Dubai
Dubai
1998–2001
Leaving Iraq meant a bus through the western desert, border agents who go through your bags to see what you're hiding, and a job in Dubai that turned out to be a mattress on the floor and a company holding my passport. I got the passport back. That was the whole victory, and it was enough.
I did not say a thing; all I cared about was to retrieve my passport and to never hand it over to anyone anymore.