Syrian director Rafat Alzakout
Published @ The Washington Post
A few weeks back I got a surprising email that lead to one of the most interesting assignments I have ever been called to photograph. I was send to Gelsenkirchen to cover and portrait Yusuf and his family. Yussuf, a now 17 year old radical islamist, is responsible for setting off a home-made bomb in April 2016 outside a Sikh prayer hall in Essen and is ever since then in prison. It was a challanging task but I was still able to make some nice Portraits of his mother Neriman durling a very late night shoot. Can't say I am not extremly proud of the outcome of this.
The full article can be found on the Washington Post website.
“And then one night last April, officials said, the Emir — a Muslim title for an exalted leader — led two cell members to a Sikh house of worship in this industrial city and hurled the bomb toward its door. A deafening boom rang out. Orange flames lit a mosaic of blood and shattered glass. Inside, victims screamed as the assailants fled.
All three terrorists were 16-year-old boys, according to German police.”
“The threat presented by the Islamic State is taking on a new form: child terrorists either directly in contact with or inspired by the militant group. Even as it suffers setbacks on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State is cultivating adolescents in the West, who are being asked to stay in their home countries and strike targets with whatever weapons are available, such as knives and crude bombs.”
“Yaman’s answer was to take him to an event suggested by a friend — a speech by Pierre Vogel, a former boxer and Muslim convert known for spewing radical Islamist rhetoric who called for a public funeral prayer service for Osama bin Laden after he was killed in Pakistan.
“I didn’t know,” Yaman said, burying her head in her hands. “I had no idea the things [Vogel] said.””
Yusuf's old room, wiped clean of any personal items.
Tearsheet of the Washington Post Sunday Issue from the 12th February 2017.