This story is over 5 years old. Zeena: I moved here from Baghdad when I was seven. My mother and father were doctors there but they decided to leave when things in Iraq started to go bad. This was a few years before the American invasion.
Travel was really limited under Saddam. How did it get worse? Before the Americans came, Iraq was very much a secular country. There were Muslims, Christians, and Jews all living there. They want to turn the place into a religious state and I think they probably will. What are you doing here in London? How do you dress day to day? I love heels. I suppose I dress quite slutty really. I like shopping at Top Shop and American Apparel for stuff to wear around the house.
What if you dressed slutty in Iraq right now? Right now the most popular items of fashion in Baghdad are veils and bulletproof vests. Samar: Basra. My dad was a chauffeur there. It makes us mad. Even the Westerners know that now. Bush in power. If you watch Al Jazeera you see the major contrasts in how the news is communicated here and there. What is it? When Saddam was in power there was a Muslim divide between the Shia and the Sunni, but nothing like the amount of conflict happening now.
I think a lot of the extremists of those two sects are actually happy that Saddam was brought down because they can take advantage of the total lawlessness that exists there. The government is useless. The power in the country lies in random militias. You sound angry. I try and block it out and it gets me very heated. How heated? Sometimes I get into debates with the people I work with at this music licensing company. Are you planning on visiting Iraq soon? What do you think is going to happen?
When was the last time you spoke to them? About six or seven months ago. He said conditions were bad. This was around the time when my other uncle Ashraf was shot through the head at his front door because he owned a few buildings and he was letting American soldiers stay in them.
