Why I talk to warlords

Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda’s office is a war zone, she goes to meet warlords and military commanders to persuade them to release the children in their ranks and in their prisons. It’s not always just the military leaders who need convincing, she tells Jo Fidgen that sometimes the children are too afraid to leave. So Priscillia often shares her own story of growing up as a Congolese Iranian during the violence of the Iran-Iraq war.

Priscillia is a human rights lawyer and the co-founder of the Collective for Black Iranians, a not-for-profit organisation with the mission to represent Black and Afro-Iranians' voices within the Iranian diaspora.

Picture: Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda at work
Credit: Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda