Arts & Entertainment
7th Annual Jewish Book Festival: Jessica Jiji - Sweet Dates in Basra
"Instead of arranging the marriage of their beautiful daughter, Kathmiya Mahmoud, her Arab family decides to send her to work as a servant in the city of Basra.
In this lost Iraq of the 1940's, she meets Shafiq, a Jewish boy, whose friendship with his Muslim neighbor, Omar, proves that religion is no barrier to friendship. But in a world where loss of honor is punishable by death, the relationship becomes dangerous. When tensions explode between Britain and Iraq, the unbreakable boyhood bond and a new love must overcome the collapsing society.
Set during the years surrounding World War II, this is the redemptive story of two very different cultures.
Come hear Jessica Jiji, daughter of an Iraqi immigrant and a speechwriter for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, give tribute to the lost traditions and cultural harmony of Iraq before WW II."
