Hope and Despair

The inspiring story of Monia Mazigh's courageous fight to free her husband, Maher Arar, from a Syrian jail.On September 26, 2002, Maher Arar boarded an American Airlines plane bound for New York, returning early from vacation with his family because a work project needed his attention. He was a Canadian citizen, a telecommunications engineer and entrepreneur who had never been in trouble with the law. His nightmare began when he was pulled aside by Immigration officials at JFK airport, questioned, held without access to a lawyer, and ultimately deported to Syria on the suspicion that he had terrorist links. He would remain there, tortured and imprisoned for over one year. Meanwhile his wife, Monia, and their two children stayed on visiting family in Tunisia, unaware that their lives were about to be torn apart.Upon her return to Canada, Monia was horrified at the media's and public's willingness to assume that the Canadian police and intelligence agencies, and their...