Ghaith Abdul-Ahad | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1975 (age 49–50) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist Freelance photographer |
| Known for | Documenting various wars and conflicts for high-profile newspapers |
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (Arabic: غيث عبدالأحد, born 1975) is an Iraqijournalist who began working after the U.S. invasion. Abdul-Ahad has written forThe Guardian andThe Washington Post and published photographs inThe New York Times,The Washington Post,Los Angeles Times,The Guardian,The Times (London), and other media outlets.[1] Besides reporting from his nativeIraq, he has also reported from Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.[2]
Abdul-Ahad has received theMartha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, theJames Cameron Memorial Trust Award, theBritish Press Awards' Foreign Reporter of the Year and theOrwell Prize.
Author of the bookA Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War, published on March 14, 2023, in which he describes how he, and other Iraqis, experienced life and war in Iraq before and after the invasion and occupation.[3]
Abdul-Ahad was born inBaghdad,Iraq in 1975. He studied architecture atBaghdad University and had never traveled outside Iraq prior to the2003 invasion of Iraq. As a deserter from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army, he lived underground in Baghdad for six years, having to change his residence every few months in order to avoid detection and arrest.
He began doingstreet photography in 2001 and was determined to document conditions in Baghdad during the war. This aroused suspicion, and he was arrested three days before the end of major combat operations, though he was able to escape by bribing his guards.
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Abdul-Ahad became a freelance photographer forGetty Images[4] and journalist, writing for the BritishThe Guardian from 2004.[5]
In October 2005, he published his bookUnembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq which features his photography along with that ofKael Alford,Thorne Anderson andRita Leistner.[6]
In October 2010 Abdul-Ahad was imprisoned for five days by theTaliban fighters he had gone to interview.[7]
In late February 2011 Abdul-Ahad enteredLibya to report on theLibyan civil war. He was detained on 2 March by the Libyan Army in the town ofSabratha.[8] His traveling companion, the Brazilian journalistAndrei Netto ofO Estado de S. Paulo was released on 10 March,[9] with Netto attributing his release to the good relationship between Brazil and Libya.[8] On 13 MarchAmnesty International and others called for Abdul-Ahad to be released;[8] he was finally released on 16 March,[10] after the Turkish government assisted negotiations and editorAlan Rusbridger flew to Tripoli.[11]
Abdul-Ahad's most recent work revolves around the Syrian Civil War focusing on the rebels and their stalemate between determined loyalists.
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