My mother put these things in my suit case before I left my home for Amman (Jordan) by road. I’d been away from my family and my country for many years. I went back for the first time after 25. I returned to research the effects of economic sanctions on Iraqi women. There, I saw that things had really changed. And so had people. Even my mother had changed. She seemed exhausted. She used to be so talkative, now she hardly spoke. One time when I kept asking questions, she said ‘ what are you asking me about, my daughter? What I’ve seen in the long years that you’ve been away isn’t possible to talk about. It was like being in the center of Hell. I can’t possibly describe to you the things that have happened or the pain – in words. ‘ She begged me ‘ Please, please, stop asking me questions’. And when I asked her about these things which she’d placed in my suitcase, she said ‘ these are the most precious things I have to give you now, my darling daughter. Put them in your room, or in front of your writing table. They will protect you in the absence of your family and your loved ones. And also from the loneliness of separation’