will really be on her side and hope that she succeeds. I highly recommend this book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a contrast! In America some people claim there is a war on women if taxpayer funded birth control is taken away - not access to birth control, just having it paid for by taxpayers. Compare that with this author's story where, in Iran and other countries with Muslim controlled and other male dominated societies, she could be jailed for simple things we take for granted. For example, a women cannot travel unless accompanied by a husband or male relative. They are restricted for work to jobs where there is no contact with males. The author had left Iran and had been enjoying having simple freedoms in her adopted country of Ireland. She became trapped in Iran on a visit to see her parents when an ex-husband took passports away from her and her child as a sick form of revenge. Every woman should read this and then see where they think the real war on women is taking place. What an eye opener. Also well written and hard to put down.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have rated the book higher, but the narrator's cadence was off (quick and jerky), and she performed this emotionally harrowing and suspenseful story displaying more frustration than building intensity. Memoir of an Irani/Irish woman's 5 year race to get her younger daughter out of Iran (at 7 the child's father could claim her forever). She took her months-old infant with her from Ireland to visit her family in Iran, but contact with the baby's truly crazy father led to the long battle to get out herself, with her daughter. A compelling story; introspective heroine (who freely admits her multiple mistakes along the way); issue-filled plot with freedoms, rights of women, rights of fathers, etc., in Iran; detailed glimpse into contemporary life in Iran; journalist style but very personal, impassioned; nightmare tone.

[Neeti Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story unfolds almost like a fiction novel (not that I have read much fiction). It is hard to believe that someone actually lived the story! That it isn't a fiction makes it even more captivating to read on. Amazing read, and well written. Like a few other new discoveries, I had gathered this too at the Book Expo this year, and once started reading it, it became a page turner.

Thanks for the copy (to Book Expo and the author)

[Joyce Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and sad eye-opener of what life is like in Iran for women. It is a society that gives no rights to women. A divorced man can take a child away from the mother
permanently when the child turns 7. In this case, the protagonist knew that she had to escape with her daughter before she turned 7. Her x-husband was violent and unstable. It was a perilous journey for both of them, without any basic rights. I read the last few chapters from 10PM-2AM, not being able to put it down!

[Bistra Ivanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely shocking read about women's and human's rights in Iran - an Islamic country dominated by men who can do anything with their wife's life. A series of stupid decisions leads the author to be locked there for 5 years fighting for her child. Society is described as sick which I also know from my refugee friends but here is truly terrifying.

[Nima Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a true depiction of the resilience of a single mom who seemed to hit every roadblock possible but never gave up hope. I felt the frustration through and through.

[Anthony Breen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received the book at the BEA in Chicago earlier this year. I really enjoyed reading it although it is harrowing in parts. It's very well written and I absolutely devoured it in a couple of days. The authors bravery in the face of adversity and never say die spirit are commendable. She has been through so much. A compelling read. Highly recommended.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir is in a desperate need of editing but it also makes it in some way genuine.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samieh is an Iranian woman who marries a Pakistani man, Jabbar. When they move to Ireland for his work, she obtains an Irish passport. After her divorce from Jabbar, she travels to Iran to visit relatives. Back in Iran she agrees - against her better judgment and her mothers warnings - to a relationship with an unstable and unreliable man. He steals her passport and holds her against her will, but she manages to travel back to Ireland as she turns out to be pregnant, and he agrees it is to the baby's advantage to have an Irish passport.

Because Samieh wants her baby daughter Rojha to get an Iranian passport too, she travels back from Ireland to Iran with Rojha as the father of her baby has to initiate an administrative act for her daughter's Iranian passport. However, despite promises, he manages to deprive her of freedom again by taking Rojha's papers; making life difficult for them; and moreover, he can get full custody of his daughter once she reaches the age of seven. He also accuses her of adultery, which could be punishable by death, and a legal battle ensues. Samieh makes several attempts to escape from Iran with her daughter.

I found the first half of this book frustrating: Everyone makes mistakes, but this naive woman just didn't seem to learn from her mistakes. Time and time again, she allowed herself to be lied to and to be scammed. I felt sad for her parents, who kept warning her and supported her through difficult times, even though they were struggling themselves. Fortunately Samieh increasingly standed up for herself - as far as Iranian culture allows - and eventually escapes.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. My heart ached for this woman as she desperately fought to keep from losing her child and the long battle to return to her adopted country of Ireland. Americans who complaint about how bad they have it here in America should read this book and other stories like this. Maybe it will help to open their eyes to be grateful for their freedom and that they can go out in public without fearing for their lives.

[persephone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing tale, but also a hopeful one.

Other reviewers have spoken about the tragedy the author endured in this tale- while horrible, this is not a tale of woes that defined her, but of how her resourcefulness, hopefulness and love helped her escape what would have been a terrible fate. Her independence and initiative even under an oppressive regime is truly laudable.

So happy you made it, Samieh!

[Kendra Sitton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trapped in Iran
🎧 Audiobook on Libby
Finished 1/29/26

Trapped in Iran is a true memoir about a woman’s harrowing fight to protect her young daughter while stuck in the country of her birth. In 2009, Samieh Hezari traveled from her adopted home in Ireland to Iran with her 14-month-old daughter so the child could meet her father. What should have been a short visit turns into a years-long struggle when the father refuses to allow them to leave

[Jan Tisdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

2010, Samich, flew from Ireland to Iran so her daughter could meet her father. That’s when the nightmare started as she now was trapped there. She made numerous attempts to freedom.

“Horrrible what women go through in Iran and how the man has all the rights and women mean nothing to them.
What a strong, brave woman she was.
I wonder if she saw her parents again”.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story or perseverance.

[Léonie Rijnders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very emotional book

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. I read it all in almost one sitting...it's THAT good. I had to force myself to put it down at 2 am because it was way past my bedtime!

A testament to the courage and strength of an Iranian mother who saves herself and her child from an abusive man and the oppressive laws of her country.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review can also be found on A Thousand Lives Lived, check it out for more!

*4.5 star rating*

Trapped in Iran by the phenomenal Samieh Hezari is phenomenal. It's a read that definitely requires a lot of patience and strength since it is based on a tough, sad subject. I am obsessed with books that are about the things a person will do to save their children. There was a movie that I watched like year, Not Without My Daughter, which is so similar to this — which made me realize that the Iranian Revolution is such a powerful topic that I need to read more about. Samieh Hezari's story needs more popularity; more people who are able to fall in love with all of this.

This is a story that is so jam-packed that I couldn't believe it. It just seems as good as any movie's plot. However, it was all real, and I was able to feel the deepness and emotion in every word Samieh wrote. I was fortunate to meet her at BookExpo America in 2016, however I had not learned much about her story at that moment so I was only able to pity her a little. Now? I understand all of the struggles she faced and I can see why she felt like she needed to release this story and share it with the world.



Trapped in Iran is brilliant. It is about a mother's struggle in saving her daughter and herself from the harmful Islamic regime which does not grant women any right to support her children if the father does not allow it. Men have a greater importance, and it kills me to see that this journey of Samieh's only occurred a few years ago. Not Without My Daughter, the famous film, occurred decades ago (with the film arising soon after), but this? This is recent. This is so heartbreaking.

In the beginning of the book, I was frustrated with Samieh's situation to the extent that I wondered why she didn't do anything else. It got me a little upset here and there, definitely affecting my rating. Everything eventually made so much sense and I was able to see desperation in Samieh's writing. My experience of reading this book was fabulous to the point that it took me two sittings to read. If I read this in one sitting, I would have had to stay up all night, indulging in the gorgeous writing and brilliant story. I spent the whole time through crossing my fingers and praying that everything will be alright in the end. But like many instances in life, it is not about the outcome or the ending, but about the journey in between.

This is an emotional roller coaster. You get hooked on it instantly, and as the plot moves forward, you become so obsessed with the story that you NEED to know what is going to happen. PLEASE BUY IT ASAP.

*A review copy was provided by the publisher via BookExpo America in exchange for a honest review. Thank you so much!*