Showing results by narrator "Vaneh Assadourian" in All Categories

When the matriarch of Sarah’s family arranged her marriage to Ali, it was with the intention of uniting two compatible families. However, as the 2009 election becomes contentious, political differences emerge, and Sarah’s conservative family tries to call off the wedding. Sarah and Ali, however, have fallen in love and, against the wishes of their parents, insist on going through with the marriage.

Duty commits her, honor strengthens her, but in the end, it is her love for her child and her own self-worth that propels Amira toward a desperate act. Despite her fairytale childhood, which included the wealth of the Middle East, Amira was not ready for the savagery of her arranged marriage and inclusion into her husband's harem.

Four-year-old Shahaab has not started talking. The family doctor believes there is no cause for concern; nevertheless, Shahaab is ridiculed by others who call him “dumb.” In his innocent and deeply hurt child’s mind, he begins to believe that the “good” and “intelligent” children like his older brother are their fathers’ sons. On the other hand, children like him who are “clumsy” and “problematic” are their mothers’ sons.

As a daughter of the Salt King, Emel ought to be among the most powerful women in the desert. Instead, she and her sisters have less freedom than even her father's slaves...for the Salt King uses his own daughters to seduce visiting noblemen into becoming powerful allies by marriage.

After her desert-transforming wish, Emel follows Saalim to Madinat Almulihi to reclaim all she has lost. But the seaside city is not what she expected. When she is tasked with assisting the palace healer, she is faced daily with the reminder that Saalim—focused only on seeking the revenge of those who killed his family—does not remember her at all. Cursing the magic that destroyed her love and brought her to an unwelcoming city, Emel regrets her decision to leave her settlement. That is, until she meets Kas.

Helen is a young Yazidi woman, living with her family in a mountain village in Sinjar, northern Iraq. One day she finds a local bird caught in a trap and frees it, just as the trapper, Elias, returns. At first angry, he soon sees the error of his ways and vows never to keep a bird captive again. Helen and Elias fall deeply in love, marry and start a family in Sinjar. The village has seemed to stand apart from time, protected by the mountains and too small to attract much political notice. But their happy existence is suddenly shattered when Elias, a journalist, goes missing.

Yes, it’s true—Rahab was a prostitute—until the day God redeemed her. But gratefully, once we have been redeemed, God doesn’t see any of us through the lens of our sin; rather, He sees us through the lens of His Son. It was by faith, this woman of courage and strength did not die with all the others in her city. And it was by faith, she became a part of the ancestral line that led to the advent of Jesus. This is the story of the heroine who protected the Israelite spies … and so much more.

The room is watching. But Mira and Layla don't know this yet. When the two best friends are stranded on their spring break college tour road trip, they find themselves at the Wildwood Motel, located in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Mira can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong and rotten about their room. Inside, she's haunted by nightmares of her dead brother. When she wakes up, he's still there.