Nafiseh Kohnavard ( fa, نفیسه کوهنورد) is a multilingual correspondent who is focused on Middle East issues for

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

BBC Persian BBC Persian ( fa, بی‌بی‌سی فارسی) is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political, social, economical and sport news relevant to Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and ...

. She has covered the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the siege of Sinjar, Iraq where the terrorist group massacred thousands of people from the

Yazidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majo ...

religious minority, and the battle between

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

and the

Kurdish Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

for Kobane in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Kohnavard has been based in Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq as well as the UK and spent most of her time for some years on the front lines against Islamic State militants with the Kurdish Peshmarga, Iraqi, US army forces. Kohnavard was born in Urmia, Iran. She started her career in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and was sacked by hardline President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

from the Persian daily '' Hamshahri'' after she asked outgoing president Khatami a few questions in her interview about the "parallel Intelligence services" and

Kayhan ''Kayhan'' ( fa, کيهان, '' en, The Cosmos'') is a newspaper published in Tehran, Iran. It is considered "the most conservative Iranian newspaper." Hossein Shariatmadari is the editor-in-chief of ''Kayhan''. According to the report of the '' ...

published articles accusing her of being a spy. Kohnavard's work has included human interest stories of people affected by conflicts. Kohnavard told the story of Yazidi women who had children fathered by their ISIS captors in a documentary for BBC Persian and World Service's OUR WORLD program called "Yazidis Secret Children", produced and directed by Katie Arnold. In 2020 the film won the One World Media Award's best TV documentary. The documentary is about Yazidi women who had been taken by IS, forced into sexual slavery and gave birth to children born of rape but for returning to their community they faced a heartbreaking choice: Leaving IS fathered children behind and going back home or keeping their children and leave Yazidi community BBC Persian Service: The Yazidis Secret Children https://awards.oneworldmedia.org.uk/part-one#tvdoc

References

Living people BBC people Year of birth missing (living people) {{BBC-stub