Shelly Kittleson’s Abduction, Before and After

​​Over the years, I have come to know that Shelly is a disciplined reporter and vigilant about her safety. But the risks to her, as for most journalists in the region, are part of the ecosystem.

Early on Tuesday morning, I was woken up by an unusual series of pings on my phone. Messages appeared on my Signal and WhatsApp; missed calls. None of it made sense to my brain, which was still asleep, or my eyes, half closed. All I could comprehend were a few words, “Shelly,” “kidnapped,” “Baghdad.”

Just a couple of days earlier, I had spoken with Shelly Kittleson, a forty-nine-year-old freelance journalist who has been part of the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ), the organization I lead, since its inception. Before CFWIJ was a press freedom support nonprofit, it was a volunteer-based mentorship network; Shelly had always been part of our peer groups. I met her almost a decade ago when I was a correspondent in the Middle East—we would often cross paths in Istanbul or Erbil, while covering Iraq and Syria. My first impression of her was that she was driven, gentle, firm, knowledgeable, and somehow the combination of these made her feel safe to be around. Once, in a conversation about the challenges of being a freelancer, I asked why she still did it. I remember she said, “Because I believe in it.” She meant journalism. She believes in the craft.