While the BBC's Baghdad correspondent, she was expelled from Iraq in 2002, but returned to the country after Saddam Hussein was removed from power the following year. She was appointed the BBC Middle East correspondent at the beginning of 2006. Hawley and her partner were dining in the Grand Hyatt in Amman when it was bombed in November 2005 by Al-Qaeda; they were unhurt. Hawley was based in Jerusalem from the beginning of 2006.