Guzin Najim's The Promise

"Don't waste time, take your children and get out. Do not come back. Promise me, Guzin. Do not come back."

Those were the last words Ra'ad Said ever spoke to his wife, Guzin. Four days later he was dead, murdered by Saddam Hussein's brutal regime.

Ra'ad was an Iraqi diplomat and the love of Guzin's life. Their world had once been the international diplomatic circuit. But Saddam Hussein's grip on power in Iraq had tightened and Guzin and Ra'ad's world began to change. On the eve of the first Gulf War, Ra'ad had been recalled to Iraq and sent to work at the Foreign Ministry. It was the beginning of a nightmare for Guzin, Ra'ad and their two children. Ra'ad became more and more depressed and incommunicative, until one day two of Saddam's henchmen dragged him from a car and dumped him outside his home. As he lay dying it was then he made Guzin promise she would take their children out of Iraq, never to return.

'The Promise' is Guzin Najim's story, and traces her seven-year journey to freedom in Australia, as she struggles to honour her dying husband's last wish. It's an unforgettable tale of tragedy, courage and hope, of one woman's fight to save her children and honour the memory of her dead husband.