ROJ HOZAN

Qamishlo– Khabat Abbas, who lives in the city of Qamishlo, NE Syria, began her journalistic career after graduating from the Department of English at the University of Aleppo when the revolution started in Rojava.

Khabat Abbas is a media worker of the Fırat News Agency (ANF) and one of the founders of the Hawar News Agency (ANHA). She met foreign journalists while carrying out humanitarian work in the region with international organizations and began to write articles for many international news agencies, newspapers, and channels such as TF1, ABC, Arte, The Washington Post, The Spiegel, Dailymail, and Sunday Times. Khabat Abbas has won this year’s Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism in the Fixer category for “her local knowledge, her extensive network of contacts, and journalism skills.” We spoke to Khabat Abbas about her journalistic works.

She becomes the voice of her country

Khabat Abbas’ journalistic career started in 2011 after graduating from the Department of English at the University of Aleppo. She started to work for Fırat News Agency and Hawar News Agency. But then she decided to take part in humanitarian relief efforts and carried out works with the Doctors Without Borders, ARS, and UN. She met people affected by the war in Syria and began to write their stories. “I started to work with international press outlets to make the voice my people heard all around the world.”

She also becomes the voice of women

Stating that she witnessed the will and struggle of women, Khabat Abbas said, “I saw pioneering women pioneered and how they fought on the frontlines. Documenting their resistance in history is very important. I want to announce the enthusiasm of Kurdish women, their resistance, and how they fight on the frontlines to the world in my articles. I wrote an article series called, “The Women’s War” for a radio station in the USA. The article series consist of the stories of women working for institutions, organizations, military and the press. I managed to make the heroism of women in Rojava Kurdistan known all around the world.”

Talking about her award, Khabat Abbas said, “The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund annually honors the work of freelance journalists, local reporters and news fixers. Since 2001, the news fixer award has been given male journalists until now. But as a female journalist, I am honored with this award. My first story was about a group of women in Roj Camp throwing off their black burqas on March 8. I had the opportunity to join them and to write their story. My second story was about the life of women living in Raqqa. They were newly saved from ISIS and enjoying their freedom. In this story, I tried to explain what women had faced and how they got involved in work to make their society free. I tried to write about their hope for a new life. The third story was about three British women, who joined ISIS. I tried to draw attention of the British state to those who joined ISIS. I am honored to be the winner of the Kurt Schork News Fixer Award for 2021.”

She wants to write a book

Khabat Abbas wants to write about the challenges faced by young women. “I have some projects. These days, I and five other female journalists have worked on a book about our experiences. The book will be published in Spanish first and will be translated into other languages later this year.