This was the start of a long period of self-imposed exile which saw him establish himself in Baghdad (1975) and Beirut (1979)before returning briefly to Egypt in 1982. In Baghdad he worked in the Cinema and Theatre Foundation and met the woman( Egypitain ) who would become his next wife( after divorcing his Polish wife). In Lebanon he worked as a journalist for the newspaper as-Safir,and other magazines " El Louts the magazine of Afro-Asia Union of Writers" and lived in Beirut through the Israeli siege of 1982, where he worked in " Beirut El Mesa'a the magazine of " Communist working Organisation" which is what eventually forced him to leave Beirut and return to Egypt.