Defiance
By Loubna Mrie
Viking, February 24, 2026
A stunning memoir of personal rebellion and political awakening from a young Syrian woman raised to be loyal to a brutal regime—and the unimaginable cost of choosing freedom.
Every day at school, Loubna Mrie pledged allegiance to Bashar al-Assad. His portrait hung over every blackboard and her textbooks reminded her that, without the president, Syria would fall into chaos. Her family, part of the Alawite minority that ruled the country, revered him. Her grandfather helped bring the Assad family to power; her father, a formidable businessman with close ties to the regime, ruled their household with absolute authority. In her world, loyalty was survival. Dissent was betrayal.
But everything changed in 2011, when the Arab Spring reached Syria and Mrie stumbled into an anti-government protest. What she witnessed–the courage, the blood, the brutality—ignited something in her that would not be extinguished. She joined the resistance, smuggling supplies to young rebels and risking her life as a photojournalist documenting the war for Reuters. Her defiance would come at a devastating cost: her mother’s murder, her father’s disavowal, and the loss of her partner, American aid worker Peter Kassig, who was executed by ISIS.
Defiance is the unforgettable account of one woman’s fight for freedom—against a dictator, a father, and the weight of inherited belief. From the streets of Aleppo to exile in the United States, Mrie’s story offers an electrifying portrait of moral courage in a period of unimaginable violence. Told with clarity, fury, and grace, Defiance offers a rare ground-level portrait of what it means to wake up and resist.
About the Author
Loubna Mrie is a Syrian photographer, journalist, and writer. She covered the Syrian war as a photojournalist for Reuters from 2012 to 2014. She is a frequent commentator and researcher on Syrian and Middle Eastern affairs. She has been published in Time, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Nation, Vice, and Al Jazeera, among other outlets.
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