People don't talk to you properly. It's the way they talk to you; they dismiss you. I think it's a combination of me being a woman and a foreigner.

I've always been interested in combining architecture with a social agenda, and I really think you can invest and be inventive with hospitals and housing.

Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.

There are so many great galleries and museums in London, but they can be very crowded during the day.

Architecture is like writing. You have to edit it over and over so it looks effortless

Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.

In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.