About Jummar

Jummar

Overview

Jummar is an independent Iraqi online media platform publishing journalism in Arabic and English about Iraq, for Iraqis inside the country and in the diaspora. Working through text and multimedia, it provides what the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), one of its early supporters and partners, describes as a rare source of independent, non-sectarian and accurate information about issues that affect the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Rather than following the agenda of a political party, a politician or a business owner, Jummar was built to give young Iraqis a professional space in which they could tell their own stories, develop their journalism skills and discuss the questions that preoccupy them.

The platform works with a network of more than 60 mostly young contributors based across Iraq, the wider region and the diaspora. Its reporting deliberately looks beyond the capital and the large urban centres, and beyond the headline events that dominate conventional coverage of Iraq, towards everyday life, marginalised communities and under-reported stories. In a media landscape that its founders describe as dominated by politicians, parties, oligarchs and businessmen with political aspirations or close ties to the political class, Jummar has set out to practise a different kind of journalism: creative, ethical, independent and rooted in Iraqi voices.

Origins in the Tishreen Protests

Jummar was born out of the protest movement that shook Iraq from October 2019. Known as the Tishreen movement, the protests brought huge numbers of young people into public spaces demanding change, and they had a real political and social impact. Yet, as co-founder Aida Al-Kaisy has recalled, mainstream Iraqi media largely shunned the young activists, who were left trying to create their own platforms to communicate, largely on social media. There was, in her words, a lack of any home-grown media or information space where young Iraqis could communicate and feel heard.

That gap shaped what followed. In 2021 Al-Kaisy and two colleagues, Omar Al-Jaffal and Haneen Naamneh, began conversations about what such an outlet would look like. Their aim was a space for accurate, professional journalism where young Iraqis could tell their stories and also develop their journalism skills. The outlet that grew from those conversations took the concerns of the protest generation as its starting point: youth, marginalised groups and the questions that official and partisan media were not asking.

Founders and Registration

Jummar's three co-founders are Aida Al-Kaisy, Omar Al-Jaffal and Haneen Naamneh. Al-Kaisy, an Iraqi who has lived in the United Kingdom for more than 30 years, completed a PhD on Iraqi media, exploring what she describes as a complicated and often restrictive media space. In that account, media before 2003 was very much a propaganda tool of the state; after 2003, laws were passed to support pluralism, and a public broadcaster and regulatory body were written into the Iraqi constitution, but there remained no regulation around media ownership, money received from political parties or types of content. That research background informs Jummar's insistence on independence and transparency about what it is and whom it serves.

The organisation was registered in Germany in November 2021, with a view at the time to registering in Iraq the following year. That second step was later paused. Al-Kaisy has explained that if Jummar had been registered in Iraq, it would not have been able to carry on reporting on some of the issues it covers. Jummar therefore operates as a hybrid media organisation: registered in Germany, with its team based across Iraq and the region, but, as its founders stress, very much an Iraqi platform in its approach, its design and its language.

Name, Identity and Languages

The name itself is an Iraqi choice. In Iraqi dialect, jummar is the heart, or inner core, of the date palm tree. The platform takes that meaning seriously: it presents itself as journalism for and from the community, at the heart of Iraqi life rather than looking at it from outside. Its visual identity makes the same point, with a logo inspired by old Baghdad architecture.

Jummar publishes in both Arabic and English. The Arabic content is written in a language shaped for Iraqi readers, while the English edition carries Iraqi stories to readers in the diaspora and to policymakers, academics and media organisations across the region and worldwide. The founders are explicit that the focus is Iraq and Iraqis, whether inside or outside the country: Jummar does not present itself as a regional outlet and does not try to cover regional issues for their own sake. That declared focus, they say, is why dialogue and interaction on its platforms keep growing among young Iraqis looking for a space to learn, contribute, discuss and share their perspectives.

Editorial Mission and Values

Jummar describes its purpose as paving the way for creative and ethical journalism in and about Iraq. It asks the questions that preoccupy Iraqis, and the marginalised questions other outlets overlook, then scrutinises and analyses the answers, relying first and foremost on its network of young journalists across Iraq. Among the pillars the platform declares for itself are independence, accuracy in the production of its content, transparency, creativity and accessibility, together with support for journalists and a commitment to partnership and cooperation.

The platform cares about people as well as places. It challenges the common focus of media coverage on the Iraqi capital and urban centres such as Baghdad, Basra and Erbil, and it cares about the major issues as well as those that affect Iraqis' everyday lives. A defining editorial commitment is to cover women, gendered and minoritised communities, people with physical and mental disabilities and others in ways that defy narratives portraying them only as victims. Youth and the environment are singled out as particular concerns, on the grounds that they are the foundation of Iraq's future.

