When I was growing up in Baghdad, my father used to say, “Lamees, our family is the builder of this country.” He could tell me what my family had done for Iraq as far back as Ottoman times. So when I came to London in the early 1970s to do a PhD in pathology at King's College, I was determined to go home after my studies to serve my country.
But within 18 months of arriving in Britain, I had my first daughter. Then, after I completed my PhD, I was awarded a fellowship at King's College Hospital. And after that I had another daughter. When my father died suddenly in 1973, I wasn't able to go back. I managed a three-week visit in 1976, and in 1977 my mother came to visit when my second daughter was a baby.
But after Saddam Hussein took power in 1979, I couldn't go back. I feared I'd be held in Iraq and never see my children again. Of course, my mother couldn't come to Britain and by the time she died I hadn't seen her in 14 years.