Emilienne Malfatto

Fatma (left) and Tiktum play as if they were praying, in their house in Chibayish, Southern Iraq.
Iraq, 23/08/2017

Fatma and Tiktum dance at home on a birthday while their newborn brother, Abdallah, is laying on the floor.
Iraq, 04/10/2018

Fatma and Tiktum disguise themselves with fake hijab and veils at home.
Iraq, 15/10/2018

Fatma braids her aunt Shadia's hair.
Iraq, 02/10/2018

Fatma comes back home from school at noon. Unlike some other little girls in Chibayish, her parents let her go outside without covering her hair, arms or legs.
Iraq, 11/10/2018

Tiktum, 6, dances and chants as a Shiite cleric is talking on TV. She sings a mix of names, random words, and bits of the Fatiha, the first Sura from the Qur�an that she is currently learning at school.
Iraq, 04/10/2018

Before bed time, Tiktum picks up her clothes for the next day, at school. She loves colorful dresses.
Iraq, 13/10/2018

Fatma, Tiktum and Abdallah lay in bed just before going to sleep. The whole family sleeps on a blanket on the floor, in the main room of the house.
Iraq, 15/10/2018

Fatma and Tiktum play with their uncle Hussein, 17.
Iraq, 02/10/2018

The girls play with their father, Mahmood. Mahmood works as a body guard/policeman, and owns a small shop for beauty products.
Iraq, 04/10/2018

Fatma and Tiktum "fake" a prayer. They have costume "abayas" that they use for playing.
Iraq, 23/08/2017

Fatma, wearing a costume hijab, makes goofy faces in the mirror. She is now 8 years old and in a couple of years, she will have to start covering her hair.
Iraq, 15/10/2018

Tiktum plays at the entrance of the house.
Iraq, 09/10/2018

Portrait of day-dreamy Tiktum at age 5.
Iraq, 09/03/2017

Black clothes hang in front of the family's house. During the month of Muharram, which symbolizes the mourning of Imam Hussein's death, Shiite muslims only wear black. In very conservative Chibayish, women wear black abayas all year round.
Iraq, 16

The Girls

This is the story of Fatma and Tiktum. Two sisters, aged 6 and 8 years old, they live in Chibayish, in Southern Iraq, an extremely conservative Shiite region. It’s the story of their daily life in that particular environment. It’s an intimate story about childhood and about this magic they seem to conceal and reveal in every situation. It’s also a story about girls’ condition in Iraq – where lawmakers have proposed a law to legalize marriage for girls as young as 9 years-old. Only a year older than Fatma. Therefore, the project is called The Girls, because it can be the story of every Iraqi girl. For now, Fatma and Tiktum are completely free. Life is all about amusement. But this will change at some point - as soon as they become teenagers, they will have to cover up and "behave." This is a personal, long-term project that I intend to pursue in the future. In Chibayish, at some point, a girl cannot be photographed anymore, for “honor” reasons. I have no idea when exactly this turning point will happen, but I hope Fatma, Tiktum and I will find creative solutions to continue this project anyway.

Emilienne Malfatto

Emilienne Malfatto is a documentary photographer & photojournalist working mostly in Iraq. She studied political and social sciences in France and Colombia and she graduated from Sciences Po Paris school of journalism. She then worked 18 months for the AFP in France and in the Middle East. She works as a freelancer since 2015, mostly in Iraq, with occasional reporting elsewhere. She is interested in post-conflict and conflict-adjacent issues, and she likes to find different, intimate ways to tell personal yet important stories.