An American woman who grew up next to the Twin Towers in New York, and was just five when 9/11 happened, says she was forced to ‘face her own biases’ head on during an unexpected trip to Iraq – and details the extraordinary measures she took to protect her personal safety.
Producer Molly McDonald, 29, was covering an ‘England to Everest’ charity trek for Blue Door Productions alongside ex-Royal Marine and explorer Mitch Hutchcraft when the group had to be diverted through Iraq – instead of Iran – over security fears.
As ‘a Western woman with a US accent’ in the Middle Eastern country, Molly, who grew up in Battery Park in Manhattan, says she was anxious about her safety ahead of crossing the border into Iraqi Kurdistan.
As the only woman in her group and with the UK Foreign Office strongly advising against travel there, Molly’s family tried to persuade her to abandon the trip.
However, the journalist, who’s visited more than 60 countries, says she was determined to proceed and began putting in place a series of security measures designed to keep her safe as her group went from north to south on Iraq’s eastern flank.
Speaking to MailOnline, Molly says she forged a marriage certificate and wore a wedding ring despite not being married as she arrived in Erbil, which is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Perceptions of lone women travelling with men in the Middle Eastern country is that they are sex workers, she explains, saying she planned for the ‘worst case scenarios’ and put things in place to prevent them.
Molly also created a cover story for herself, asking an older woman named Jacqui, who had lived in Iraq but fled to Britain when the ISIS conflict broke out in 2014, to accompany her, with the pair pretending they were related.
New Yorker Molly McDonald, 29, admitted there was ‘fear and trepidation’ when she heard that a charity expedition she was part of was going to unexpectedly divert to Iraq
Molly, who is Irish American, and grew up close to the Twin Towers – and was just five when they fell on 9/11. She travelled on her Irish passport for fear of being prejudged during the trip to Iraqi Kurdistan
She says: ‘I was definitely apprehensive ahead of the trip, particularly when it came to more rural areas [of Iraq] where more minority extremist groups exist.
‘As a woman when you do these missions abroad, there’s always another layer that you think about – certainly when you’re reaching countries that have different customs and belief systems about a woman’s role in society’.
The trip also proved a huge moment for Jacqui, who was returning after fleeing nine years ago.
Jacqui had lived and worked in the country as a social responsibility consultant for five years, and had run aid programmes for those who’d been displaced from their homes between Erbil and the city of Dohuk in 2014.
Molly says: ‘She also had a lot of fear and trepidation, prepping me for what might happen including the customs of a younger woman travelling alone in a group of men and how that’s perceived, which isn’t always positively.’
An Irish American, Molly also entered the country with her Irish passport so she wouldn’t be identified as a US citizen.
She tells MailOnline that, as a child who’d witnessed the aftermath of the September 11th terror attacks, she entered Iraq with her own prejudices.
‘I grew up a couple of blocks from the site of 9/11, so I too had a lot of biases’, saying even with her broad-horizons career making documentaries, it still wasn’t entirely possible to put to one side the feelings about Iraq that she’d grown up with.
However, there was one moment that changed everything – actually getting on Iraqi Kurdistani soil.
After security concerns diverted the group from Iran to northern Iraq – the region of Iraqi Kurdistan, the producer took some extraordinary steps to keep herself safe, including forging a marriage certificate to carry with her and wearing a wedding ring despite not being married
One woman travelling with a group of men in Iraq are often perceived to be sex workers – during the trip Molly asked a fixer known as Jacqui to pretend to be an older female relative
Molly engaged with female soldiers in the Peshmerga army, who once fought against IS to protect their region of Northern Iraq
The mostly self-governed Kurdistani region has spectacular rural landscapes – although industry has often infiltrated them
The group met a general major in the Peshmerga army, who told them they don’t want to fight, only to protect their land and the environment
The region’s army has enlisted female soldiers since the 70s, with one telling Molly: ‘We are all Peshmerga, we love our country, we love our land so we selected this way of life.’
‘When we walked through the doors on landing, everything disappeared. My fears went away.’
During the days that followed, she says she was able to have ‘honest, open conversations with people from all walks of life’ including a sheik, an activist veterinarian and Yazidi people, who were once the target of genocide by ISIS.
In her ensuing YouTube video entitled ‘The reality of Iraq changed me’ which documents some of their journey, Molly and her colleagues meet a general major from the region’s Peshmerga army, which protects the environment when not in military action has enlisted female soldiers since the 1970s.
The Peshmerga fought against IS and managed to protect their region of Northern Iraq being overthrown.
In the video, female soldiers tell Molly when she asks if it’s difficult to recruit women: ‘We are all Peshmerga, we love our country, we love our land so we selected this way of life.’
Molly says: ‘In my conversation with them, they talked about how fighting is not their first choice, they fight to protect and when it is absolutely necessary but they are not a fighting people’.
Molly says growing up in New York, close to where the Twin Towers came down, meant she was very aware that she was arriving in Iraq with preconceived notions (Molly pictured on New York’s Hudson River as a child)
A culinary welcome: Friendships were quickly formed over meals, says Molly, who said her party was greeted with ‘food and tea’ wherever they went
The initial fears over safety proved unfounded, with Molly feeling safe throughout – and now hoping for a return visit with family and friends
Sights: a view of Shanidar cave, one of the stops on Molly’s journey through Iraqi Kurdistan
So impressed was Molly by her time in Iraqi Kurdistan, she says she now can’t wait to take her partner and family members to the country to explore it more.
‘Just a few weeks ago, I was back home at my grandparents’ house in Ireland – they’re in their 90s. To be able to show them our YouTube video, it was really moving for them.
‘To have perceptions changed, to have more open mindedness on what the realities of that part of the world are – for them to say “I wish I had the chance to go there myself”‘.
She says the whole trip, in spite of her initial fears were eventually defined by ‘warmth and hospitality’, saying that the friendliness even surpassed ‘that of Ireland’.
Food and tea proved the leveller for Molly and her peers, she says, with it offered to them ‘in abundance’ during their travels.
And while Molly dressed modestly, she discovered that in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, she didn’t have to wear a headscarf – and the ‘precautions that we had and were prepared for weren’t needed’.
Having open conversations about her own heritage saw her greeted with exclamations of ‘We love New York, we can’t wait to go there!’.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Lalish temple, which dates back 4,000 years, in the city of Erbil
The sunsets and sunrises, particularly in rural areas such as the Rawanduz Canyon were spectacular, says Molly
The landscapes of the country were also thrilling, says Molly, describing beautiful sunrises and amazing ancient ruins – without the crowds that you might ordinarily get.
Molly says her favourite place she visited was the striking Holy Yazidi site of Lalish Temple, which is located in the country’s Nineveh Plains and dates back 4,000 years.
Other highlights included the Erbil citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the colourful Qaysari Bazaar and the Jalil Khayat Mosque.
As their adventure continued, the group also took time to stop and visit some of Iraqi Kurdistan’s other tourist attractions, including Rawanduz Canyon, Bekhal Waterfall and Shanidar Cave.
She adds: ‘There were striking valleys and hillscapes where you see these oil plants centred in the middle. It was a fascinating sight to see the chimneys bursting with flames in whatever would otherwise be an untouched rural landscape.’
Iraq remains off the mainstream tourism map but Molly says she’ll be back as soon as she can – and that the trip upturned any preconceived ideas she had about the country, reminding her that that’s the beauty of travel.
‘There’s a big lesson there, in just being open-minded. If you don’t put yourself out there, how do you know what the truth is? Go and find it for yourself.’
