Sarwa Abdul Wahab Al Darwish, 1972—2008

13 May 08 | Comment, Middle East and North Africa

Eugenie Dolberg and Maysoon Pachachi remember a brave activist and journalist killed in Iraq earlier this month

Sarwa Abdul Wahab Al Darwish was a 36-year-old Iraqi journalist from Mosul. On 4 May, Sarwa was in a taxi, returning from the market with her mother. The car was stopped and she was dragged out by two men attempting to kidnap her. Sarwa screamed and struggled against her would-be abductors. They shot her twice in the head and drove away.

We first met Sarwa in December 2006 when she came to Damascus with 11 other Iraqi women from five different cities — Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and Falluja. They were there to take part in Open Shutters Iraq, a UNDP-funded participatory photography project.
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