Iranian-Jewish Woman Defies the Odds in New Memoir

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Lee Gittler Steup Transcribes the Incredible Life Story of Dr. Mariam Naseem in Engaging New Memoir

Vails Gate, NY, March 16, 2010 — “Not Without My Son: As Told To Lee Gittler Steup” (published by AuthorHouse) is the chronicle of the life of Dr. Mariam Naseem, an Iranian-born Jewish immigrant to America who confronted oppression on the basis of her gender, culture, religion and, later, her son’s mental illness but never lost faith in herself or in the potential to overcome. Her heartbreaking yet triumphant story is told without embellishment and speaks to Naseem’s perspective as a doctor, a mother, an immigrant and a woman.

“Not Without My Son: As Told To Lee Gittler Steup” opens on the fateful day when Dr. Naseem realized her son was seriously ill. This revelation was only the beginning in her son’s downward spiral into psychosis. Within the next month, they find themselves in and out of hospitals that either could not or would not help him. Naseem, overwhelmed by her son’s mistreatment and going through a divorce at the same time, is driven to meditate on her past life in Iran, her son’s birth and their eventual escape from Iran during a tumultuous regime change.

Born in Iran as a Jewish woman, Naseem was beset from an early age with expectations that she would become a devoted housewife, mother and nothing more. Instead of succumbing to this life, Naseem rebelled in every way, fighting to gain an education and become a doctor. She depicts the family traditions, customs, marriage and education native to Iran, allowing readers to become intimately familiar with the Iranian-Jewish experience that was prejudiced against her. When the rule of the Shah was overthrown, Naseem describes watching as the country changed around her. Her account details how the new theocracy presented intolerable dangers to herself and her family and how she escaped from her oppressive homeland in search of the Promised Land, only to discover that America made few promises and kept even fewer.

Naseem’s life in America was tainted by abusive marriages and the mistreatment of her son by various medical facilities and mental institutions. When the American medical establishment and collegiate institutions decided they could help her son no further, Naseem took matters into her own hands to find a cure for her son’s illness on her own.

Join her on her journey through unremitting struggle and hardship to triumph in the astonishing pages of “Not Without My Son: As Told To Lee Gittler Steup.” Naseem’s success is a testament to the strength of one impassioned woman’s spirit to prevail over seemingly insurmountable odds.

Dr. Mariam Naseem grew up in Tehran, Iran, and graduated from the National University of Iran, where she studied medicine. She currently owns and operates a pediatric medical center that is inclusive of both alternative and traditional approaches to medicine.

AuthorHouse is the premier book publisher for emerging, self-published authors. For more information, please visit http://www.authorhouse.com.

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