Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.

It's very important that historic cities are allowed to reinvent their future.

I used to not like being called a 'woman architect': I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. Guys used to tap me on the head and say, 'You are okay for a girl.' But I see the incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it could be done, so I don't mind that at all.