Coverage and Storytelling

Through text and multimedia, Jummar challenges traditional coverage to explore under-reported stories. Its pages mix reporting, analysis, comment and personal testimony, and its mentoring model means many pieces are also acts of training, with young contributors learning by publishing. One contributor, Mary Burhan, used the platform to write about her experience of sexual harassment. She recalled feeling that if she shared such an experience, Jummar would not judge or blame her, and it did not. Women then began approaching her to ask how to deal with harassers and how to protect themselves; some shared their own stories for the first time, telling her they felt less guilty and less alone. For the platform, that response illustrates its intended impact: helping people feel seen and heard.

Jummar's reporting also engages directly with legislation and public policy. Its detailed reporting on the passage of recent legislation included legal analysis, political coverage and reaction in both Arabic and English. A media partnership series with the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper took a deep dive into recent legislative changes empowering religious authorities to rule on marriage and inheritance, changes which could allow marriage for girls as young as nine. Work on minority rights and on people with disabilities has drawn positive feedback, its founders say, from civil society, lawyers and members of parliament.

Network, Mentoring and Training

The contributor network is the core of the operation. More than 60 mostly young contributors, based across Iraq, the region and in the diaspora, supply the reporting, and Jummar's mentoring and support allow them to share work with other publications and institutions as well. The model is deliberately developmental: young Iraqis are supported to get their stories out to their peers in Iraq and around the world, and to build professional skills while doing so.

IWPR has been an early supporter of that model, providing training, advice and financial assistance. IWPR itself has worked in Iraq since 2003 on programming to support media and civil society, and it presents its partnership with Jummar as part of a longer effort to strengthen independent media as a condition of democratic progress, especially in areas of conflict and transition. Jummar, for its part, has appealed for direct support, core funding and mentoring for young emerging creatives, writers, artists, musicians and designers, arguing that international attention has drifted away from Iraq even though the challenges on the ground remain huge. It has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to support its work.

Recognition

Work published by Jummar has received external recognition. A Jummar story, Short Sleeves in Iraq, which explored the social pressure on women despite the hardships of the summer heat, won a special mention in the 2024 IWPR Women's Journalism Prize. The Guardian partnership series on marriage and inheritance legislation likewise carried Jummar's reporting to an international readership, and feedback from readers inside Iraq, its founders report, is consistently that no one else in the Iraqi context is doing anything quite like it.

That distinctiveness is partly a matter of subject matter. Jummar continues to publish on minority rights, disability, women's rights and other topics at a time when, as Al-Kaisy has described, the space for such coverage in Iraq has been narrowing. The platform treats the willingness of contributors and readers to engage with those subjects, even when they are contested, as evidence of the need it was created to meet.

Challenges and Operating Environment

Jummar operates in a difficult environment for independent media. In the years following the Tishreen protests, its founders say, those in power felt threatened by voices calling for change, and the situation deteriorated. Authorities began using bureaucratic tactics, such as making registration expensive and difficult. A morality crackdown followed, beginning with an online platform where Iraqis were encouraged to tell the government if anyone was writing anything on social media that might be deemed immoral. That climate subsequently led, in August 2023, to the banning of the word gender in Iraq, along with related words such as women's empowerment.

The platform sometimes receives pushback, especially on stories about women's or LGBT+ rights; it loses followers when it publishes some of that content, and gains followers too. Its decision to pause registration in Iraq belongs to the same reality: formal registration at home, its founders judged, would have constrained reporting on precisely the issues its audience needs covered. Funding is a further challenge. Iraq is now classified as a middle-income country by the World Bank, which means many institutional organisations no longer treat it as a priority for foreign aid and development, a shift that does not, in Jummar's view, reflect the reality on the ground for independent media.

Audience and Place in Iraqi Media

The vast majority of Jummar's audience is inside Iraq, with the rest made up of Iraqis in the diaspora and some policymakers, academics and media organisations across the region and worldwide. Its founders argue that this is a critical time for Iraq, and that young people need support to be part of a safer and fairer society in which decisions are based on facts and good information. There is, they note, much conversation in the international media community about the importance of public interest journalism; their plea is to listen to Iraqi voices and bring Iraq back into the narrative and into global conversations.

Within Iraq's crowded and heavily politicised media landscape, Jummar occupies a distinctive place: a small, hybrid, digitally native platform, founded from a protest movement, edited around independence and mentoring, and addressed first of all to the young Iraqis who felt unheard in 2019. Its official website is jummar.media, where its Arabic and English journalism, and the work of its contributor network across Iraq and the diaspora, is published.