From Riches to Rags
The stories of three Iraqi women, forced to seek refuge in Jordan where their new lives have proved very tough indeed.
Filmmaker: Mohamed Lotfee
Before the US-led coalition invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, Fatima Mohammed, Bushra Kazem and Ashwak Hnon were comfortably off, had strong marriages, happy homes and stable family lives in Basra, Najaf and Baghdad respectively.
They belonged to a relatively small middle class that enjoyed the oil-generated benefits of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Iraq is exhausted. We got rid of a regime but it didn't benefit people at all. The laws are the same, if not harder. We've reached rock bottom.
But in the prolonged occupation, uncertainty and violence that followed the invasion, millions of Iraqis were displaced and many left for Syria and Jordan. There are now over 60,000 Iraqi refugees registered with aid agencies in Jordan.
Fatima, Bushra and Ashwak were among those Iraqis who chose to flee and who sought refuge in Jordan.
Fatima Mohammed fled from the southern Iraqi city of Basra after her first husband’s body was found in a burned-out car. Bushra Kazem is a single mother raising four daughters. Hnon has six children and has not been able to send them to school since the family left Iraq in 2011. Her husband suffers from serious depression and all three women are now responsible for the welfare of their families.
From Riches to Rags examines how the fallout of the Iraq invasion affected the lives of three women. It tells their personal stories of disrupted lives, traumatic escapes and battles to support their families amid a descent into near poverty, as refugees living in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Fatima, Bushra and Ashwak once employed staff and domestic help. Now they scrape together a living -supplemented by UN handouts – by working for local Jordanian middle class families, doing odd jobs like the door-to-door selling of cosmetics, cooking Iraqi food and cleaning homes.
Dependent on aid, these women feel that the plight of Iraqi refugees has now been overshadowed by the conflict in Syria, with an estimated 800,000 Syrians entering Jordan in the past four years.
As three women grapple with their past lives, the ongoing violence in Iraq and the modest lives they now lead. Their stories and experiences also tell of their resilience and resourcefulness as they navigate their new-found lives, labelled as “urban case” refugees.