Maryam Ashrafi Author

Born in Tehran in 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war, Maryam’s passion for sociology led her to focus her interest on social and political issues. After graduating with a BA in Social Documentary Photography from the University of Wales, Newport, UK, she began to explore these issues in different regions, with a particular focus on the situation of Kurds in Kurdistan. For several years, she has been working on various subjects including refugees in Paris and the mobilisation of the Kurdish and Iranian diaspora. Above all, as an independent freelance photographer, she covered the aftermath of the war in Northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan, notably in Kobane and Sinjar during numerous visits until 2018. Her work on Kurdistan has been the subject of several collective and solo exhibitions and publications including the Guardian. Her long-term work on Kurdish issues has also led her to work as a camerawoman for documentaries such as I Am The Revolution (2018) and to direct and shoot her upcoming documentary in Iraq and Syria (To be released in 2021). Allan Kaval is a journalist for the famous French newspaper Le Monde; he was their correspondent at Erbil. He will introduce each part of the book with a comment about the context and interviewed Maryam Ashrafi for an introduction to the book. He received the Albert Londres prize at the end of 2020 for an article on Daesh prisoners held in Syria. Mylène Sauloy has documented the conflict in four different parts of Kurdistan, notably since 1998 in Rojava, with films, articles, exhibitions and a soon to be published graphic novel in France on Kurdish women in war Carol Mann is a Ph.D Sociologist and specialist in gender issues and armed conflicts, associate researcher at the University of Paris 8 in France and director of the Women in War association. She has extensively worked on the Middle East, including Rojava, and has been following Maryam Ashrafi’s work for many years. Kamran Matin is Associate professor of International Relations at Sussex University