LGBTQ+ History in Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria and the Middle East (with Lilith)

April Cuenca is from the Philippines. She moved two Erbil about two years ago and is a grants manager in Shareteah Humanitarian Organisation (SHO). She is also a certified yoga teacher, certified in trauma informed yoga, sound healing and therapy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We met the Kurdish-Belgian director Sahim Omar Kalifa in Zakho and we talked about his movies Baghdad Messi and Land of heroes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stella Martany is a fixer and journalist based out of Erbil. Like many fixers in KRI, she got her start covering the war against ISIS in Mosul, but she joins me today to talk about how she's developed since then, explaining the differences between reporting during and after the war and the challenges with both. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Isadora Gotts is a Ph. D. student whose background is primarily focused around Mosul's shifting economy after the 2017 liberation. She has now expanded her research towards focusing on the city's economic and cultural outlook as whole, with a particular emphasis towards its municipal planning and layout as well as how its economy affects and interacts with other cities like Erbil. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's an Inside Kurdistan Pride extravaganza! Today we're joined by Lilith, an advocate and KRI transplant to come give us some of the best stories fun facts of past civilizations' queer icons.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second episode of our fixer series, Nasir talks about his background growing up in and leaving Iran, his work in Syria during the war from 2014-2018 and his continued work in KRI, specifically with his work as a translator and remote fixer during the past year's uprising in his home country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Halan Akoiy is a fixer and producer in KRI and Iraq. He began his career covering the ISIS conflict in Mosul and has since branched out into delving into the cultural relations and history that defines contemporary Iraq and Kurdistan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Barwari is a former KRG and Iraqi Federal Government Minister whose work in public planning after the fall of the Ba'athist regime in the country helped to define both Iraq and KRI in the following decades.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With job recruiting becoming more decentralized and the influence of Artificial Intelligence growing, it's important to examine how the cultural values of a region may affect a vital aspect like employment. Carwan Rasoal is the founder and CEO of Genvalues, a job recruitment site that puts an emphasis on the ethical values of an employee- specifically with regards to ecological conservation, rather than purely skillset.   To learn more about Carwan and Genvalues, visit: https://genvalues.com/    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brenda Hershey is the president and  founder of TRY Global- be sure to check out their information below. https://www.tryglobal.org/ Upcoming training in Erbil (May 26-27): https://www.tryglobal.org/iraq  Donate to Syria project: https://gogetfunding.com/help-folks-in-northeast-syria-bring-trauma-recovery-yoga-to-their-communities/  Our research study: https://www.tryglobal.org/research Our Youtube channel (with practices in English, Arabic, Badini, Sorani and Ukrainian): https://www.youtube.com/@tryglobal8452/playlistsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.