Open Shutters Iraq
Group Collection

As the war in Iraq intensified and militias targeted more and more journalists, the window into the normal, everyday life of Iraqis closed. During her work in Syria, Eugenia Dolberg, Director of Open Shutters, met many exiled Iraqis who spoke of the enduring courage of the women in Iraq. She decided to create an opportunity for them to tell their side of the story in their own voices, about the human reality of war behind the collective headlines.

The Iraqi project manager, Irada Zaydan, a professor at the University of Baghdad and a novelist, undertook the difficult task of finding six women journalists who would, in turn, find another six women to partner and support for the duration of the program. It was important that the women came from a diversity of backgrounds, and Irada made the difficult journey across Iraq to find participants.

Over three weeks in a large, traditional house in the old city of Damascus, Syria, the participants shared their stories and listened to others who had come from different social, religious and political backgrounds. The thread of contemporary Iraqi history emerged through their tales of war, sanctions, broken marriages, grief, love, happiness, times of resistance, achievements and small triumphs.

The women studied different elements of photography, and when the time came to return to Iraq, they had all chosen and storyboarded a subject to shoot. When the time came for editing, each group arrived back in Damascus with huge amounts of material. All the content of this project was created and edited by the women themselves.

The stories are a unique, earth-shattering witness to the human crisis that is hidden behind the news reports where people just become numbers. They are a testimony to the bravery of a group of women living through the unthinkable horror this war has become.

Open Shutters was made possible by the support from Index on Censorship and was funded by the UNDP.