AAM DISPATCH

This report on the lives of street children was created by Rebin Fazil, a 24-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

This report on a young Iranian musician living in Iraqi Kurdistan was created by Karokh Nuraddin, a 22-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next two months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

This report on a nomadic Kurdish family living near the Iranian border was created by Shivan Sito, a 27-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

This story was written by Sahar Alani, a 24-year old reporter living in Erbil.

Yakub Najmaldeen, 31, faced the same challenges as many Iraqis did when he was a child. He was poor. He had a big family to take care of. At the age of 9, during the Iran-Iraq War, Yakub made just a few dinar each day by carrying stacks of bread loaves on his head and selling them to people on the street. He pressed himself against the walls of stores and cried when sirens alerted the city that Iranian bombers were nearby.

Yakub didn’t accept his conditions. He decided to throw everything he had into improving his and his family’s life. In two decades, Yakub went from a peddler in the streets to a vastly wealthy businessman.

His father was sick and his family needed money for medicine, food and a roof over their heads.

“I helped myself and all my family, by myself,” Yakub said.

As a child, he wandered the streets of Erbil from 6 in the morning to 9 at night, offering people bread and cigarettes.

In 1989, at age 10, his father lent him 650 dinar to start a money exchange business. “I remember I earned 750 dinar during the first 15 days, which was really great,” he said.

In 1991, Iraq freely traded with Turkey and Iran. So, at the age of 12, Yakub decided to travel to Haji Omran to sell cigarettes to traders, who crossed through the border town every day. He began to watch how they conducted their sales. Read more…

Katherine Gypson

This slideshow was created by Shivan Sito, a 27-year old reporter living in Erbil.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Katherine Gypson

Rabat is probably one of the sleepiest cities in the Middle East/North Africa region. It’s certainly the quietest capital city that I’ve visited. It’s clean, relatively well developed and easy to navigate. But, there’s not a lot of character or energy to the city.

Probably the most character (or more appropriately, characters) I have experienced so far was at lunch today. I sat down at City VIPs, one of the many small street-front restaurants this afternoon. It is basically a fast food place with a few Moroccan dishes. I was the only American there, and the only person eating a Moroccan dish (I had a chicken tagine) rather than a burger or pizza or pasta.

Within minutes of sitting down, an odd assortment of street vendors and beggars passed by my table to offer their wares or solicit handouts. First was a shoeshine guy. I’ve noticed more shoeshine guy in this city than I can remember seeing anywhere else. Read more…

Sean Carberry Morocco, Rabat, Street Vendors

A wedding procession through the streets of the old city in Casablanca.

Weddings aren’t cheap. I have friends who used to be in the floral business and they told stories of customers spending nearly $20,000 just on flowers – and these were not even top-tier weddings. At the higher end of the spectrum, families can easily drop a college tuition’s worth on the big day.

Yet, despite the potential cost, it’s rare to hear an American man claim that he can’t marry the woman he loves because he doesn’t have the money. Yes, it does happen, and sometimes a family will prevent a woman from marrying a man they don’t approve of (not always for financial reasons), but for the most part, people can get married when they want, and buy the best wedding they can afford.

I personally don’t know of anyone who was unable to marry the object of his or her desire for financial reasons, and I never heard someone complain that he or she had to wait to build a nest egg first before getting married.

In fact, it’s common in the west for a couple to get married and live modestly as they work together to build their life, family, and fortune together. No so in the Middle East. Read more…

Sean Carberry Casablanca, Delayed Marriage, Morocco, Waithood, Wedding

“Remembering” is part of an ongoing series, with young Iraqi reporters asking members of their community to reflect on important moments in their lives. This story was written by Ashna Shareff, a 21-year old reporter living in Erbil.

The day Bero Abdullah left Erbil she was sure she wouldn’t come back. The city was almost empty. Everyone had fled to surrounding villages because they feared an attack by the Iraqi Army.

The residents of Erbil – known in Kurdish as Hawler – remember the start of the second Iraq invasion in April 2003 because of their constant fear that Saddam Hussein would carry out attacks with chemical weapons as he had done in the town of Halabja in 1988.

“I was coming back home and, on the way, my friends and I were writing memories for each other because we were sure that we wouldn’t see each other again,” Bero said.

Bero, 21, is from Rawandz but now lives with her family in Erbil and attends Salahaddin University.

Just before the second Iraq war started, Bero’s family shared a house, food and even clothing among 11 people. There were five from her family and six people from her uncle’s family all living together. At the time, Bero was 15 years old.

She came home one day and all the family’s things were packed. Her father insisted that they go to their hometown of Rawandz.

“He was sure that Rawandz was the best place to keep us safe from Saddam’s threat,” Bero said.

Read more…

Katherine Gypson

The day proceeded in typical Egyptian fashion. For those of you not familiar with the folklore, the stereotype is that Egyptians are about 3 hours late to every meeting/event. First, a family member calls as they are walking out the door, then a neighbor stops by, and of course you have to serve tea. Then while walking to the car another neighbor wants to say hello, then there’s an hour traffic delay – the joke goes on along these lines.

In fact, the last time I was in Egypt, I interviewed some Egyptian teenagers in an English language program administered by the State Department. The course teaches them English as well as cultural and social lessons about the US in hopes of building bridges with young Egyptians. I asked them what they liked about the American values they were learning, and a number said “the respect to time.” So, the argument that the Egyptians have the most pliable relationship with time in the Middle East is not without a basis in truth. Read more…

Sean Carberry Cairo, Headscarf, Islam, Religiosity, Zebiba

There are any number of factors one can choose from when forming and expressing his or her identity. Race, religion, nationality, gender, age, family, political affiliation, and socio-economic status are just some of the primary identity categories. And, depending on the setting, one might choose a different mix.

For example, when you are in a foreign country, you might identify yourself by nationality, whereas in your home country, you might identify yourself by your family, hometown, or religion.

In Jordan, people tended to state anywhere from three to five primary identity characteristics. But, in one particular exchange, I was surprised by one characteristic that wasn’t used, and the explanation why. Read more…

Sean Carberry Amman, Arab youth, Islam and Identity, Jordan