In “The Cup,” Dunya Mikhail, the Iraqi- American poet, who is the witness of two wars herself, describes war as its recurring theme as it has touched her life and thematic interests. The poem is about a widow of a soldier who calls his spirit through an Ouija Board with a cup that moves to answer questions, asked by the widow, on behalf of the spirit of the martyred soldier. The aim of the paper is to analyze the effects of war on Iraqi women through analyzing the themes of war in the poem. The paper will also analyze the mental perplexities of those women who lose their loved ones in war and afterward suffer from not only physical but also mental violence, trauma, and exile. The paper will conclude the psychological effects of war on Iraqi women in general and widows in particular in the light of the poem “The Cup.”

Keywords: Psychological effects, war, women in Iraq, Dunya Mikhail, The Cup,

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