Paperback Edition
ISBN: 9781558616059
Publication Date: 09-01-2009

Available as an ebook on:
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Translated by Paul Hammond and Haifa Zangana
Foreword by Hamid Dabashi
Afterword by Ferial J. Ghazoul

In 1970s Iraq, the Ba’ath Party was at the height of its influence in the Middle East and popularity throughout the West. But a group of activists recognized the disastrous potential of the regime as its charismatic leader, Saddam Hussein, came to power. Haifa Zangana was among those who resisted Saddam’s rule, a small group of whom were captured and imprisoned at Abu Ghraib.

Now, from a distance of time and place, Zangana writes about her incarceration, the agonizing loss of comrades to torture and death in prison, her safe yet haunted life so far away from friends, family, and her beloved country, and the ways memory conspires to make us forget.

"Deftly sketched, simple and poetic, Dreaming of Baghdad drags politics down from the realm of the abstract into the mud, fear, and loneliness of personal experience and psychological ruin that is life under dictatorship. This is a landscape of clandestine struggle and crushing political defeat, of familiar old streets and the alienating structures of exile. Zangana's story is heartbreaking, but her clarity and resilience inspire awe." —The Nation

“Written with passion and commitment, Dreaming of Baghdad invoked my own dreams, and the joys and pain that memory can bring. A must read." —Nawal el-Saadawi, author of Woman at Point Zero

"Haifa Zangana illuminates the dark realities of Saddam Hussein's Iraq while remembering what she misses from that complex place and time." —Sharnush Parsipur, author of Women Without Men

"Haifa Zangana is the stuff of which legends are made—and how rare, how precious, how reassuring her voice is. . . . How poorer the world would have been without Haifa Zangana's courageous testimony. Drop anything you are reading and grab hold a copy of this magnificent book." —Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran: A People Interrupted

"A poetic rendition of survival under the conditions of war and occupation, this inspiring and passionate memoir is a reminder of the inseparability of the personal and political, and the local and global." —Shahrzad Mojab, co-editor of Violence in the Name of Honor: Theoretical and Political Challenges

"In this powerful narrative, Haifa Zangana weaves a rich tapestry that portrays the repression, torture, and resistance in Saddam's Iraq against a complex social landscape. A must read for anyone who wants to understand Iraq today." —Jacqueline S. Ismael, co-editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies