Post author: Sofya Shahab

Sofya Shahab is a Research Officer based at the Institute of Development Studies. As a Social Anthropologist, Dr Shahab specialises in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Her research explores community-based responses to the physical and existential displacements resulting from heritage destruction among ethno-religious minority groups in Iraq and Syria.

Publication Using Participatory Methods to Explore Freedom of Religion and Belief: Whose Reality Counts?

Examining countries where religious pluralism is in decline, including Iraq, India, Pakistan and Nigeria, this book brings together reflections, knowledge and learning about the daily…

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Publication
Front cover of Violence and Discrimination Against Women of Religious Minority Backgrounds in Iraq report
Violence and Discrimination Against Women of Religious Minority Backgrounds in Iraq

This volume, edited by Professor Mariz Tadros, Dr Sofya Shahab and Amy Quinn-Graham, looks at these intersections in the context of Iraq. Its aim is…

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Publication
Front cover of the publication entitled Preserving Communities' Heritage
Preserving Communities’ Heritage: A Workbook for Heritage Capturers

This is a practical workbook, by James Baker, Sofya Shahab and Mariz Tadros, aims to guide local communities and heritage gatherers through the process of…

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Publication Co-Constructing Digital Archiving Practices for Community Heritage Preservation in Egypt and Iraq

In this journal article, James Baker, Sofya Shahab and Mariz Tadros document cultural heritage to preserve cultural heritage, to ensure its survival by pushing back…

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Analysis Taliban poses existential as well as physical threat to Afghanistan’s Hazaras

In this analysis, Sofya Shahab shares how concern over how much longer the Hazara community as an ethnic and religious minority will survive in Afghanistan…

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Analysis
Young Iraqis on the CREID Heritage Gatherer project interviewing an elderly member of their community
Cultural diversity and development: heritage gathering in post-conflict Iraq

On World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, Sofya Shahab delves into some of the ways intolerance for cultural diversity has impacted communities in…

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Analysis
Heritage beyond monuments: how Syrian artisans adapted to conflict

The theme for last Sunday’s International Day for Monuments and Sites was ‘Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures’, which sought to emphasise the importance of inclusion and…

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Analysis Red Wednesday: why preserving Yazidi heritage is essential to their survival

With Ramadan starting this week for the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, another much smaller and more ancient religious group largely based in Iraq is also…

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Analysis
Impacts and implications of violence against cultural heritage in Syria

Heritage destruction, and the ideological motivations behind it, is vital for understanding conflict as well as addressing questions on what heritage is documented, preserved and…

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Analysis
Safeguarding religious sites

The UN General Assembly has voted to adopt a resolution protecting religious sites. Recent conflicts in Iraq and Syria have seen vast swathes of religious…

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Analysis
Heritage rooted in landscape – memories and cultural survival in Iraq

Heritage and culture can be rooted in physical spaces, so when these come under threat or are permanently altered by conflict or climate change, this…

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Analysis
Memories of Mosul: intangible heritage preservation essential for rebuilding communities

Rebuilding heritage and the cohesion of communities that live and breathe it is not merely a matter of rebuilding tangible (often historical) sites, but also…

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