All posts tagged: azerbaijan

International Women’s Day: Free Khadija Ismayilova!

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Happy International Women’s Day! Time to remember an important one, Khadija Ismayilova, in jail, for being damn good at her job as an investigative reporter and raising mighty quantities of hell while investigating Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and family’s shady business dealings. Turns out they are looting their country! I had the privilege to work with Khadija, be challenged by Khadija, and occasionally even bullied and reminded of moral courage and moral cowardice by Khadija. She is pure quality and intellect and she is serving a 7.5 year sentence for incitement to suicide by a boyfriend who has since recanted and was at the center of an effort at sexual blackmail against Khadija that occurred four years ago to this day with the arrival of a mysterious envelope postmarked Moscow and delivering contents reflecting pure KGB tactics. She went public, just a few months before Eurovision, so they retaliated by releasing a video on a mirror site made to look like one of the opposition parties, Musavat, who would of course have no interest in …

Seven Years, Six Months for Khadija Ismayilova or The Shame of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev

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This is Khadija Ismayiova, a PEN Freedom to Write, International Women’s Media Fund Courage in Journalism award-winning Azerbaijani investigative journalist. Today she was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail in Azerbaijan for the crime of committing really, really good journalism by investigating and reporting accurately and truthfully on the shady business dealings of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family. Unless of course you believe she is guilty of her actual charge, inciting an ex-boyfriend who was compromised by Azerbaijani “Security Services” to suicide – a charge he has since recanted. Oh and p.s. he remains alive to have made the accusation. The Aliyevs’ interests touch every aspect of the economy, from oil to gold mines to telecoms to aviation to luxury hotels to presumably so much more. We know this because of Khadija’s efforts. Today, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed the Aliyevs interest in yachts allegedly owned by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic or SOCAR. Wife Mehriban’s biggest problem seems to be that the yachts …

Voice of America (VOA) Azeri Language Service: “I Admire the Courage of Khadija.” [Interview]

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Yesterday via e-mail I gave an interview to Voice of America (VOA) Azeri language service journalist Emil Quilyev. The full interview in Azerbaijani can be found on the Voice of America website. Below is the unedited original, without translation which also appears on the website of Radio Azadliq, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani language service. VOA: There have been some recent developments in Khadija Ismayil’s case. Nothing major. However, according to her lawyer Fariz Namazli, the accusation of disseminating state secrets have been lifted. What do you make of these trial proceedings? Amanda Rivkin: I do not know enough about Azerbaijani trial law to comment on the particulars. My guess is that the state has come under tremendous pressure from international organizations over this case and slight developments can be used by the government, primarily for external purposes, to show Khadija is being given something resembling “fair treatment” under the law. Of course I believe this case is entirely political and based on her investigations into the president’s family’s businesses in Azerbaijan and their various …

*InstArchive* on Instagram

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I’m trying something new because I’m American and tradition is boring we are made to think/believe/made to think is make believe. Everyday on my Instagram (@amandarivkin) I am posting a new image from my archive that is paired with a bit of “on this day in world history”. It’s how I’m taking it to the streets, building the ol’ personal brand, sharing my love of history, and finding meaning in my own work. It’s only a few days old but already we’ve been to Davenport, Iowa; Baku, Azerbaijan; Reyhanli, Turkey and today Spotsylvania, Virginia. Czech it out! MAY 9: On May 9, 2012, Obama announced his support for gay marriage in a television interview with Robin Roberts. In this image from my archive, witness Connie Fuller, 39, takes a picture of Rock Island, Illinois couple (l-r) Curtis Harris, 50, and Daren Adkisson, 39, after they picked up their marriage license first thing in the morning at the Scott County Recorder’s Office the first day same sex weddings are legal across Iowa in Davenport, Iowa on …

The Importance of Memory and World Press Photo’s “Contemporary Issues”

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“The struggle of man against power is the act of memory against forgetting.” -Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting I have my own personal reasons for choosing to photograph over other mediums, for believing that we must look sometimes even when we are more often compelled not to. The collective memory of societies around the world relies on aesthetics, whether represented through flags, leaders, advertising and propaganda or news photographs. Only the last can claim to attempt to accurately reflect the conditions of all citizens but especially the disenfranchised, even if so often the focus is on podiums and the powerful. Earlier this month, World Press Photo announced the results of its annual competition. Shortly thereafter, the mayor of the Belgian city of Charleroi sent the Amsterdam-based foundation a letter stating his objections to an essay entitled “Dark Heart of Europe” that depicted his town as some sort of desolate sex-depraved locale where fetish and fantasy were expressions of current realities. Many of the scenes in the photographs were simply staged through a …

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 …

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“.