 During this period, Al-Damluji campaigned to save many of the major works of art that had been constructed during the Baath regime, as they represented the work of some of Iraq's best artists and often had little or no explicit connection with the Baath party.This activity made her highly unpopular in some circles, especially with religious Shi'ite groups, some of whom favoured a "tabula rasa" approach to Iraq's recent cultural heritage.In late 2005 Al-Damluji received the keys to the city of Babylon, in a ceremony celebrating the handing back of the important archaeological site to the Iraqi government, after it had been used as an American and then a Polish military base.