Ogoni Refugees Dominican Ball Players Palestinian Bride Indian Tech Worker Mexican Laborer INTRODUCTION EPISODE 1 EPISODE 2 EPISODE 3 The Palestinian Bride

Naima Saadeh Abudayyeh



Naima Saadeh is determined to leave the small town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where she has lived her whole life. Like many young people, she wants to see more of the world. Naima is a progressive young woman with ambitions and El Jib is a provincial Muslim village.



"I believe in God," she says. "But in my town, there are things we need more than the new mosque. We already have two of them. We need a recreational center for young women and men. But with the state of mind here, how could a young woman even leave the house to use it? El Jib will always be my village, but it is a very conservative place… What I want in life, I don't see it here."



Naima is in her final semester at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. Every day, she takes three taxi-vans and must cross an Israeli checkpoint to get to school. Even during this period of relative calm in the West Bank in 1999, Naima’s Palestinian identity papers limit her movement and bar her from entering Jerusalem without Israeli permission.



When first-generation Palestinian American Hatem Abudayyeh visits the village in which his parents lived until 1967, he meets Naima and falls in love. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple starts planning their wedding in Chicago, where Hatem lives with his parents.



"I’ve been wanting to go to America since I was little to build up my future and improve myself," Naima says. "I think in America there are more opportunities than here. I’m the kind of person who likes change. I want to go out and see the world."



INTRODUCTION EPISODE 1 EPISODE 2 EPISODE 3







Naima Saadeh Abudayyeh



Naima and her mother



