The World from PRX

Susannah GeorgeSG

Susannah George

I’m Susannah George, a radio and print journalist based in Beirut covering the Middle East. I write for NPR, PRI, Global Post and Foreign Policy. My assignments have taken me to Iraq, Egypt, Libya and southern Turkey. Prior to moving to Beirut I was a producer and editor for NPR based in Washington DC, but traveling all over: from the campaign trail in Iowa to Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
Conflict
Why some Iraqis would rather try their luck under ISIL
Conflict
Iraqi deserters say the army’s epic collapse isn’t their fault
Politics
No one asked these Iraqis what they thought about US troops coming back
Politics
If Erbil’s so safe, why is everyone at the gas station?
Conflict
Ahmed Chalabi pushed for the US invasion of Iraq. Will he be the country’s next PM?
Conflict
The peshmerga and the Iraqi army just love to hate on each other
Politics
Iraqi Christians are caught in the middle and hitting the road
Conflict
It’s time to buy a gun in Kirkuk (VIDEO)
Agence France-Presse
Is Iraq’s Maliki taking a page out of Assad’s playbook?
Agence France-Presse
The wider struggle for Iraq is playing out in Baghdad’s neighborhoods
Agence France-Presse
At home with Ahmed Chalabi
Agence France-Presse
Spend an evening with Baghdad’s speed-loving stunt drivers (PHOTOS)
Agence France-Presse
Baghdad’s police force is being flooded by inexperienced volunteers
Agence France-Presse
The guys who hold the key to stability in Baghdad
Agence France-Presse
In Baghdad, defending minorities charged with ‘terrorism’ is great business
Conflict
Airstrikes help Kurds push back IS in Kobani, but it may be too late
Conflict
In a second, a bomb destroys one man’s dream of reopening his Baghdad hotel
Conflict
The battle for Anbar could shape the future of Iraq. Here’s why
Agence France-Presse
CSI Baghdad: Meet the small forensics team struggling to deal with a new wave of violence in Iraq
Global Politics
America is building a Sunni army in Iraq to take on the Islamic State
Agence France-Presse
The Islamic State is waging war on technocrats
Conflict
Here’s what moviegoers in Baghdad think of ‘American Sniper’
Conflict
Kobani residents in limbo as they wait to return to a destroyed city
Conflict
Iraq’s Christians fear no one can protect them from the Islamic State
Thousands of migrants and refugees arrive daily by train into Tabonovzce, Macedonia, on their way north. Volunteers with flashlights illuminate their path as they walk to an informal crossing point into Serbia.
Conflict
Volunteers light the way for refugees crossing through Macedonia
Refugees on a private bus in Serbia en route to the border with Croatia.
Conflict
Some Serbians are doing a brisk business in private bus trips for refugees
Sanja Golubovic (r) and her friend Branka Saric (l) at a rally demanding the Danish government accept more refugees and migrants. Both came to Denmark as refugees from Bosnia.
Conflict
A former refugee in Denmark says she’s embarrassed by her adopted country’s stance on refugees
A graveyard on the Greek island of Lesbos, where refugees are buried. Many are buried in unmarked graves in a different section.
Global Politics
Greeks on Lesbos tend to a graveyard for refugees and migrants
Refugees set up tents at the main port. They're hoping to get tickets for a ferry like this that will take them to Greece.
Global Politics
Afghan refugees wonder, ‘what about us?’
Nour in a tent allocated to her uncle and his family in a camp for displaced people in Dohuk, northern Iraq.
Conflict
Yazidi plan to ‘rebaptize’ women enslaved by ISIS is working … sort of
The "Colonel," 48, looks out at a small village outside Kirkuk littered with homemade bombs from ISIS militants. He team has to clear away IEDs set by ISIS militants, but they have little equipment to do the job.
Conflict
Kurdish bomb experts defuse IEDs on a shoestring
Yazidi women released from ISIS captivity meet with Lalish's top spiritual leader, Baba Chawish, before being baptized back into the faith. They didn't want to show their faces.
Conflict
Yazidi society changes to try and rescue a generation of traumatized women
Raid Latif has been making the Erbil-Baghdad trip for nearly five years. One one trip, he says he saw a car full of Iraqi security forces executed by ISIS fighters on the side of the road.
Conflict
Iraq’s Baghad-to-Erbil route is a lifeline, but still a dangerous one
Kemal Kerkuki, commanding officer of Peshmerga forces outside of Kirkuk, speaks with his troops.
Global Politics
The Kurdish Peshmerga helping the US take back territory from ISIS may be kicking out Arabs
Fresh martyr portraits painted on a side street in Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood. Clashes last month in the economically deprived neighborhood left at least 11 soldiers, 8 civilians and 22 militants dead.
Conflict
Healing this neighborhood would go a long way toward ending the insurgency
