With every click of his camera, Kim Badawi captures the untold stories of the human experience.
Because of a series of tweets, his role as the artful observer was reversed, thrusting him into the media spotlight and unearthing all that is to be admired about the photojournalist.
Badawi was recently traveling from Brazil to Miami to be reunited with his family and friends for the holidays. Upon entering Miami International Airport, he was detained for 10 hours without being allowed to contact his partner who was awaiting his release to board another flight.
Confused and distraught, he was forced to justify his personal contacts, emails, photos and whatsapp messages dating back to 10 years ago. He articulated the officers lacked sensitivity and reason during the investigation.
TSA officers were asked numerous times by Badawi if he needed to contact a lawyer, but they insisted that he would not be with them much longer.
After the officers discovered he was of Arab decent, they began to probe Badawi, an American citizen, about his religious practices.
“Me and my partner have suffered nightmares of being in an airport after the whole ordeal,” Badawi told Rise News. “The next day I woke up hoping that none of the things that occurred had actually happened.”
Read More: American Photojournalist Interrogated For 10 Hours In Miami Airport Because He Was Of Arab Descent
Though Badawi was unlawfully detained in the United States, he has a long history of telling narratives of those searching for freedom through his photographs.
He stumbled into photojournalism while staying with his grandparents in Egypt where coincidentally the Tahrir uprising was gaining force.
Badawi was already a well-known international photographer at the time but had little experience in journalism. His phone started to ring with calls begging for photographs on the frontlines as Egyptians revolted for a new and just government
“During the revolution, the people, especially the younger generation, really felt like anything was possible,” Badawi said.
LOOK: The Egyptian revolution through the lens of Kim Badawi
By timing and chance, Badawi was catapulted into the world of photojournalism.
He jokes that his career has evolved through stories adventitiously unfolding once he arrives in a new country.
Recently Badawi has been developing a photography project focusing on Syrian refugees in Brazil.
The globetrotting photographer captures the sensitivity of each moment as the refugees enter and adapt to their new home. He describes the clash of two worlds as the refugees struggle with the relaxed and youthful country of Brazil that is in juxtaposition to the conservative and religious state of Syria.
Through his project, he also realized a troubling truth about the younger generation of Syria.
“They reminisce about places and people as if they were much older than they are,” Badawi said.
As Badawi tells it, for the refugees he has met, cafes, stores, and even homes that held sentimental meaning are now but distant memories of what was. Now they have found refuge in an unfamiliar country, left to pick of the pieces of their fragmented lives.
Badawi said that he understands that Syria’s past and the refugees themselves have been misrepresented in today’s media. He is hopeful that through his photography he can educate the masses through honest portrayals of what it looks and feels like to be a refugee.
Badawi may have found media attention through his unfortunate experience at the Miami airport but the real headlining story lies with how this photographer is impacting the perception of the Middle East.
Through outlets such as CNN, Le Monde, and The Wall Street Journal, Badawi has reintroduced viewers to the high intensity situations that flood the media through portraits of humans attempting to live normal lives amongst the chaos and conflict.
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Is This University Of Miami Sorority Recruitment Video Worse Than That Infamous Alabama One?
Last August, the University of Alabama greek system was slammed for being too racially homogenous and weird in the way that it objectifies women after the Bama Alpha Phi chapter released a controversial recruitment video.
As a grad of Alabama who reported on the de-facto segregation in the greek system there, I can say that those claims of racial and gender inequity are fairly accurate.
Everyone on campus and in the community knows it and efforts to change the campus have been made in recent years. Perhaps that change hasn’t come fast enough (God knows, many out of state students don’t think it has) but there is progress.
Of course, since it was Alabama (a loaded word in our national lexicon)- national sources flocked to the video and slammed the sisters of Alpha Phi into taking it down.
Here’s a version of it though that is archived online: (the audio has been changed from the original)
Even the New York Times (!) reported on the “controversy” of the Alabama white girl video at the time.
The whole Internet got worked up about it because it fed a stereotype of the American South being a place where women aren’t empowered and Stepford Wives are created en masse.
Perhaps there is some tangential truth to that stereotype, but it is a stereotype nonetheless.
Yesterday, the University of Miami chapter of Delta Gamma released a video that is just as problematic as the Alabama one.
And yet there has not been the same outrage- at least not yet.
