MARWA has been in the Seattle area for almost one and half years with her two parents and her four younger sisters. Having fled Iraq when she was only nine, she has vague memories of being in her garden back in her birth country before the threat against her family's underground movement against Saddam Hussein forced them to leave. Having then lived as urban refugees in Iran, Syria and Jordan, MARWA's family has begun to feel at home here in America, making family friends and partaking in community activism with fellow Muslims and Iraqi's who work to educate the American people about Saddam Hussein's regime and the ways of the Muslim people (activities which were heightened as the war on Iraq was only weeks away at time of shooting.) According to family friends, MARY and CRAIG, MARWA plays the role of the translator for the family, and leads the way for her sisters to adjust to keeping tradition and culture as a Muslim girl in America. With considerable love and support from her mother, KAREMA and her father, SAAD, MARWA - although only 14 years old - carries the maturity and convictions of a young woman, dedicated to her family and her Islamic faith, heading toward a life of success and fulfillment.