Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an Iraqi photojournalist. Born in Baghdad in 1975, he trained as an architect but was conscripted into Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army, which he deserted. For six years he was forced to live in hiding, changing his residence every few months to avoid detection and arrest. Soon after the US-led coalition forces took control of Baghdad in April 2003, he began writing for the Guardian and the Washington Post. In 2005 he won the Amnesty International Media award for his reporting, and in June 2006, he received the Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. He currently lives in Lebanon.

Recent articles

"Saddam was the ultimate nightmare… but now things are just bad, really bad." Despite a newly elected government, civil war looms ominously on the horizon: what is happening in Iraq and who holds the power? Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the award-winning photojournalist, talks to openDemocracy about occupation, insurgency, and how his country fell apart.