My essay accompanies a set of images by Iraq’s most well-known photographer, Ali Arkady (VII Photo). Ali was forced to flee Iraq in 2017 after revealing torture and abuses carried out by members of the U.S-backed Iraqi security forces during the battle for Mosul. Ali’s photographs changed the way the war was reported, exposing the limits of traditional war journalism. Here I tell the story of Ali’s discoveries, who he is, and the impact these images have had on his life.

My investigation into corruption and graft at Balad airbase in Iraq, home of the country’s F16 fleet. I detail allegations that Iraqi companies paid bribes to U.S. company Sallyport in order to win contracts, and that flight records were fabricated to cover up embezzlement. Whistle-blowers spoke to me in order to shed light on what they said was a dangerous working environment.

This story is about the destruction of Mosul following the city’s recapture from IS, and the return of the same corruption that gave rise to IS in the first place. I spent time with men digging through the rubble of Mosul hunting for the dead, and interviewed workers about the pervasive graft harming the reconstruction effort.

During the Iraqi fight to recapture Mosul from IS, I retraced the steps of enslaved Yezidi women, visiting the ruins of buildings where they were held by IS and recounting their memories of capture. September 2017.

I travelled back to Baghdad to investigate the murder of Iraqi beauty influencer Tara Fares, likely by paramilitary thugs. Tara was a survivor of an abusive marriage and a woman who decided to live in the public eye in the way she pleased. During her short life, she received public harassment and death threats. Her killing was part of a wider crackdown on anti-government protests, activists and those not confirming to society’s norms. November 2018.

I reported on the how the IS genocide initiated huge theological changes in the Yezidi religion, forcing conversations about identity, modernity and tradition. I attended rejuvenation celebrations and spoke to the Qawwals, the traditional inheritors of the religion’s stories, to discuss how these changes might change worship going forward for Yezidis not just in Iraq but across the world. December 2017.

An essay on the colonial destruction of Iraq’s cultural heritage and the more recent destruction by Isis. Reported at the Mosul Museum in Iraq and the British Museum in London for the American Scholar magazine. June 2017.

I travelled with a group of body collectors bringing back the dead from the war in Syria to their homes in Kurdish parts of Turkey. Along the way, I reported on the impact of the Syrian war on the Kurds in Turkey, and the rising political tensions in the country’s south-east, just before the military attack on the centre of Diyarbakir. December 2014.