r/Bakur

>It was 1991 and I was on my first assignment for National Geographic. I had pitched a story on the Kurdish people, the largest ethnic group in the world without a nation of their own, and I would be covering 8 countries over 26 weeks.
I was well into the story, having documented the return of hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey when I received a disturbing call from my editor. She expressed concern about where the story was going and threatened to pull the plug if I couldn't find a stronger angle with my coverage. I was beside myself and facing what felt like a failure of a magnitude I could not process. Thankfully, she was a wise photo editor and suggested I return to the unspoken capital of Kurdistan, Diyarbakir, Turkey, which was hundreds of miles away.
Upon my return, I decided to spend time with a Kurdish human rights lawyer. He invited me to join him in attending what was then called "terrorist court," where they tried Kurdish militants who were suspected of being members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). The PKK was, and still is, a separatist group fighting a war against Turkey.
Once seated in the gallery, facing this scene, one of his clients was brought into the dock with soldiers stationed behind her. In a brief moment, she raised her head in defiance and I was able to click off about 6 frames before the judge ordered me to sit down. I was prepared for him to ask for my film, so I bent down, pulled the roll out of my camera, stuck it in my sock, and loaded a fresh roll. Thankfully, he never asked for my film.
The magazine published this image as a double spread, and my story made the cover. As a result, the 1992 issue of the magazine was banned in Turkey, and they changed their policy denying access to these courts moving forward. This image, which was published worldwide, went on to win awards and became the most iconic image of my young career.

Credit and body text from: https://www.instagram.com/edkashi/

https://youtu.be/uldwn-YEVJM?t=2000