Nowhere to Hide: Mother's Ordeal in the Killing Fields of Iraq and Kurdistan [Hardcover]

How does a young English woman experience her new life in Iraq? In 1953, Susan meets the love of her life. His name is Azziz and he is an Iraqi student in England. They fall in love, marry and have a son named John. Iraq is under British rule, and just some few months before Azziz has finished his studies, the British orders him back to Baghdad. Susan writes that this is because the members of the old colonial rule want to keep their good jobs and all that comes with them.

Susan's arrival in Iraq is a shock, and her meeting with her new in-laws an even bigger one. Many don't like her because she is a foreigner and of Christian faith. I guess many married women have experienced clashes and disagreements with their mother-in-laws and other female members of their husband's family, but I believe very few have experienced that any of them have tried to kill them. That is what happens to Susan. One of the older women tries to poison her, and only a good female Iraqi doctor manages to save her. The elderly woman is never sued, but Azziz and Susan decides it is time to move to another home.

Susan also writes about her horror when she sees a man just takes up his robe and urinates up a wall in the city; his bare bottom for everyone to see. When she calls out to her husband, he reprimands her not to look. And even though Susan praises her own husband as a good hearted and kind man, she tells that she sees many women who are beaten by their husbands.

Susan spends 40 years in Iraq. She writes about a society where foreigners are hated and despised. The political terror is increasing, while Saddam Hussein pulls his country into the Iraq-Iran war and Gulf War I. Still, she becomes fond of Iraq.

During Gulf War I her family has to escape, and they drive into the "killing fields" of Kurdistan. In the end her family has no petrol for their car and no food to eat. It is very cold in the mountains in Northern Iraq (which is where the Kurds live). Many mothers see their children die.

One of her sons, Peter, is an Iraqi soldier, and he is afraid that Saddam Hussein is going to execute him as a deserter. He tells his mother about his fears, and they are both relieved when they are told that all deserters are pardoned.

Susan has one big advantage, and that is her British citizenship. She is allowed to return to her home of origin, and later on her husband is allowed to join her.

Susan Francis experienced a lot during her 40 years in Iraq, both good and bad. She writes that she misses Iraq. Her family; children and grandchildren are there, and since she was just over 20, it is where she has spent most of her life. And despite all the troubled times, Iraq has become home.

I enjoyed this book, and it was very interesting to read Susan's story.