I joined friend and ecumenical lawyer Harry Hagopian for a discussion on Iraq’s weathervanes — the under-represented communities whose subjugation to injustice can tell us more about society as a whole than we think.
Give it a listen, and apologies in advance for Iraq’s unreliable internet as we were recording:
[Published here on November 20, 2019]
Baghdad (AFP) – The threat came by anonymous Instagram message one late Iraqi evening, making Hala’s blood run cold: “I’ve got all your pictures and recordings. Shall I send them to your dad?”
[Published here July 16, 2019]
Her dark hair was pulled back by a white scrunchie and she had chipped pink polish on her nails. Like any teenager, I thought. But the words she spoke were as far from a carefree teenagedom as you could get.
[Published here July 14, 2019]
On the floor of her stuffy, dimly-lit tent in Iraq, Yazidi survivor Layleh Shemmo nimbly tugs floral pink fabric through her sewing machine, stitching together a living for her broken family.
[Published here July 14, 2019]
Baadre (Iraq) (AFP) – Freed after years in jihadist captivity, Jihan faced an agonising ultimatum: abandon her three small children fathered by an Islamic State fighter or risk being shunned by her community.
[Published here March 13, 2019]
Dohuk (Iraq) (AFP) – The military fight against the Islamic State group may be nearing an end, but one Yazidi doctor treating survivors is soldiering on against unseen scars the jihadists carved into her community.
[Published here on February 14, 2019]
The cry echoed across the chalk-dry Syrian plain: “Water!” Within seconds, the truck carrying a few dozen bottles was emptied by parched refugees who had spent the night out in the open.
[Published here on February 12, 2019]
They were born in a “state” that no longer exists, most to fathers who are dead and mothers whose countries don’t want them back. These are the children pouring out of Baghouz.
[Published here on February 11, 2019]
Two French women who fled the Islamic State group’s last pocket in Syria told AFP on Monday more foreigners were trapped inside, barred from leaving by Iraqi jihadists.
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[Published here February 8, 2019]
They survived the Islamic State group’s crumbling “caliphate” by a thread, but skeletal babies streaming into this displacement camp in northeastern Syria now face a race against malnutrition.
