Bradley Secker/Panos Pictures

Mahmoud Hassino on the phone at home in Istanbul.

After leaving Damascus, Mahmoud lived in Turkey for around three years, from where he worked as a journalist covering the conflict in his native Syria.

Mahmoud is from Salamiyah, Syria, and now lives in Berlin, Germany, where he was granted political asylum due to his work as a journalist and LGBTI rights advocate, and the targeted risks and threats he faced because of his identity and his work.

Syria's most prominent LGBTI blogger (under a pseudonym) for many, many years, and a print and radio journalist covering culture, politics, and Syria's ongoing conflict, Mahmoud now works at a centre providing support and counselling, for LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees in Berlin.