Sarah Shourd, her fiancé Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal, were captured by Iranian forces in July 2009 while hiking behind a tourist site in Iraqi Kurdistan somewhere near an unmarked border with Iran. Shourd was freed in September 2009 after being held for 14 months in solitary confinement at Evin prison in Tehran. She then relentlessly advocated for Bauer and Fattal's release alongside their families and supporters, which the two obtained on September 21, 2011.

Shane Bauer is a journalist and award-winning photographer. A fluent speaker of Arabic, he has primarily reported on the Middle East and North Africa, where he has spent much of the past eight years. His work has been published in the US, UK, Middle East, and Canada, in outlets such as The Nation, Mother Jones Magazine, Le Monde Diplomatique (German edition), Slate.com, Aljazeera.net, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, and Democracy Now! He has received numerous awards for his photography and in 2007 and 2008, he co-directed a documentary film titled Songs to Enemies and Deserts about the rebel movement in Darfur, Sudan.

Josh Fattal is an educator and activist whose experiences have ranged from teaching sustainable living skills in rural Oregon to advocating for public health in China. He stands firmly for Palestinian rights and social justice around the world. Since his release from Iranian prison, he has publicly supported the Occupy movement.

Sarah Shourd is a writer and an international solidarity activist living in Oakland, CA. She has taught Iraqi refugees in Damascus, organized with Direct Action to Stop the Wars, worked with the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, and organized against femicide in Juarez, Mexico. She has written for The New York Times, CNN.com, Newsweek's Daily Beast, Brave New Traveler, and more.

The three are currently working on a book about their experience as hostages in Iran.

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