After the publication of my first book, The Feminine Art, in 2004, several newspapers and magazines contacted me to write articles about the Iraqi American experience. I did over 100 radio interviews where callers asked very little about my book and were mostly curious to know about what it was like to grow up in Iraq, under Saddam’s regime, as a Christian in a Muslim country. I found that my answers helped dispel stereotypes and provide a more accurate narrative of who Iraqis and Chaldeans are. That, along with being hired as a reporter by the Chaldean News, had me lean toward investigative reporting. It was my way of using writing to serve. This desire to serve through writing became stronger when in 2014 ISIS destroyed my parents’ and grandparents’ villages in northern Iraq and afterward began to destroy the historical monuments.

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Q ~ You attended school first at Wayne State University for your Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Communication. How do you think that learning experience translated to your education in Novel and Memoir Writing, Poetry, and Filmmaking later down the road?

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A ~ Storytelling is a strong form of communication. Whether I’m composing words for a short poem or a feature script, what matters is that I do so in a way that connects us to our humanity, links us to our past, and has us reflect on our future. What matters is that I use this art-form conscientiously, because words can create love, beauty, and understanding as well as heal.

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Q ~ Weam, you come from a long-line of Healers. For those who don't know, how would you define that practice or term, and when did you discover your passion for that as well?

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A ~ Healers are people who use their skills and talents to bring comfort and support to others. By being mirrors, they help people heal themselves. My ancestors were wordsmiths and book lovers who used communication, among other things, to perform great acts, including save lives. For instance, my paternal Aunt Hassina was the midwife of Fallujah, a city in Iraq which dates back to Babylonian times, and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries and later became known as the city of mosques. She worked for decades among tribes who highly loved and respected her. She also helped save a number of lives, especially newborn girls. Long ago, when Fallujah was just a small town, it was customary among a few Arab tribes for the father, if he so desired, to bury a newborn girl. Some men wanted to do just that, and my aunt was such an educated, smart, and compassionate woman that, through words, she convinced them not to. She, a Christian woman, used anecdotes from their Quran, to stop these killings because Islam forbids such acts.

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I didn’t discover my passion for healing, nor pursue it in any way. The amazing teachers who came to my door taught me Eastern philosophies and Native American and other ancient teachings that helped me see who I am and what my purpose is in the world. They helped me connect to my lineage, and by doing so, to recognize the deeper work associated with my storytelling. After three decades of spiritual training and continuous writing, I started a spiritual and writing retreat called the Path of Consciousness. When you experience trauma in your life, and you come out of it on the other side, you want to do for others what your teachers did for you.

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Q ~ How does being a Healer influence or enhance your art?

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A ~ I once received an email from a woman I never met who works in the United Kingdom and Syria, thanking me profusely for writing my 13th book, Mesopotamian Goddesses: Unveiling Your Feminine Power. She said such a book was much needed in that region to empower girls and women in the Middle East by reminding them of their true origins, which have been buried by extremism. Over the years, I’ve received a lot of private messages from women of Arab background who feel that my work, my courage to stay true to my dreams while maintaining my tribal lifestyle, have transformed them in some way. These words fuel me to stay true to my calling and continue to produce meaningful and impactful work.

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Q ~ Your acclaimed documentary The Great American Family follows Dawn, an American woman, and her family, as she is accused of colluding with Iraq regarding selling telecom equipment during sanctions and embargo dealings. What brought this story to your attention and why did you feel the need to be the one to tell it?

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A ~ In 2010, at a business lunch meeting with a group of Iraqi-Americans, a friend of Dawn’s family told me about Dawn’s situation and asked if I could help bring media attention to the case in the hopes that it would put pressure on the government to release her. I did not want to tell this story. I was tired of the politics associated with Iraq and the United States, having watched the 1991 Gulf War, the devastating sanctions on Iraq which lasted for over a decade, the 2003 US-led invasion which happened three years after I’d visited my birth country. But Dawn’s family pursued me for months, and I couldn’t keep looking away. The subject matter closely related to things I’d already witnessed as a journalist and as someone who’d visited Iraq in 2000. Ironically, the person who had chaperoned me to Iraq in the spring of 2000 was Dawn’s uncle. My husband and I discussed this project, whether I should get involved, and in the end, decided that this was a humanitarian issue, and the right thing to do was help get the truth out.