Hisham Arafat

Hisham Arafat is a Kurdish journalist who has been working as a freelance, independent professional since 2006. He writes for and contributes to various newspapers and magazines in the Netherlands, including De Volkskrant, De Groene Amsterdammer, RFG Media, Newsletter azc Sneek and Dutch newspaper. He is also actively involved with Zembla (BNNVARA), for which he worked as a fixer on the documentary “The Living Experiment”, and he was interviewed as a journalist and Syria analyst by, amongst others, OneWorld and NU.nl.

Arafat began his career in journalism well before the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Initially, he worked as a columnist for local newspapers, writing about social and cultural issues within Syria. For example, in 2015 he wrote the column “The Kurds in the Western press” for the Syrian newspaper *Buyer*.

As the conflict escalated, his focus shifted to reporting on war crimes, human rights, migration and frontline journalism.

He speaks fluent Kurdish (his mother tongue), Arabic and English, and is currently working actively to further improve its Dutch. Over the years, he has collaborated with renowned international media organisations, such as The Independent, The Telegraph, BBC, Channel 4, TNM and Kurdistan24. To date, he has written more than 800 articles and reports in English, in which he offers in-depth insights into the conflicts in the Kurdish regions of Syria and Iraq.

In October 2023, Arafat was awarded the Kurt Schork News Fixer Award from the Thomson Reuters Foundation, in recognition of his dedication and courage in reporting from some of the world's most challenging areas. He also received several international scholarships and fellowships, including the Candid Foundation-fair of the German Federal Office in 2021.

Arafat's work remains focused on highlighting the human stories behind the headlines, promoting international understanding and championing truth and responsibility in journalism.

Since arriving in the Netherlands, he has been committed to building bridges between communities here too: for example, as an integration trainer at VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, where he helps status holders familiarise themselves with Dutch culture, and as a participant in the RFG Newsroom investigative journalism programme.

Would you like to get in touch with Hisham? If so, please email redactie@rfgmedia.nl.