Events
Watch six short films produced by award-winning journalism Zaina Erhaim, telling the stories of women living and working in war-torn Syria.
Over 6 million people have fled the war-torn country of Syria since 2011. Millions more have been displaced internally. Award-winning journalist and Perry World House Writer at Risk Zaina Erhaim has profiled many of the women who stayed behind, and has produced several short films about the life and work of female activists in rebel-held northern Syria.
On October 24, in partnership with Kelly Writers House and the Center for Media at Risk, Perry World House will screen six of these short profiles, exploring the added gender-based challenges facing women in the region.
Join us for this screening and a unique discussion with Zaina Erhaim and Ahed Festuk, one of the women activists featured in the film. Describing the tragedy of the war, Festuk said, “I used to hear Aleppo laughing. Now I hear it crying.”
A complimentary lunch will be provided.
SPEAKERS
Zaina Erhaim is an award-winning Syrian journalist, working as a communications manager with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). She has trained over 100 media activists on journalism basics in Syria, and made a series of short films entitled Syria's Rebellious Women (2016) and Syria Diaries (2017), narrated by Syrian women. Erhaim has contributed to three books: Our Women on the Ground (2019), Journalism in Times of War (2018) and Arab Women Voicing New Realities (2017). She taught Conflict Sensitive Mobile Journalism at Bremen Art University in Germany. Erhaim has an M.A. in international journalism from City, University of London. Before joining IWPR, Zaina worked with the BBC, Alhayat, Orient TV, and other local media outlets. She also wrote pieces for The Economist and The Guardian.
Ahed Festuk is an activist from Aleppo, Syria who lived in the city's rebel-held side until late November 2015, before seeking asylum in the United States in 2016. She was one of the pioneering women demonstrators, and when the war erupted, she worked as a paramedic on the frontlines before joining organizations working in relief and development. She was a member of the ancillary staff of Aleppo local council. She was contracted with IWPR as a hostile environment-and-first aid trainer inside Aleppo. Now she works for the Multifaith Alliance For Syrian Refugees and a member of the Syrian Women's Political Movement.
