All posts filed under: Azerbaijan

Khaled Hosseini Joins Call to Free Jailed Azerbaijani Journalist Khadija Ismayilova

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Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, released a statement yesterday through PEN International calling for the release of my friend and colleague, jailed Azerbaijani journalist, Khadija Ismayilova. Khadija translated The Kite Runner into Azerbaijani. Hosseini told PEN: “I am deeply saddened by the news that the Azerbaijani government has arrested Khadija Ismayilova,” said Hosseini in a plea for the release of his Azeri translator. “As a writer, I value as sacred the freedom to write and share ideas without fear of persecution, a liberty essential to any sort of meaningful dialogue. The Azerbaijani government’s many attempts to silence Khadija and strip her of this freedom speak volumes about her courage and influence in the face of extreme oppression.” […] “I am honored that Khadija was the voice that brought my story to Azerbaijan,” said Hosseini. “Now it is my time to add mine to hers. I hope the world will join me in calling for her immediate release and unconditional return to her important work as a journalist.” …

I Stand With Khadija Ismayilova

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I will stand with Khadija today, Monday December 8, 2014, at 4pm at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington. Please join us. Renowned Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was remanded to the custody of the court according to section 125 of the country’s penal code in pretrial detention. Her work has landed her in trouble before. In 2012, months before Azerbaijan hosted Eurovision, the government launched a black mail campaign against her and released video it had secretly recorded in her bedroom, which it posted online. Khadija was as brave then as she is now, going public with the threats and publishing her investigations rather than cowering in the face of intimidation. This is a gathering of her friends and supporters outside the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington on Monday December 8 at 4pm to call for her unconditional and immediate release and stand up for and show support for free speech where it is under threat. — Some of Khadija’s work: “Azerbaijani President’s Daughters Tied To Fast-Rising Telecoms Firm,” RFE/RL (June 27, 2011). “Azerbaijani Government Awarded …

3 Years Since the Death of Azerbaijani Writer Rafiq Tagi, 3 Years Without Justice for the Family

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On November 23, 2011, Azerbaijani writer Rafiq Tagi was stabbed returning home, dying of complications related to the incident a few days later in the hospital. I first met his teenage daughter Gamar at the three-day ceremony, the most important and public part of the elaborate ritual of an Azerbaijani funeral. I spent nearly a year photographing Gamar and her family after, including her brother’s departure for the military after being conscripted for a story, “When A Fatwa Comes True“. Three years later, there are still no answers or arrests made in Rafiq Tagi’s case. Prior to his assassination, he had been jailed by the Azerbaijani government on charges of inciting religious hatred and pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev and an Iranian cleric, the late Ayatollah Fazil Lankarani, had called for his death. This week, Gamar gave the first lengthy interview about her father’s death to an Azerbaijani outlet, Kulis.az. A friend generously provided a translation from the Azerbaijani for me and consented to my posting it here: Rafiq Tagi… I can’t write something after …

Best of 2013: My Year in Pictures

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This was my first full year based in Istanbul, Turkey, a city I have long dreamed of calling home since I was a student of Ottoman history in college. While my Turkish could still stand to see some improvement, I have begun to get a foothold in a complex region and see many of the corners of Eastern Europe I previously had not. In February, my work photographing the Khazar Islands, a $100 billion fantasy real estate project of Azerbaijani oligarch Ibrahim Ibrahimov, appeared in The New York Times Magazine. Later in the year, it would be republished again in Mare magazine in Germany. While shot in the summer of 2012, I have chosen to start the year in pictures with some of my favorite images from this shoot, due to my desire to continue photographing the Khazar Islands and the initial publication of this work in the early part of this year. In January, I took a road trip through the American deep south to explore “post-racial America” and the tensions that exist beneath …

2013 Poynter Fellowship at Yale University

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A few months back, I was notified that I was named the recipient of a Poynter Fellowship at Yale University to give a talk this fall on my work photographing “Protests, Pipelines + Women” in Turkey and Azerbaijan at Yale University. I will be joined by economics professor Tolga Koker. The talk is sponsored by the University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The date is now set for October 1, 2013 at 4pm in Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, Yale University. The talk is free and open to the public. More information is available on the Yale University website. Yale Daily News article, “Photojournalist Discusses Travels, Gender“.

BBC World Services (Russian, Turkish and Azeri): Today is The 90th Birthday of National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev (And Also the Much Lesser Known “Azerbaijani Flower Day”)!

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Today is the 90th birthday of a certain Heydar Aliyev, the Ümümmilli Lider (“National Leader”) of Azerbaijan, the former KGB chief, leader of Soviet and independent Azerbaijan, and the father of the current President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. In other words, today is very, very important in Azerbaijan. There are great celebrations in Azerbaijan – and around the world as this video from the Washington Mall shows. In anticipation of today, Leyla Najafli, a reporter for the BBC gave me a ring to ask me about my work “Heydaristan,” an accidental exploration in the endurance of iconography. My words to her have been translated and appear on the sites of the BBC World Service in Azeri, Russian, and Turkish. But what did I say in the English? Thanks to my friend Maria for the translation back from the Russian: “Heydaristan” Photojournalist Amanda Rivkin, working in Baku, decided to make a photo essay dedicated to the Aliyev personality cult. It’s called “Heydaristan”. The Aliyev personality cult is somewhat different from the various others in modern history. …

Photo ArchivoZine: Tomorrow Belongs to Me portfolio selected for Issue Four – Social Issues

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Issue 04 Spring 2013 :: We are pleased to announce the following photographers have been selected for ArchivoZine Spring ISSUE #04 “SOCIAL ISSUES” :: * Amanda Rivkin (usa) * Misha Domozhilov (ru) * Isabelle Pateer (nl) * Pedro Guimarães (pt) * Ilena Piccioni (it) theme: Social Issues :: call for applications is now closed :: “That we are not totally transformed, that we can turn away, turn the page, switch the channel, does not impugn the ethical value of an assault by images. It is not a defect that we are not seared, that we do not suffer enough, when we see these images. Neither is the photograph supposed to repair our ignorance about the history and causes of the suffering it picks out and frames. Such images cannot be more than an invitation to pay attention, to reflect, to learn, to examine the rationalizations for mass suffering offered by established powers. Who caused what the picture shows? Who is responsible? Is it excusable? Was it inevitable? Is there some state of affairs which we …