Announcing Baghdad To Brooklyn
I have been writing about my life in fragments for over two decades.
It started as a blog — From Baghdad to New York — launched in 2002 when the drumbeat of war was getting louder and I felt a desperate need to show the world that Iraqis were not abstractions. We had names, histories, families, jokes, favourite foods, and broken hearts just like everyone else.
Those blog posts were a lifeline. They were how I processed living through 9/11 as an Iraqi in New York. They were how I survived the political limbo of asylum. They were how I stayed connected to a country I could not return to and a family I could not see.
Now, all these years later, I am turning those fragments into something more cohesive: a memoir called Baghdad To Brooklyn.
What the book is about
At its heart, Baghdad To Brooklyn is a displacement story — but displacement is never just about geography. It is about identity, language, belonging, and the question of what you carry with you and what you leave behind.
The book traces my journey from childhood in Baghdad, through university and early career, to the decision to leave Iraq in 2001. It follows me to New York, to the World Trade Center, to 9/11, to asylum hearings, to UNHCR advocacy trips, and eventually to citizenship — and to the Brooklyn apartment where my family finally joined me after years apart.
Why now
Partly because enough time has passed to see the shape of the story. Partly because the world still has a complicated relationship with Iraq and with Iraqis, and personal stories cut through abstractions better than anything else.
And partly because my kids are old enough to ask questions I want to be able to answer — properly, in writing, in a form that lasts.
I will be posting updates here as the writing progresses — notes from the process, excerpts, reflections. Follow along at the Baghdad To Brooklyn page.