The Miami New Times described the Miami video as looking “more fabulous than Jennifer Lopez’s big-budget, Miami-shot music video for “I Luh Ya Papi” (except with fewer male models in Speedos, and more co-eds in bikinis).”
Yeah, exactly.
Is the Miami video better because there are a couple minority students in it and because it was filmed on Biscayne Bay?
That seems like a pretty weak argument to make if you support equality.
But you be the judge.
Is the Miami video just as bad as the Alabama video?
Is there a double standard in the way national media outlets cover issues relating to race and gender when talking about a Deep South school?
In the end, I’m a dude so I’m going to check my privilege on this one and would like to see what women think about it.
Tell us what you think in the comments below.
You can also submit an opinion piece to [email protected].
Cover Photo Credit: Artec Media/ Youtube (Screengrab)
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Did This Miami Entrepreneur Just Create The Next Tofu?
What’s New With This Story:
-Miami entrepreneur Taylor Cohen invented a new food product that is spreading fast throughout the Magic City.
-The product is a lentil based alternative to tofu called Adashah.
-Cohen and her brother Brandon started a business around the product in 2015. They now make over 600 pounds of it a week and distribute to over 15 South Florida restaurants.
-della test kitchen in Wynwood swears by the product, and it is a huge hit with customers.
Taylor Cohen was just your typical food justice warrior and outdoor educator a few years back.
Yeah, exactly.
Nothing typical about her.
Now Cohen, a native of Surfside, has taken her passion for making change to the business world.
Along with her brother Brandon, Taylor is poised to change the way South Florida looks at meat alternatives.
Her product is called Adashah and it is a unique lentil based food that is most similar to tofu.
She invented the product in the years following her diagnosis of Colitis.
Taylor Cohen is the creator of Adashah.
Doctors gave her a strict nutritional regime but few of those foods spoke to her.
“I started eating more of a plant-based diet and eliminating animal proteins from my diet,” Cohen told RISE NEWS. “I was focusing on the vegan meat alternatives that are on the market right now. But what I saw was that pretty much everything either had soy or gluten or I read the ingredients and they were full of chemicals that I didn’t understand.”
Cohen said that she wanted to create something similar to tofu in how it picks up flavors, but also something that would taste great on its own.
She seems to have made just that.
In just over two years, Cohen has scaled up to servicing over 15 restaurants from Boca Raton to Doral.
She said that she creates over 600 pounds of the stuff each week.
The product is a trade secret but Cohen said that it is 100 percent organic and preservative free.
Luis Garcia, the manager of della test kitchen in Wynwood loves Adashah.
He told RISE NEWS that his customers can’t get enough of the stuff and that he likes it much more than tofu.
To learn more about how to get Adashah, visit their website: https://adashah.com
RISE NEWS is South Florida’s digital news magazine. Follow us on Facebook to make sure you never miss a story!
Have a news tip about this topic or something completely different? Send it on in to [email protected].
Watch More: Welcome to the Italian Mecca Of South Florida
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“What Do You Live For?” Series: An American Educated South African Answers That Question In A Poem
For?
For the morning drizzle outside
cuddled with a lover
or the sweat on my brow
while I lift boulders.For the smell of spices from a cast iron orange pot
or the lingering taste of fermented grapes
in the lull of a Thursday evening.For the black man who waves
at a white baby
or the queer who helps the straight guy sow.For the corrupt politicians finally serving their sentences
or the homeless woman finally getting a fresh slice of bread.For the aborted children giving meaning to life,
or the orphans succeeding despite hardship and strife.For music
for pain
for love
for art.
For the swing in my hips
when the strobe lights flash and the
music vibrates my ribcage.For the conversations that last all night
or the eye contact with a stranger that lingers for weeks.For discoveries revealing us to be insects
to Gods,
or the majestic Cathedrals
DEMANDING REVERANCE
(Its own type of gift.)For humanity’s love
(which needs explaining)
and the fault lines of the heart
causing families to slip between tectonic plates.For tragedy
for birth
for death
for utter chaos:
reminding us that we’re riders of this rock
with fists plunged deep into moist soul
we cultivate, we reap, we straddle
riding this beast till all is eventually
forgot.Read More: Everyone Should Read This Incredibly Powerful Poem A Man Wrote To His Transgender Sister
Read More: “Peace”:A Powerful Poem About Police Violence
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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