The Desert Queen buried in Baghdad: Who is Gertrude Bell?

They called her the Desert Queen, but Gertrude Bell was far more than an explorer. From shaping the borders of modern Iraq to exporting its heritage to Britain, her work was colonial entrenchment masked as scholarship. In this report, Al Mayadeen English correspondent Lea Akil uncovers how Bell’s legacy, buried in Baghdad, continues to loom over Iraq’s history and culture.