Raya Al Jadir

Raya Al-Jadir is an Iraqi-British freelance writer. Her interests range from culture, TV, social projects and initiatives, literature and art, but her main focus is disability rights issues. She is the co-founder of Disability Horizons Arabic, the first disability lifestyle e-magazine in the Arab region. She also runs her own site, Careless. Raya is a 2020-22 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow in the UAE.

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A street in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on August 10, 1983, the month before the Iran-Iraq war broke out. Getty Images

Spare a thought for disabled Palestinians under bombardment

My family’s experience in the Iran-Iraq conflict gave me an insight into what many disabled Palestinians experience today

CommentNovember 24, 2023

Hania Hany and Dina Tarek at an inclusive ballet studio for ballerinas with disabilities, to integrate them with girls in collective training to become ballerinas in Alexandria, Egypt, on March 8. Reuters

Why can't I be disabled and proud of it?

Disability pride month is steeped in a notion that should be applicable any time of the year

CommentAugust 09, 2023

A dancer from the Paris Opera dances with a disabled dancer in her wheelchair during a rehearsal of the ballet "Passage" in Paris, on February 19, 2022. AFP

No surprise that women with disability are good mums

Society too often judges women for wanting to experience parenthood on the basis of their limitations

CommentApril 27, 2023

Disabled children and their families from The Let Us Learn Too campaign group hand in letters for Prime Minister Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street, London, to raise their concerns about support for disabled children and young people, on October 15, 2021. PA Wire

Disabled people in the UK are paying a higher price for the cost of living crisis

For many with health conditions, 'cutting back' simply isn't an option

CommentDecember 02, 2022

Afghan women with mobility impairment consequences of polio participate in a wheelchair basketball friendly match during part of a polio vaccination campaign in Herat on August 23. AFP

The right words around 'disability'

For people living with disabilities language is all the more powerful. It can both hurt as well as accord respect

CommentSeptember 08, 2022

Players of the Surabaya amputee football association in Indonesia. AFP

Toxic positivity harms the disabled community

It can't be the one state of mind to rise above all others

CommentApril 18, 2022

The fears of disabled people must be heard in post-restrictions Britain

There are millions of people more vulnerable to Covid-19 in the UK. Many of them feel the government is rushing too quickly into lifting health measures

CommentFebruary 23, 2022