A young American woman who lost her mother in 9/11 needs a heart transplant and discovers that her only hope is to pay a small fortune for her Muslim doctor to escort her to Iran for the operation. Reluctantly putting her mistrust aside, she agrees to the bargain but once in Iran her doctor’s mysterious behavior and the terrible social injustice she finds propel her to become enmeshed in the tragic case of two young boys framed and threatened with execution for homosexuality. Her doctor finally reveals what her behavior is endangering – a secret clinic he runs to aid those abused by the system. He wants her to ignore the plight of the boys but she can’t. Her discovery of the heart that had been buried under the scar tissue of 9/11 nearly destroys them but in the end their passion for justice saves them both and brings two opposing cultures a bit closer.



“Justice Square” began as the play “Haram Iran.” Written by Jay Paul Deratany, “Haram Iran” tells the true story of two boys coming of age, and struggling with their identities as Arab Iranians, and as typical teenagers longing to discover their place in the world. Ayaz Marhouni and Mahmoud Asgari, two fifteen year old boys who may have been gay or may have been experimenting with their sexuality-- like many teenagers do, however, they get caught in a compromised position, publicly humiliated and tried in the Iranian legal system.