Nothing Is Private (2007) Against the backdrop of the first Gulf War, Jasira Maroun is 13, physically well developed but na�ve and unable to say no. As puberty arrives, her mother sends her from Syracuse to Houston to her curt, uptight, Lebaneseborn father. Over the next few months, Jasira must navigate her fathers strict indifference, her discovery of sexual pleasure, the casual racism of a neighbor boy and her classmates, the sexual advances of the boys father, the proffered friendship of a pregnant neighbor, and her attraction to Thomas, an AfricanAmerican classmate whom her father forbids her to see. Things happen to her, but can she take responsibility and control, or is tragedy inevitable?