Mirah is a twenty seven year old woman from a small city in the south of Iraq called Kut. When the United States occupied Iraq in 2003 she was working on a degree in English at her local university. As young woman from an area where Iraq’s tribes are strong, she says she lived a closed life, spending all her time either at home or in school, unable to stand up to the men in her family when she disagreed with them. In May of 2003, Mirah met an American lawyer named Fern Holland. Holland encouraged the women at Mirah’s university to form a volunteer group to work on women’s rights. Mirah felt inspired by her words and helped start the organization.