For many people memories of childhood are reminders of a happy time growing up.

But whenever Iraqi photographer Julie Adnan visited the women's prison in Arbil, in the north of her country, she began to wonder how the many children living there with their imprisoned mothers would remember their early years.

“I could hear the noise of the children, many of whom were born in prison, from the playground when I visited,” says Julie, whose gallery is made up of photos of the youngsters with their mothers in jail.

"Iraqi law allows children to live with their mothers in prison for two years and then another two years if there is no-one outside prison to look after them.”

Twenty-three-year old Julie, from Kirkuk, is a freelance who has worked for a number of agencies, including Reuters, and whose images have appeared in the Kurdish daily Asso newspaper, Khak Magazine, IO Donna in Italy and L'Express of France.

“Many of our nice memories are from childhood but what made me sad was imagining how these youngsters would look back on their time growing up in prison,” says Julie.

“When their birthdays come around, how will they look back on celebrating them behind bars?”

Julie's photos were taken with her Nikon D2X camera.