A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

No electricity, no fuel for cooking
2002. A mess of cables from the electricity and telephone networks crosses the street in Al-Kadhimiya, a densely populated neighbourhood in Baghdad which sprang up around the Shiite Mosque of the same name. Photograph: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

«This is happening in a society which lived with pride all throughout its history»
2002. Baghdad. Illustration: Álvaro Moreno © Álvaro Moreno

A future stolen from generations to come
1978/79. Students of the Department of Spanish Language at the University of Baghdad, academic year 1978/79. Photograph: Bahira Abdulatif © Bahira Abdulatif

A tolerant society
2003. Family in Samarra. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Deteriorating mental health
2003. Boys and girls in Baghdad. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

The social values, severely affected
2003. Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad. Students of Spanish gather round a Spanish visitor a month before the outbreak of the war. The second language, after English, chosen by Iraqi university students was Spanish. Photograph: María Rosa Peñarroya © María Rosa Peñarroya

Increasing female illiteracy
2002. Baghdad-Basra. Mother and daughter having tea at a roadside café on the motorway that links Baghdad and Basra. It is a typically Iraqi custom to pour the tea onto the saucer to drink rather than from the cup. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Setback in full educational gender equalization
2003. Al-Mustansiriya, the historic centre of Baghdad. Al-Mustansiriya was a madrasa (religious school) founded in the 12th century and considered to be one of the oldest universities in the world. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

The return of child work and begging
2002. Shoeshines in Basra with the Shat Al-Arab waterway behind them, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge. Photograph: Gladys Martínez López © Gladys Martínez López

The collapse of the education system
2001. Primary school in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Return to home birth and increased breastfeeding
2002. Women with tooddler in the Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Maternal mortality increased by 2.5
2001. Shiite mother and daughter at a market in a Baghdadi neighbourhood. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Public spirit and social cohesion in face of collapse
2001. Al-Mansur Hospital, Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Poor water quality, spread of malnutrition and disease
2002. Al-Jumhuriya neighbourhood, Basra. Photograph: José Manuel Rambla © José Manuel Rambla

Lack of drugs, breakdown of equipment
1997. A young mother watches over her baby who is in an incubator which works thanks to plastic patches as no spare parts are available because of the sanctions. Preterm birth unit at the Al-Mansur Children’s Hospital in Baghdad. Photograph: Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez © Juan Luis Ruiz-Jiménez

Infant mortality doubled
2003. Mother, daughter and grandmother at the Saddam Hospital’s emergency room, Baghdad. Photograph: María Teresa Tuñón © María Teresa Tuñón

Nine years of reduction of life expectancy
2003. Grandmother and grandaughter at the foot of the 9th century Malwiya minaret in the Great Mosque in Samarra, a city 125 kilometres to the south of Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Postponement of marriage and childbearing for hardship
2003. Despite the imminence of an announced war (which broke out a month after this photo was taken) a Muslim precedes her newly-wed Christian friend in Baghdad. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

A daily struggle to meet the minimum basic needs
2003. In a Baghdad medical centre a father tries to keep smiling while he holds his daughter suffering from malnutrition. The girl has a cookies package in her pocket, a present from the photographer. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

Mass de-professionalization
2001. Doctor Al-Kawaz, an ophthalmologist at the Al-Mansur Hospital in the Iraqi capital, operating together with Spanish colleagues on a professional cooperation visit. During the 1990s, all international professional contact was suspended under the system of sanctions. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom

Sanctions led most people to a state of poverty
2003. A month before the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, a market trader in Baghdad checks his banknotes with a picture of Saddam Hussein printed on normal paper with no watermark due to the sanctions. Photograph: José J. Revenga © José J. Revenga

The life of people, rapidly affected
2001. Inside a middle-class home in Baghdad. Photograph: Carmen Secanella © Zoom