From a young age, Mariam rebelled against the terrible second-class existence that was destined for her as a woman of Afghanistan. She had witnessed the unhappy fate of her grandmother and her three aunts, while she wished she had been born a boy. As a defiant teenager in Kabul, she was outraged by the Russian invasion of her country. After a public act of resistance, she needed to escape for her life. A new life of freedom seemed to be within her grasp, but her father arranged a traditional marriage with a fellow Afghan, who turned out to be violent. Beaten, raped, and abused, Mariam found joy in the birth of a son. However, her violent husband stole him away from her. For many years, she searched for her lost son, while the civil war and Taliban oppression raged back in Afghanistan. Against the backdrop of an area filled with tragic stories of dreadful suffering, Jean Sasson, author of "Princess," records the story of a determined yet tormented woman who is determined to achieve freedom and equality with men.