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Kanan
Makiya, Founder
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Wallada Sarraf, Art work & Artifacts
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Mustafa Al- Kadhimiy, Oral History
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Hassan
Mneimneh, Documentation
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Ben
Owen, US Research and Coordination
Kanan Makiya
Founder
Kanan Makiya was born in Baghdad. He left Iraq to study
architecture at M.I.T. and later joined Makiya Associates to
design and build projects in the Middle East. In 1981, he left
the practice of architecture and began to write a book about
Iraq. "Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq" was
published in 1989, and became a bestseller after Saddam Husain's
invasion of Kuwait. Makiya also wrote "The Monument," an essay
on the aesthetics of power and kitsch, and "Cruelty and Silence:
War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World," which won the 1993
Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book on international relations
published in English. Along with these books published in
English and Arabic, and written under the pseudonym of Samir al-Khalil,
Makiya has written for Al-Hayat, The New York Times, The New
York Review of Books, and The London Times. In October 1992, he
acted as the convenor of the Human Rights Committee of the Iraqi
Opposition based in northern Iraq. He has collaborated on many
films for television, the most important of which exposed the
1988 campaign of mass murder in northern Iraq. For his role in
the film he received the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best
Television Documentary on Foreign Affairs in 1992. His most
recent publication is a reflection on Arab politics in the
collection "The Fight is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas
in America and the World," published in 2003 by Harper Collins.
Wallada Sarraf
Art work & Artifacts
Wallada Sarraf, an established collector and expert on
modern Iraqi art, was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1951. She studied at
the Beirut College for Women and received a degree in library
sciences from Baghdad University in 1972. Currently she is in charge
of acquisitions for the Iraq Memory Foundation.
Mustafa Al-Kadhimiy
Oral History
Mustafa Al-Kadhimiy, is a known and respected Iraqi activist in
the fields of democracy and human rights. He has worked with
Iraqi and international organizations to promote these values,
and has acquired expertise in the area of human rights
documentation and witness testimony. He studied political
science at the universities of Stockholm and Goth burg and
received his Masters degree from Goth burg in 1993. He has
published several books in Arabic, including human concerns,
which was published in London in 2000 and was officially
recognised by the European Union as among the best work
published by refugee writers. In addition, he is an accomplished
journalist who has produced documentaries on Iraq for the BBC
and Channel 4, and written numerous articles for leading Arabic
journals and newspapers. His long experience in broadcasting
includes directing a radio station in Greece from
1995 to 1997, working as the director of programming for Radio
Free Europe’s Iraq service from 1999 to 2003. He also
participated in launching the Iraqi Media Network as the
Director of Planning and Programming immediately after the fall
of Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. Since leaving Al-Iraqiya he
has worked with the Iraq Memory Foundation, researching,
directing and producing numerous filmed oral history testimonies
with survivors of the Saddam Hussein regime.
