I am against Blair and Bush attacking Iraq because it won’t just destroy Saddam it will destroy children's lives and many other lives. It will destroy the water, factories and the air. I lived in the village and saw people working with the earth to grow fruit and vegetables. If the bombs come it will destroy the quality of the earth and people will have nothing, the food will not grow and people will starve. After the Gulf war people couldn’t use the water for many many years. The water was destroyed by oil and other things. If Bush wants to pick up Saddam he could. But he doesn’t want Saddam he wants the oil. Everyone knows this.

I have a large family in Bakoba and in many other towns in Iraq. I have four brothers and three sisters. My father has a trade and my mother is a housewife. Some of my sisters are housewives and some are working outside the home. All my brothers work. One sister is a pharmacist, another works in a factory. I went to university in Mosel to study economics. I was involved in a political organisation against Saddam and was imprisoned for a few weeks. My husband disappeared for over three years. We were then forced to live in hiding for nine years and couldn’t work. My family supported me for this time. In 1991 the situation seemed to improve and we returned to Mosel. But my husband was taken again and I never heard from him again.

My grandmother and grandfather are farmers. When I was in hiding I lived with them and helped them on the farm growing fruit – pears, lemons, pomegranate. My grandmother worked on the farm at the same time as raising her children. She did the same jobs as the men: weeding, planting, cutting, picking, stacking the fruit. She got up at 6am and prepared the food for her children and for people in the family who are old and don’t work. The oldest child would take the others to school and she would go and work on the farm. In the afternoon she came back and prepared food for family. When the children went to bed she and her husband ate. On Friday she went out. It's a holiday like Sunday here. She would visit family.

The schools in Iraq are not in good condition. There is mud on the floor when it is raining, and a lack of chairs, pencils, etc. It is not safe for the children because for example electric wires would be hanging down, there is no wall around the school so the children can run into the street. In the private schools the pupils have everything because the parents pay. People have to pay for healthcare.

All jobs are assigned by the government. When you finish university the government decides where you work. If you were from Bagdad you worked in Bagdad because the government disagreed with people travelling because they didn’t want to lose track of you.

I left Iraq because I lost my husband, two of my cousins and friends. I was still targetted as a political person. I thought about my family and my daughter because if I stayed they would be at risk.

I didn’t choose where I went, the agent decides depending on how much he is paid. I knew of one family person in the UK but I am not close to them. I came as a refugee and got the right to stay here within a month.

People want another president because Saddam is a dictator, worse than Hitler. No-one can speak out, no-one can work at what they want, he collects money from every business. Many shops have to give half their takings to Saddam or his son. People discussed that the US supported Saddam but in secret because people couldn’t speak out. One child was asked, Do you like Saddam? And he said No, because when his father saw Saddam on the TV he turned it off. As a result the police went to get the father.

People thought that Kurdish people are lucky to get US support to get a separate government from Saddam. If the US can do this they can help Iraqi people by picking up Saddam and getting rid of him.

The Iraqi Women's League's Open Appeal to all women's organisations in the UK. 

Letter - Iraqi Women League, Excerpts from a man's story about his life in Iraq