High Tea in Mosul: The True Story of Two Englishwomen in War-torn Iraq

by Lynne O'Donnell

Two Englishwomen, married to Iraqi men they met in Britain and later accompanied back to the northern city of Mosul, tell their stories to a reporter in this unusual look at Westerners immersed in Middle Eastern culture and politics. Pauline Basheer, wife of an Iraqi heart surgeon and mother of two children, has lived in Iraq for more than 30 years, and her friend, another Englishwoman who also arrived in Iraq in the mid–70s. The book details how the two women got to know each other as they assimilated, learning Arabic, living within traditional Iraqi family structures, and enduring the rigors of Saddam Hussein's food rationing, thought police, anti-Western discrimination, and almost constant war. Interviewed for the book in 2003, they describe their overlapping experiences in Mosul and share their individual perspectives on this life-changing experience.

Genres: Nonfiction

242 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynne O’Donnell is a journalists who meets Pauline and Margaret while in Iraq reporting on the war. They are both Englishwomen who married Iraqi men in the 70s and had lived in Iraq for thirty odd years when Dubya decided to bomb the crap out of that country.

This book is an interesting mixture of anecdotal east reading, and tracts which feel like a long newspaper article. What this book certainly did bring home was what a bad idea the war was, and how it adversely affected people both in Iraq, and the American soldiers sent to restore law and order.

The women talk of the terror in the faces of the young American soldiers as they realise they are in a country that does not welcome them with open arms and gratitude, but rather with internal turmoil and fear. The simple civic destruction of Iraq is what affected the people of the country – no electricity, no law and order, no hospitals, no money. These are the effects of war, these are the people who pay the price of war, not the generals and the presidents.

I hope that one day, eventually, Blair and Bush have to account for what they did, and the real reason – oil!

Pauline and Margaret were just ordinary women living their lives with their husbands and children, like millions of other Iraq citizens. And now they have nothing, no home, no savings, no jobs. No country.

A readable book which is at times a little dry, but always fascinating.

War is NEVER a good option.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned much from this book. The author, Australian journalist Lynne ODonnell, meets British Pauline the wife of an Iraqi physician when she visits a hospital in Mosul. She accepts an invitation to tea and at the tea meets Pauline's
friend Margaret who is also married to an Iraqi. Both marriages have lasted 30 years and the reader understands that most of those years have been happy despite their having been lived in a culture very different from the West.
Reading about the dailiness of Iraqi life brings an affinity for the culture that
this reader is hard pressed to find in many publications.
Family holidays, children going to school are pleasant events; the shelling of homes,threats of kidnapping are not.
I cared about these families, admired the resilience and courage of these women and felt shame at my country's use of
sanctions and, finally, war to control Iraq. The lives of
Pauline and Margaret gave me a window into the lives of the
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis suffering in this fiasco.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book made the Iraqi war more personal. It captured how daily living became for 2 English women married to Iraqi men. It also described what life was like with Hussein in power. It's worth the read.

[Heyzanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps because the author is a reporter. The book sometimes feels like an ultra long newspaper. But there are still moments when it's emotion gripping. Afterall, who won't be sad learning about how lives are destroy under the follies of some very powerful but egoistic men?

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting perspective on why the Americans are doing so poorly in Iraq.

[Kurtamyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

The War-on-Terror as seen from the people sitting on the front row: Iraqi civillians.

[Jasveena Prabhagaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story, as told by Lynne, is about the lives of two women from the UK, who got married to Iraqi who were pursuing their studies in the UK. Getting married and coming to Iraq brought about numerous challenges throughout the thirty years they were in Iraq. The story tells us how the everyday lives of Iraqis in Mosul were affected and how war after war killed nearly 90,000 people.

The story also tells us how through the administration of Saddam, people and customs changed. The women who used to shake hands with their male relatives, were suddenly forbidden from doing so because it was haram.

It also depicts a lot of hatred within the Sunni and Shia Muslims, the Kurds and the Western and the Arab world. It almost sounded like everyone hated everyone.

The narration of the book is a little difficult to follow through and it's dry at times, like many have said. But the content opened my eyes to something I've never experienced before

[Ellie Revert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of 2 ladies from the UK who married Iraqi exchange students and moved to Iraq to raise their families. Luckily, they connected and shared their lives--the book covers 30 years. It shows how badly the US handled their invasion of Iraq, and by how much we should not have relied on the likes of exiles like Chalabi, but more on life on the ground in the present time. Very glad I read it.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

War is terrible!

[Lorraine McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read with good background on the human side of the Iraq war but a little dry in some sections as some journalistic style stories can be.

[Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's only through these raw but courageous accounts can the world understand a little more about other reclusive societies..