Author: Johan Ludwig Burkchardt

Women are smarter. Kurdish YPG fighters, June 2016.

Unlearning ISIS: The Battle to Reclaim Hearts and Minds

By Johan Ludwig Burkchardt
Posted on
Posted in Geographies, Near & Middle East

With Islamic State (ISIS) on the retreat in parts of northern and eastern Syria, activists and civil society organizations are refocusing their efforts on counter-extremism and establishing deradicalization programs, hoping to erase the militants’ entrenched ideology. (More…)

Syria as prison. Raqqa, April 2013.

Diary: ‘How I Feel the Pain of Beautiful Raqqa’

By Johan Ludwig Burkchardt
Posted on
Posted in Geographies, Near & Middle East

Raqqa, for me, was a window into freedom. The Syrian government arrested me in 2011 for photographing protests and posting them on social media. I was detained for nine months and released in mid-2012, but I did not return to my hometown of Deir Ezzor. (More…)