Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
When I came to the United States I started doing research and learned that
there is Iraqis who were affiliated with United States Army, with
United States government agencies, who were working as translators and as
interpreters, as
subcontractors, embassy workers. They were labeled
by fellow Iraqis and by terrorist organizations
as traitors,
as collaborators, and because of that they were targeted with assassination. But
in order to save their families or to save their life they were forced to flee Iraq.
They risked their lives, they risked the lives of their families. They became the
eyes, the ears, the voice for US Army.
But when they came to United States, if they were lucky enough to come to United States,
They were forgotten.
When I started working on the project I had to promise those Iraqis who
I photographed, that
because there is a danger of their own safety, their security, I would not show
their faces.
Most of them have families back in Iraq.
And if it was known that they made it to United States, a family could be
targeted with assassination, or with imprisonment, with some kind of punishment.
That's why they tried to hide their identity.
The people who I photographed, they have a similar story. They are refugees, they had to go
through
migration.
But they all have
very singular experiences. You know, they are incredible human beings.
They have so much they have to share, and
they have such aspirations and hopes for their near future.