Feature: Female novelist devotes her house into library to boost culture in Iraqi society

Iraqi novelist Safira Jamil Hafiz is pictured at the library in her villa in Baghdad, Iraq, on Feb. 9, 2020. At a villa in an upscale neighborhood in central Baghdad, an old Iraqi female novelist was anxious to offer an initiative aimed at boosting the cultural movement in Iraq after decades of wars in the war-shattered country. Safira Jamil Hafiz, 89, took advantage of the quiet location of her villa in Karrada neighborhood and devoted the upstairs of her two-story building to be a public library for book readers, including student, to enjoy reading without noise. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)