Cathy Otten is a British journalist, editor and author. She is known for her reporting from Iraq and for her book With Ash on Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State (2017). She teaches media ethics and journalism as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rutgers University.
She worked as a reporter for the Independent while based in Iraq between 2013 and 2019. During that period, she also wrote for publications such as The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
Her book With Ash on Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State (2017) documents the experiences of Yezidi women under the control of ISIS. The work combines first-hand testimony with historical context. The Los Angeles Review of Books described it as lucid, transparent and realistic.
The Times Literary Supplement called it an urgently necessary chronicle of genocide. Reviews in outlets such as the London School of Economics and the National noted its detail, restraint and attention to survivors’ accounts. The book has been described as intelligent, perceptive, and deeply reported by reviewers, including The New Humanist, Hurriyet Daily News, and The New Internationalist. Patrick Cockburn referred to it as a story of resistance and survival.
In interviews, Otten has spoken of women who resisted captivity and attempted escape, cut the hair of younger girls to protect them, or concealed family information on their bodies. She has said she wanted to understand what motivates survival in extreme conditions.
In 2018, Cathy Otten won the One World Media New Voice Award and was a finalist for the Kurt Schork Courage in Journalism Award. She was also a One World Media Print finalist that year.
Cathy Otten is a member of the Society of Authors and the University and College Union. She later relocated to Manchester and continues to travel in Europe to report on her second book.
Photo by Alice Martins
She worked as a reporter for the Independent while based in Iraq between 2013 and 2019. During that period, she also wrote for publications such as The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
Her book With Ash on Their Faces: Yezidi Women and the Islamic State (2017) documents the experiences of Yezidi women under the control of ISIS. The work combines first-hand testimony with historical context. The Los Angeles Review of Books described it as lucid, transparent and realistic.
The Times Literary Supplement called it an urgently necessary chronicle of genocide. Reviews in outlets such as the London School of Economics and the National noted its detail, restraint and attention to survivors’ accounts. The book has been described as intelligent, perceptive, and deeply reported by reviewers, including The New Humanist, Hurriyet Daily News, and The New Internationalist. Patrick Cockburn referred to it as a story of resistance and survival.
In interviews, Otten has spoken of women who resisted captivity and attempted escape, cut the hair of younger girls to protect them, or concealed family information on their bodies. She has said she wanted to understand what motivates survival in extreme conditions.
In 2018, Cathy Otten won the One World Media New Voice Award and was a finalist for the Kurt Schork Courage in Journalism Award. She was also a One World Media Print finalist that year.
Cathy Otten is a member of the Society of Authors and the University and College Union. She later relocated to Manchester and continues to travel in Europe to report on her second book.
Photo by Alice Martins
years of life: 1987 – present
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