Iraq’s Joker

October 2019 marked the beginning of the largest grassroots protests in Iraq’s modern history.

The so-called October Revolution was driven by young people who came of age in the post-Saddam Hussein era, but whose dreams for a better future did not materialise because of a ruling class they saw as corrupt and beholden to foreign interests.

In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera: In the Field, correspondent Simona Foltyn follows the journey of Mustafa Makki Kareem, a young Iraqi known as “Joker”, leader of a group of protesters risking it all in pursuit of systemic change in the country.