reveal the inspiration for the design which represents a mother bending over to pick up her martyred child. Chadirji would continue to use ancient Iraqi motifs in his building designs. His works, such as the Hussain Jamil Residence (1953), Tobacco Warehouse (1965), the Rafiq Residence (1965) and the Central Post Office (1975), are informed by Iraqi practices of temperature control – natural ventilation, courtyards, screen walls and reflected light. He also employed the architectural language of arches and monolithic piers that remind visitors of ancient Iraqi architectural history. Although, his designs often used vernacular elements, he often abstracted them and incorporated them in new forms. At times, he relied on traditional exteriors, but designed European interiors. In 1978, Chadirji was jailed for life for unfounded charges during the Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr presidency. However, after serving almost two years in the Abu Ghraib prison, he was released when Saddam Hussein assumed power. Saddam wanted Iraq's best architect to oversee the preparations for an international conference to be held in Baghdad in 1983 and to assist with general plans to give Baghdad a facelift. He became Hussein's architectural consultant for Baghdad City Planning, for the period, 1982–1983. While imprisoned, he wrote a book on architecture, Al Ukhaidir and the Crystal Palace, using materials that his wife had smuggled into Abu Ghraib. The book has been described as a "seminal work" on the subject of Iraq's architecture. In the 1980s, Chadirji became Councillor to the Mayor, a role that found him overseeing all the reconstruction projects in Baghdad. He left Iraq in 1983 to take up an academic position at Harvard University. Some years later, on his return to Baghdad, he was saddened by the deterioration in the city. He and his wife decided to leave Iraq permanently and they settled in London, where he continued to live. Along with his father, Chadirji photographically documented much of Baghdad and the larger region of Iraq and Syria. They feared the regional architecture and monuments would be lost to new development associated with the oil boom. In 1995, he published a book of his father's precious photographs. His father's position as a politician gave him access to many people and places that may have been difficult for other photographers. In an interview with Ricardo Karam, Chadirji talked about his atheism; after studying philosophy with his wife Balqees Sharara, he came to the understanding that religions