Afshin Ismaeli // “I initially wanted to be a politician….Becoming a journalist was a way to become a politician, to fight for civil society….I stayed in journalism to show people the problems, not to become a part of the problems….Without journalism there will never be democracy in the region.”

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Welcome to @thesearcherpodcast, conversations with storytellers, creatives, healers, and others in search of what it all means. On this episode of the show, I speak with photographer Afshin Ismaeli, a Kurdish war photojournalist, writer and researcher based in Oslo, Norway. Afshin has not only spent much of his life documenting war, but was born into it. When we met last year in Dubai, his presentation of children surviving in a previously ISIS occupied city of Mosul just blew my mind. He shares his story of growing up in the no man’s land between Iran and Iraq, why he became a journalist and photographer and the life changing experiences he’s had while documenting ISIS and the middle east these past 15 years. In addition, we explore war-related subjects ranging from PTSD to the publication of imagery of children in war.

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Follow Afshin Ismaeli:

Instagram: @afshinismaeli

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Some of the organizations Afshin mentions, who work with the children of war, are:

@doctorswithoutborders

@icrc

@refugees

Barzani Charity Foundation

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Additional links:

Searcher Instagram: @thesearcherpodcast

Searcher website: http://michaelchristopherbrown.com/searcher/

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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/searcher/support