Literary Nonfiction. Middle East Studies. Memoir. In 1970s Iraq, the Ba'ath Party was at the height of its influence in the Middle East and popularity throughout the West. But a group of activists recognized the disastrous potential of the regime as its charismatic leader, Saddam Hussein, became more powerful. Haifa Zangana was among those resisters, a small group of whom were captured and imprisoned at Abu Ghraib. From the distance of time and place, Zangana writes during her first years of forced exile from her beloved country about the time of her incarceration, the agonizing loss of comrades to torture and death in prison, the haunted quality of life so far away from home and family, and the ways in which memory conspires to make us forget what sometimes is most dear to us.

Author Hometown: London ENG



About the author: Haifa Zangana was just eight years old in 1958, when Iraqis flooded the streets to celebrate their newfound, hard-won freedom from British colonial rule, which had begun in 1917. She came of age in one of the most open societies in the Middle East-until it was shut down in the 1970s by the Ba'ath Party. She was imprisoned for her opposition to Saddam Hussein, and since her release, has been living in exile in London. She writes regularly for the Guardian and al-Ahram Weekly, and is the author of many books, including City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance.

Reviews:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090814/REVIEW/708139985/1008
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?lab=ZanganaBaghdad