“I call myself an Iraqi born Scots and I am 56 years young.  I have been living here since the 29th of July 1980.     I am a mother of three very big grown up children, very big children -  I can’t get rid of them! I run my own business as a part-time caterer, part-time land-lady, my official job as an executive head chef for a company ………….”

Why I came to Scotland
“In 1979 there were some problems at that time.  I was part of the Iraqi air force and something happened, something political and I raised my concerns and spoke to my colleagues in my office.  The intercom between my office and the commander was on which I didn’t know about, they heard what I was saying.  They kept quiet about it but at the beginning of the year 1980 they said I was going for training and I had to pack an over night bag.  So I did go but I didn’t go for training I ended up in detention. They thought I was part of a Dawa party at that time which was banned in Iraq.  I had what I call my wrist slapped and one of my colleagues, well, I don’t know if he is dead or alive.   My father, my late father, bought my freedom….”

“ When I came back I persuaded  ( my husband) him to change his line of practice.  He was practicing as a doctor and he could have got a post-graduate degree from Iraq.  ……It was a decision which was basically safer for me and my family, because after that I was under house arrest.  I was still going to work, I was in a military car which would take me to work and bring me back from work, I was watched all the time.  My in-laws didn’t know they thought I was too important and I kept it that way.  Anyway I came over here, my husband applied to some universities and got accepted to three, so we put the names in a hat and Glasgow University came out and here we are now.”
Scotland for me!

“I wasn’t interested in Britain as Britain- I was fascinated by Scotland from a very young age.  I think it was the hunky men with the kilts, Rob Roy, the highlanders, things like that were always fascinating me to look in the books and see the green, you know.  Half of Iraq is desert and looking at the pictures the fields look different colours of green velvet and that all I had in my mind.  I was very lucky when we pulled the papers and it was Glasgow, I love it.  To me Scotland is home…..”

“It’s like yesterday I was eight months pregnant with my youngest son, my other son was a toddler only about six months  old and my daughter was about two and a half years old.  We taught her to speak English from a very early age so when she came over here she was speaking both languages.  We landed in  Heathrow and two hours later we landed in Glasgow.  The 29th July 1980 and it was freezing.  I came off the plane and I remember inhaling the air, so fresh here, this is going to be my home and that’s it.”

“….I can think of differences more than similarities.  The first shock that I encountered in Glasgow was seeing women drinking beer from the can in the street.  The other one was seeing couples eating each other’s throats in the streets.  I thought was degrading to women because emotions are very personal things and should be sacred, not on exhibition. I noticed how dirty the streets were and people swear a lot in Glasgow.  There was something very different - people talk to you one way or another, if they don’t say hello they swear at you and to me that is a form of communication which was very refreshing! “

 My parents –
..”My mother is still alive, she is seventy-four now, she doesn’t like to admit it she still tells everyone she is fifty even though I am fifty-six however she is a lot stronger than I am but my father sadly passed away in 2002.

My dad was physically tall, massive tall guy, very loud, very short tempered but at the same time he had a heart of gold and was the soft one between the two.  My mother is only four foot nine, she is wise temper, she is a giant, dominant wore the trousers, rules everyone, dictates to everyone.  

(When) people ask me why I leave the country.  I said “Saddam Hussain, my mother and my mother-in-law and not necessarily in that order”.  I never got along with her she didn’t show me any emotions or any love.  Still the same now.  I went to Iraq in 2004 after twenty-three years, eight months and sixteen days, first time my mother saw me, first of all she pulled my hair to make sure it wasn’t a wig then she poked my stomach with her figure and said to me “you are living in Britain, why cant you get rid of this Michelin tyre?” and the third she said to me was “You’re short.  So I said that “funny the pot calls the kettle black”, but I did take her presents and I do send her presents all the time as god says, profit says “haven, paradise is under mother’s feet”.

Ramadan
Traditions…. “Although we are Arabic, I think traditions are the same in all Muslim countries. 
People…in Muslim countries, including Britain fast the holy month of Ramadan, observe the five pillars of Islam, look after the young, respect the elders.  The two festivals which are the breaking of the fast after Ramadan, Eid and the Pilgrims’ Festival which is when they go to Mecca.” 
Ramadan, …
“After fasting for almost thirty days is the break of the fast ( Eid.)  All the children or younger siblings will come and visit mother or the eldest siblings, brother or sister for something to eat. 
We look after the children. I remembered my father used to have a stack of what is equivalent to £5 note. Because my mother is the eldest in her family, they all used to come round to us and my father. For every child who comes to visit us on the first day, he would give them a £5 note.  That is their present and the children would keep this £5 note and buy whatever they want to buy in the evening,…..but we don’t spend a lot of money spoiling the kids buying them everything they want “ ..
“The next day we do totally the opposite, we go to visit the others. There is mornings prayer festival.  All the men go to the mosque. The women don’t necessarily go to the mosque.  
We give something to the poor as we have to give something to others. Every member of the family, you give enough to feed one person from a poor family or you take it to the mosque.. The mosque will have massive feasts. I remember they used to put them in the streets, cushions everywhere and big missives  of meat and bread and anyone can just go and eat regardless of where they come from or their background. “

“The Pilgrims Festival is different because the pilgrims festival is where Abraham went around Mecca and was about to sacrifice his son, that why they sacrifice a sheep on behalf of their family or just donate it to the poor.  They go around Ka’ba seven times chanting their prayers.  Mecca is in Saudi Arabia which is the first holy city in the Islamic world.  The Ka’ba is the black stone that is based in Mecca it is very sacred and that where millions of people will go and visit every single year if they are able.  Every Muslim’s wish as far as I know is to go at least once in their lifetime.”

Asian Connections Book