Lorraine Mallinder

Lessons in wartime

Spotlight (01/23)

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Business is booming for Ukraine’s English teachers. Far from diminishing demand, war has turned “global English” into a tool for survival. But teachers can often find themselves acting as therapists, counselling students who have experienced severe trauma, while struggling to avoid burnout themselves. 

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'I have a big job to do for my people'

The Journalist (12/22)

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Airlifted out of Kabul in 2021, Zahra Joya has been running a news agency in exile, managing a team of undercover journalists in Afghanistan. Her work has won her a number of awards, but has also created new dangers for the family she left behind.

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French teen seeks justice after policeman beats, urinates on him

Al Jazeera (11/22)

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The latest in a long line of police abuses which have come to light in France in recent times, often targeting Black and Arab men, demonstrating what rights groups term systemic brutality and racism in its security forces.

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Escape from Iran: 'My dream was to be a primary teacher. Now I'm holding a gun'

Irish Times (10/22)

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Facing capture by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Rezan fled to Iraq and joined a group of freedom fighters.

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Iran protests: 'We need the people to move and take down this government'

Irish Times (11/22)

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On the Iran-Iraq border, Iranians speak out against Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters, which has left hundreds dead.

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'Prophet of God': Kurdish opposition groups feel wrath of under-pressure Iran

Irish Times (11/22)

 

Facing the gravest threat to its survival since 1979, the Islamic Republic is pointing the finger of blame for abroad, bombing Kurdish opposition bases in Iraq.

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Who is the man driving UK’s ongoing rail strikes?

Al Jazeera (08/22)

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Interview with Mick Lynch, the most talked about man in the United Kingdom. A social media phenomenon, his ability to tell simple truths about equality and social justice have captured the imagination of millions struggling in the country's cost-of-living crisis.

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From pandemic heroes to underpaid workers, UK bus drivers revolt

Al Jazeera (08/22)

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In Southport, an old seaside town in the northwest of England, bus drivers congregated under a bus stop. They stood and chatted, one fiddled with a Rubik’s cube, and a couple held red flags, now three weeks into an acrimonious standoff with bus operator Arriva North West …

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Britain's "summer of discontent"

RTÉ (08/22) @17.55mins​

 

Radio report on the Britain’s “summer of discontent”. For the past month or so, as temperatures – and inflation - have risen to new highs, Britain has been rife with talk of paltry pay rises, lousy working conditions, fat cat salaries, colossal corporate profits and strikes. An almighty clash with the incoming government looms.

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Yazidi women and girls still enslaved

The Irish Times (08/21)

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Around 2,800 women and girls enslaved by Islamic State are still missing.

It is thought that many of those who survived may be trapped in the increasingly dangerous Al-Hawl detention camp in northeast Syria.

(Photograph: Lolav Media/Ginestra Film)

Mosul’s new masters

The Irish Times (03/20)

After Isis, came the mafia. In Mosul, a jumbled assortment of Iran-backed militias, known collectively as the Hashd al-Shaabi, compete for their share of the spoils of war.

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The vapers of Mosul 

BBC Radio 4 (03/20) @11.14mins

Out on the hustle with three buccaneering entrepreneurs, selling vapes in war-torn Mosul. Moslawis are born entrepreneurs. Given half the chance, they can make their city great again.

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The best weapon against war in Iraq is a waistcoat

The Irish Times (10/19)

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For the dapper young men at Mr Erbil, style is survival. In their emporium of hip, espressos are sipped and style flaunted as chaos and menace swirl outside. No talk of religion or politics permitted.

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‘You live with these men as a slave. It’s free for them to do anything’

The Irish Times (10/19)

Naveen Rasho endured five years of hell at the hands of Islamic State. She survived the fall of the caliphate in Baghuz, only to face the fresh horror of detention at Al Hawl camp in Syria with her captor’s three brides.

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‘We are only 1,000, but we fight like 10,000.’ 

The Irish Times (12/19)

In the hills of northern Iraq, I meet showman general Hussein Yazdanpanah, whose Iranian Kurdish fighters are fighting against a resurgent Islamic State and the Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias.

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