Support My Masters Degree at Columbia University

I am an award nominated human rights defender from Iraq/KurdistanRegion with 7 years experience working with local and international human rights organisations promoting the rights of LGBT+ individuals, sex workers, and other marginalised groups.

Two years ago, I started IraQueer, Iraq's first and only LGBT+ organisation that's leading the first queer movement in the country's public history. All these jobs made me the only publicly visible LGBT+ person from Iraq/KurdistanRegion, and made me the face of the queer movement there.

I've built my career on volunteering with organisations as my bachelor in Agriculture wasn't relevant to this work. But now, I got into the Human Rights Studies masters program at Columbia university starting this fall which gives me and IraQueer a one in kind opportunity to combine my practical skills and work experience with an excellent education that will only contribute to expanding our work, and taking our LGBT+ movement forward as I'll be receiving courses about running an organisation, working with the UN, and learning about Middle Eastern politics.

Since scholarships from the school are no longer available for this academic year, and I'm not eligible for Swedish or Iraqi scholarships as I am a political refugee in Sweden, and don't have either passport, I am forced to explore other possibilities. I believe crowd funding is one of those ways.

You can learn about my work through these links:

• Washington Post
• The Independent
• Out Summit Speech
• BBC World
• Raoul Wallenberg Academy Prize

If you have questions, you can email me on: [email protected]

.. I'd be happy to give more details.