Abu Anis only realised something unusual was happening when he heard the sound of explosions coming from the old city on the western bank of the Tigris as it runs through Mosul.

August 7, 2013 - Over a decade ago, the Iraq National Museum sat in ruin when looters pilfered tens of thousands of antiquities, leaving several of the glass displays shattered among the museum floor.

The stolen artifacts ranged from various cylinder seals with intricate carvings to statues and figures carved from ivory that once stood in royal palace halls. Nonetheless, all of these pieces, no matter their size or worth, are all significant losses as they are each an irreplaceable part of human history.

THE "Garden of Eden" has been saved, even as chaos grows all around. Last week, amid a wave of bombings on the streets of Baghdad, Iraq's Council of Ministers found time to approve the creation of the country's first national park – the centerpiece of a remarkable restoration of the Mesopotamian marshes in the south of the country.

I have not been to Iraq for 13 years, when I visited in 2000, and I was curious to know if the lives of women had improved since the start of the 2003 US led invasion. I wanted to know what their biggest challenges were today and how was their social, political and economic situation.