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While her latest film Moor takes to the film festival circuit, Samiya Mumtaz has moved on to two new projects.

At present, she's performing a play in Canada called The Road to Paradise, which looks at the different ways the war in Afghanistan has affected the lives of women and children.

Written by Toronto-based duo Jonathan Garfinkel and Christopher Morris (who also directs), The Road To Paradise is a three-part story that follows the intertwining lives of a child suicide bomber in Pakistan, a pair of Canadian soldiers and their wives in Petawawa and an Afghan woman and her son who emigrate to Toronto after a family tragedy.

The play was inspired by a CBC interview with a Canadian woman whose husband was fighting in Afghanistan, Morris told Toronto Now, after which the director and his co-writer spent several years visiting Pakistan, Afghanistan and Petawawa to get the "other side" of the story.

"I didn't want the script to be ... simply a rah-rah patriotic piece, so I also decided to explore the other side of the conflict by speaking to Afghan national army troops and including the Taliban viewpoint," Morris shared.

He feel the presence of actors from the countries where the play is set has lent legitimacy to their script.

"Christopher and I were visitors to the places where the play is set," said Garfinkel. "Because we're not from either Pakistan or Afghanistan, working with people from those countries gives the play more substance and weight."

The English/Dari play runs till November 28th at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, after which it moves to other venues.

Samiya's first TV drama since the release of Moor, Ali Ki Ammi, also hit the airwaves in Pakistan yesterday.

She stars as an inadvertent second wife whose life takes a terrible turn post-marriage. After the birth of her son Ali, she vows not to let the mistreatment of her in-laws affect the future of her son, and strives to give him the best education possible, despite being uneducated herself.