The Girl from Baghdad (27 page)

With the approach of the war against Iraq in 2003, I felt frustrated and sad. Partly because I was increasingly convinced that Italy was a beautiful country but the wrong one for me to keep living in, given that the world of showbiz, the one that interested me, was a complex and difficult world full of traps, where people only got ahead by pulling strings, and partly because my home country, Iraq, was about to be destroyed again. As if what the Iraqi people had had to go through in the last years weren't enough: the war against Kuwait, the embargo, hunger and misery, and now the war against the United
States. My heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. I felt powerless in the face of what was about to happen to my homeland. I had to do something before leaving Italy for good.

I made a record, ‘The Kites of Baghdad', with one of my best friends, Valentino, who happened to be a singer. The lyrics spoke of a dream of peace: the Iraqi children would keep flying their kites freely in the sky, the bombs and destruction of the war couldn't stop life, and one day joy would once again reign over my city. It was an intense song full of meaning, made to raise money for an association started by an Iraqi paediatrician, who was living in Florence and looking after Iraqi children who couldn't be treated or operated on in Iraq due to the lack of medicines and qualified staff.

We had sung the song in a conference room full of journalists. When we finished, applause erupted. Valentino and I looked at each other: we had done it. One of the journalists, Enrico, said to me, ‘It's a great initiative; it could be used to get people talking about the conditions in Iraq.' He took a sip from his glass and then continued, ‘I might know someone who could be interested.'

My eyes opened wide.

‘I work for one of Mediaset's news broadcasts and I would like to see that your story gets around. Some afternoon chat show could invite you to tell it,' he continued.

He interviewed me on the news programme he worked on, and from then I was bombarded with journalists asking questions about Iraq, the war, and my personal history with Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday. More than anything, I was invited almost daily onto television programmes to speak about my people and the years I spent in Baghdad.

I found myself working as a news analyst for television and print media for anything concerning the Middle East, the customs and traditions of Arab countries, etc. I was good at what I was doing, and knew what I wanted to be in the immediate future – a journalist. And so it was. I became a journalist because I felt the need to recount and share my personal life experiences with other people, as well as report the experiences of others.

My professional climb as a journalist had begun in 2003. I finally managed to get a spot of my own on a morning programme,
Uno Mattina
, on the flagship network Rai 1. In my first segment, ‘Travel Notes', I had described journeys, traditions and customs in various countries of the world, all accompanied by rich scenery. I liked it because I had travelled so much myself and I considered myself a citizen of the world.

The second segment was called ‘A Thousand and One Stories'. My job was to interview foreigners who were living in Italy: people who had made it. People like
me who had decided, either by necessity or by choice, to leave their own country and come to Italy in search of a better future. My collaboration on Rai 1 lasted until the end of 2005.

The following year I moved to RaiSat Cinema, a SKY satellite channel, for a daily bulletin on cinema, festivals, events, reviews, books and DVDs.

From 2006 to 2009, I collaborated with the in-depth weekly publication
Tempi
, the supplement to
Il Giornale
. I mainly interviewed personalities from the political and sporting worlds, the Arab world, intellectuals, writers, theologians, etc.

I still visit my family in Prague. They were proud of what I had managed to do, my long and winding journey to find happiness in my life again. Mum had placed so much trust in me. Both my sisters graduated with top marks from the Business Economic School in Prague. They both obtained degrees in economic engineering. Linda got married, and I now have a gorgeous baby niece named Ela. Klara lives in her own place and works in a marketing and communications office. My mother has never again wanted to have anything to do with men and has decided to remain single. She is now retired and devotes her time to being a grandmother. I, on the other hand, am still here in Milan, even though sometimes the idea of moving to another country gets a hold in my mind. In spite of the path I have travelled, I still
feel I have a lot more to explore; I have no intention of stopping now. There is still so much of the world around me. I have an entire life that I want to live and recount.

There's so much more at
randomhouse.com.au