Lost in Foreign Passions: Love & betrayal, passion & loss in the heart of an alien land

Beliefs can be dangerous. Religious or romantic, they all share one thing in common: they require unconditional acceptance despite any information to the contrary. Such was my experience when, as a dissaffected Pentacostal Christian, I met and fell in love with an Iranian revolutionary and ended up going with him to what seemed to me the most dangerous place on earth at the time: his homeland, post-revolutionary Iran of 1982. Suddenly I was trapped in a wholly alien culture, sometimes enchanting, other times terrifying. The enchantment lay in its arts, the graciousness of the people, the loveliness of its archetecture, gardens, and charming villages. The terror was in local acts of terrorism, the proximity of the Iran-Iraq war, the anti-American hate rallies in the streets, and the utter legal repression and abuse of women under the Islamic regime and draconian sharia laws. It all affected me very personally. It affected the relationship I had with my newborn son. This is my memoir of that haunting and turbulent time of my life that nearly ended it. It's also Iran's story, the story of a revolution, those affected by it, and the devastating realities of terrorism, war, gender politics, and theocracy laid bare.