I was born in Baghdad in the late '70s. Aside from brief trips to Syria, Jordan, and the United Kingdom, I lived in Iraq my entire life before coming to the U.S. in 2007. I grew up within an educated middle class family. In 2001, I graduated from Baghdad University's College of Medicine and started to work as a resident doctor at Al Karkh General Hospital in Baghdad, which is affiliated with the Iraqi Ministry of Health. This is where I practiced medicine until 2005. I was then transferred into a small primary health center at Al Mada'n area (a small town located south of Baghdad). Al Mada'n area was under total control of Al Qaida insurgents and it was difficult for me to go through the checkpoints twice a day. At the time, I was working as a translator for America's National Public Radio, so I quit my job as a doctor and continued as a journalist instead.

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