Anne Faris is the author of Baghdad Beloved; her fascinating, funny and heart-breaking memoir of the years she spent in Baghdad with her two young children, Nadia and Nabeel and husband, Salah.
I was many years back in England before I ever recounted my story to anyone other than family and close friends. It was only after a lot of prompting from my two children that I decided to write my Memoir. I think they needed to know about their abrupt departure from the place they called home, and they also wanted to know more about Baghdad, the lovely city where they had lived very happily for almost seven years.
When I left England for Baghdad, I was young and fearless. I was also in love and wanted to live where my husband lived. There was no question of Baghdad being a dangerous place to go: no more than Egypt, say, or Tunisia where many British people went on holiday. It was easy to get visas for the three of us and there was just an all-round sense of excitement. I don’t believe I ever thought I wouldn’t return to England at some point. This was true of the other wives of Iraqi students I met in Baghdad; they all believed at some point they would return.
I couldn’t believe how exotic Baghdad was in late 60s and early 70s. In many ways it seemed to me more advanced than England. For example, nearly everyone I met was educated to degree level. The women wore lovely western style clothes they had made themselves. They spoke English, listened to music, read and wrote poetry and read English novels. They were generally knowledgeable about their country’s politics but also world happenings too.
Family life was very important. Most social activities took place within the extended family. Salah’s family was a minority sect in Iraq. They were Baptists, but to my knowledge there was never any discrimination. Most of the men held professional positions and were: engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers or dentists. The women I met, particularly, the younger ones, were at school or university and this was considered normal. There was a huge Muslim Shia population who were governed by a very much small Sunni minority; but this had always been the case and there was no evidence of any discrimination here either. Sunni men married Shia women and vice versa. It wasn’t until much later, under Saddam, that this began to change and divisions started to appear between those who joined the Ba’athist party and those who did not. Top jobs were then distributed accordingly.
When I returned to England in 1976, I was a single mother. The atmosphere I returned to was not sympathetic. Politically we seemed to be regarded as feckless and there was very little support. The children found it very hard. They had been happy in Baghdad, with a mother and father, a lovely house and very devoted extended family. Back home there were just the three of us. English was almost their second language since they spoke fluent Arabic from going to school in Baghdad.
I tried but was possibly not as attentive as I had been. I had to find a home, work and a school for them. They found making friends difficult at first I think. Nadia even begged me to change her name to Sharon, so she could fit in at school more easily. The food was different too. That they bedded down and just got on with it is a huge tribute their personal resilience from such a young age.
Writing my first draft of Baghdad Beloved took about a year. It was easy to begin with. It was just my story. However, after the invasion of Iraqi in 2003, I became very saddened by pictures of Baghdad and Iraq looking like a devastated third world country. I had never seen it like that. So, I had to do quite a bit of research to explain how Iraq had moved from a secular happy place to a city of mistrust, fear and ultimately death and destruction.
I completed my original manuscript quite a while ago but after a few half-hearted submissions (rejected) I left it. I was never disheartened by the rejections, (remembering always the experience of J K Rowling!) but I think I was daunted by the submission process: writing a synopsis and covering letter, finding an agent and entering a world that was utterly foreign to me. I know many people do that, but I found it difficult. Maybe I just didn’t have enough self-belief.
I was also unsure whether my story would be interesting to others; my family and friends loved it, but I needed more. So, I signed up to a Masterclass course at Faber and Faber. It was here I had to read my own words out loud to an audience for the first time. Thankfully, it was well received. I was advised on the title and the absolute necessity of strong editing.
I made many attempts at editing. It is quite difficult. Eventually, I realised I would benefit from professional help and asked Lesley to do a structural edit. She was absolutely forensic and gave me so much advice and so many tips to improve my writing. I now believe after making the changes she suggested I can get my story out to a wider audience.