Episode Details

Our guest for this week is Abdulazez Dukhan, a digital artist, photographer, humanitarian, and creator of the ‘Through Refugee Eyes’ project.

About Abdulazez

Abdulazez grew up in Syria and was only 12 years old when the civil war started. Three years after, his family was forced to leave their home in search of safety and peace. 

He first traveled to Turkey. Abdulazez started learning about Photoshop and digital art through tutorials on YouTube, which is also how he started learning English. But as time went by, the situation and the conditions for the refugees were becoming more and more difficult. In January of 2016, he moved to a refugee camp in Greece. 

It is in Greece where he fully embraced the path of an artist. He received his first camera as a gift from one of the volunteers he collaborated with and he’s been involved with photography ever since.

In April 2016, he started an independent photography project called “Through Refugee Eyes” with a goal of providing Syrian refugees with a voice. He noticed that the media was spinning stories in order to portray the people who are fleeing war as hopeless, dangerous and ignorant. He realized that he needed to act upon this injustice and start documenting what truly happened inside refugee camps.

To this day, Abdulazez is hoping to spread the word about the true adversities people who are fleeing their war-torn homes are faced with every day. He is looking to share the message of respect, appreciation, and collaboration, hoping we can build a better future together, for everyone.

Abdulazez recently shared his story at the Mindvalley University in Croatia, 2019. You can check out his full talk here!

Connect with Abdulazez:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbdulazezDukhan
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abdulazez_dukhan/
• Website: https://azyeux.com/

Abdulazez’s Story of Inspired Evolution

Abdulazez was only 12 when the protests in Syria started. These demonstrations grew out of the Arab Spring movement and they were sparked by an incident when several boys were arrested for writing the words “Freedom” on their school walls. These boys were around the same age as Abdulazez at the time.

Their arrest was supposed to be a strong message made by the Syrian government. Even though the stance of the general public was clear and everyone could feel the injustice, no apology was made. The government stood by the decision and their lack of remorse fueled the will of the people to stand and speak up.

“No human being is right all the time. Some of my ideas aren’t perfect, some of yours aren’t perfect. Nobody is perfect!” - Abdulazez Dukhan

At the time, Abdulazez was still in primary school. But instead of worrying about homework, he had to think about whether or not he is going to get home from school safe and sound. 

We don’t often hear in the news about how the revolution looked in the early stages and Abdulazez recalls some of the memories from that period of his life. He remembers people shouting at those who were tasked with bringing down the demonstrations that “they are one and that there was no need for violence.”

“You can see a lot of footage where people were walking on the streets with olive branches.” - Abdulazez Dukhan

The domestic media started spinning stories in the news in order to portray the protests as acts of terror. As the situati