Taste the Sweetness Later

Khiria Ali, a bright young Libyan woman, attacks all the obstacles that block the path to her goal of a scholarship to study in the U.S. In spite of cultural restrictions on women and loyalty to her family, she persists with guidance from her grandmother's words: "Swallow it now, and taste the sweetness later." After a six-year struggle, marriage and a baby, the scholarship is awarded just at the time of the revolution against dictator Muamar Gaddafi. Amidst bombs, air strikes and blockaded roads, Khiria, husband Ahmed, and son Mohamed fly from Tripoli to the United States. In spite of economic hardship, Khiria becomes fluent in English, gives birth to a second son, and conquers her lack of technology background to receive an M.S. in computer science. She has achieved her goals but does not want to take her family home to Libya until it is safe. Will it be possible for her to stay in the U.S. with a new U.S. President who is tightening immigration restrictions?A continent away, in Baghdad, Iraq, Nisren grows up and marries haunted by Saddam Hussain's "eyes that are watching." As a Kurdish woman, she suffers the poverty that results from Saddam Hussein's forays into war, UN sanctions, and restrictions against the Kurds. Soon after the U.S. invades Iraq, her husband Raad is becomes an interpreter for the US. army. As anti-U.S. sentiment develops over the years, Raad's twin brother, also an interpreter, is killed. The family realizes they may be next, so they obtain a refugee visa to come to the US. While her husband works to support the family, Nisren learns English, enrolls the children in school, and, in spite of depression and PTSD, discovers the strength to defend her choice to wear her native dress in the face of the rude gestures and shouts of "go home to your own country." US citizenship is awarded to the whole family just in time for Nisren and Raad to vote in the 2016 presidential election.