The main atrium of this would-be mall is now home to hundreds of Iraqis from villages outside Mosul. Here the concrete floors and walls give families more protection than the displaced families living in tents in a public park just across the street.
Conflict
Erbil’s abandoned construction sites are a ‘saving grace’ for refugees
A scene from the new Iraqi TV show, State of Myths, which satirizes the Islamic State.
Media
When faced with ISIS, some Iraqis choose to laugh
Displaced women from the minority Yezidi sect. ISIS is increasingly subjecting women to rape, as well as forced conversions and marriage.
Belief
Some Yazidi women who have escaped ISIS barbarism aren’t hopeful for their futures
Young Iraqi men gather in Baghdad's Jadriya district every Friday night to "drift" — a form of stunt driving where the driver purposefully skids and partially loses control of the car at high speeds.
Culture
Young Iraqis are ‘drifting’ through their country’s crisis
A table of young men at the Al Atrakchi House cafe in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood. It's decorated with antique Iraqi furniture and artifacts. The owner says he's created this space to remind Iraqis of their country's rich history in hopes they'll be in
Culture
Why these Iraqi kids are bucking the trend — and their parents — to stay in Baghdad
Iraq's Shi'ite militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq
Conflict
Iraq has a new prime minister, but its powerful militias might not care
A liquor store on Saadoun Street in downtown Baghdad. The biggest sellers are beer and "Chivas 18 and [Johnny Walker} Black."
Business
Beer and Chivas fly off the shelves as Baghdad’s liquor stores reopen after Ramadan
General Malik Maliki of the 8th division of Iraq's Federal Police out on patrol on the outskirts of the mostly Shia neighborhood of Khadamiya in north Baghdad. At a checkpoint not far from here, just hours before his visit, a suicide car bomb attack kille
Conflict
Baghdad’s police are just waiting for the next car bombing
General Malik Maliki of the 8th division of Iraq's Federal Police out on patrol on the outskirts of the mostly Shia neighborhood of Khadamiya in north Baghdad. At a checkpoint not far from here, just hours before his visit, a suicide car bomb attack kille
Conflict
Baghdad’s police are just waiting for the next car bombing
Photos of Salam and his older brother sit on a small table in his family's home, lit only by cell phones and a lantern. Salam says his brother was arbitrarily arrested by Iraqi security forces. The family was initially able to visit him, but it's been mor
Conflict & Justice
A Sunni man in Baghdad says his life is ‘like the walking dead’
A boy who fled from the violence in Mosul sits outside a tent at a camp on the outskirts of Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Conflict & Justice
Iraqis are feeling increasingly desperate with nowhere to turn
Pro basketball team Riyadi is backed by the Future Movement, a Sunni political party founded by slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. His posters hang everywhere.
Sports
Lebanon’s hoop stars just wanna play the game — but they can’t escape the sectarianism
As the sun went down, voters at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut filled out ballots by the light of cellphones and flashlights. The Floors of the polling station were littered with scraps of discarded ballots.
Global Politics
They know who’s going to win, but Syrian refugees are still flocking to the polls
A Beirut artist participates in an event staged by a municipality controlled by Hezbollah to honor those killed in a wave of car bombings in Lebanon.
Conflict & Justice
Hezbollah claims to be fighting in Syria to protect Lebanon. But the result is violence in Lebanon
Talet Cagdas, the owner of Gaziantep's Imam Cagdas restaurant, pours a sugary melted butter mixture over one of the day's first batches of Baklava. It's the finishing touch on a labor intensive sweet.
Business, Economics and Jobs
Pistachio prices are through the roof, and Turkey’s baklava makers are panicking
Talet Cagdas, the owner of Gaziantep's Imam Cagdas restaurant, pours a sugary melted butter mixture over one of the day's first batches of Baklava. It's the finishing touch on a labor intensive sweet.
Business, Economics and Jobs
Pistachio prices are through the roof, and Turkey’s baklava makers are panicking
Degheri coFounder Matt Saunders sits with the team's "Cargo Bike" outside a shopping district in downtown Beirut, Degheri messengers are trying to attract clients by offering to bike their groceries home for them.
Business, Economics and Jobs
For a bike messenger, Beirut may be the worst city ever
Erbil's skyline, where construction is booming
Development & Education
Young entrepreneurs in Erbil, Iraq, are making a killing
Global Politics
Iraqi monuments still standing
Global Politics
Iraqis rediscover the joy of reading
Conflict & Justice
Obstacles to pumping Iraqi oil
Global Politics
Baghdad after dark
Conflict & Justice
Baghdad’s housing crunch
Global Politics
Iraqis still want US help in Anbar
Global Politics
Iraqi women talk politics