Momen Muhanned, a student at University of Mosul in Iraq, is a former World in Conversation (WinC) facilitator who participated in all of our classes voluntarily when COVID-19 sent all of our work online. This led him to playing a key role as a “citizen diplomat” in support of Azmat Khan, a Pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist for the New York Times. He was selected to work with her because of the specific facilitator skill set that he developed through two years in WinC’s training program.
In 2021, Khan was working on a new investigative piece, one that took on the Coalition forces’ practices of aerial warfare in Iraq. The Coalition, officially known as The Multi-National Force – Iraq, was led by the United States military. Over the years in Mosul, many civilians in the region were impacted by the Coalition forces’ bombing. The records of these bombings were left in classified military files. Khan’s task was to find these files and use them to contact the civilians. Next, she set out to interview them, to share their stories to shed light on the human costs of war.
Muhanned, recognized for his unique facilitator skill set, was invited onto this project to help Khan work across a deep divide. His training at World in Conversation had prepared him to create the environment that could make conversations possible between perceived enemies: the victims of bombings and an American journalist.
Khan and Muhanned began looking over files Khan had acquired through suing the Coalition under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), trying to find out what information was reported, and where the incidents occurred. Oftentimes, Muhanned described the files as using non-specific, “coded language.” Instead of an exact location, Khan and Muhanned were often tasked with identifying what was “within a 1 km range or 1 mile range.” Khan and Muhanned would “go there, ask people, try to confirm with them about the location and the number of casualties,” Muhanned said. Their next step would be to try to talk to the victims' families and the injured survivors.
Muhanned was the first line of in-person contact between these individuals and Khan, as oftentimes, Khan would be on Zoom and Muhanned would be approaching these individuals by himself, in person. Throughout his work, Muhanned applied his facilitator skills to open up areas of communication that were impacted by opposition and misunderstandings.
“It was pretty difficult, to be honest.” Muhanned described. The interviews Khan conducted often ended up being 5-7 hours long. During that entire time, Mohanned was also interpreting. Khan would begin asking questions, and Muhanned would translate, and then facilitate the conversation.
“We didn’t only look for facts.. we also looked for stories.” Muhanned said.
For Muhanned, the skills he learned at WinC were a crucial part of his understanding of the project. “If I had no experience… in how people talk and how people think.. I wouldn't understand [what] Azmat was doing.” Muhanned said. “I would feel that those silent moments…were awkward.”
The deep dive into conversation skills and social issues at WinC gave him the ability to understand the reasons for Khan’s motives, and how to move through the process of creating a space where others can share their stories. Muhanned’s skill set placed him in a unique position, with the ability to open up a point of communication that was impacted by global conflict.
“I think in our first interview…both Azmat and I cried… and it was [a] very heavy burden on me because I had to not only translate the words, but convey the emotions,” Muhanned said. In this emotionally challenging environment, Muhanned leaned on techniques he had learned at WinC and brought in along with real-world intercultural knowledge to tackle extremely difficult subjects.
For one of their interviews, the interviewee had lost 46 family members and neighbors. He was the sole survivor. “We found Sail, we met with him, and we discovered he [had] the most impactful story ever.” Muhanned said. “And he [started] talking.” Thanks to his facilitation training at WinC, Muhanned was able to help build trust in a community of people who had been nearly forgotten. This enabled them to share stories that were crucial to creating an accurate record of what had actually happened in Iraq. Muhannad did so much more than translate; he was a part of the citizen diplomacy between journalism and the people.
In December of 2021, the New York Times published Khan’s article, and the interviews that Muhanned helped facilitate played a major role in the piece. In 2022, Khan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this project. “If I didn’t establish that connection with them…they would just say no [to the interviews],” Muhanned said. Without Muhanned and his unique communication skill set, these crucial stories would not have been shared.
