Designing her escape from Iraq
At 13, her step mother married her off to a man twice her age.
Eleven years and two sons later Iraqi-born Nadia Saeed ended her marriage and began her dream career as a police officer in Baghdad. Two years later she was captured, for ransom, by the local militia.
‘‘My father had to sell one of his cars to pay the amount, it was a lot of money,’’ she recalls.
After her brother died in sectarian violence Saeed decided to leave Iraq. Insurgents had placed a bomb under his car. ’’It took me time to collect the money. It is impossible to save there. But I saved little by little until I had enough to leave. I wanted to go to Australia.’’
In 2010 she boarded a plane from the Iraqi capital to Malaysia, then paid $3000 to get on a fishing boat to reach Indonesia.
‘‘I was in Indonesia for more than two years. I paid $6000 to a group of men who said they would smuggle me to Australia, they just ran away with my money.’’
Saeed made several more dangerous, but unsuccessful attempts.
‘‘One time we were in a tiny boat and there were 70 people on it. We got caught in storm. I thought it was time to die, but we survived, I don’t know how.’’
On her fourth attempt to reach Australia Saeed was arrested and held in detention centres. ’’I kept trying to escape because it is horrible. Your mind gets tired thinking about the future and what will happen. It is not nice.’’
In 2012, she was granted a refugee visa to New Zealand and made her journey home to Auckland. Now a proud west Aucklander Saeed wants to be New Zealand’s top fashion designer. At 36, she enrolled in a course at New Zealand Fashion Tech, her diploma finishes at the end of this year.
‘‘When I am done, I want to be the best in the fashion industry. I knew nothing about sewing clothes in Iraq, but now I am designing them.’’
One of Saeed’s designs was recently showcased in a project called Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion. She picked a shade called Pioneer Red for her creation. The hue, she says, represents her own emotions - ‘‘excitement, fear, hope and frustration’’.
The design at the front of her dress symbolises her journey, a ladder depicting her climb to freedom. She was reunited with her sons in 2013. Both are now grown and live in Mount Albert.