Girls are going uneducated in Iraq

By SAMAH SAMAD

KIRKUK, Iraq — Huda Ahmed’s education ended the day her former classmate was kidnapped.

Gunmen had snatched another young girl who was on her way to school, holding her for three days until her family paid a $40,000 ransom. That was enough for Huda’s parents. They immediately withdrew her from classes. She now spends her days at home. When there’s electricity, she watches television.

Huda says she understands her parents’ decision, but is angry, especially since her two brothers are still allowed to attend classes.

“I’ll go back to school the first chance I get, but for the time being I will respect my parents’ decision,” she said.

According to a recent survey by the non-governmental Women for Women International, nearly three-quarters of Iraqi women questioned said they no longer allow their daughters to attend school because of the dangers they face on the street.

In Kirkuk, the scene of continuing ethnic and sectarian violence, education officials say that the number of girls enrolled in schools has declined by 30 percent over the last five years.

Ahmed Latif, Huda’s father, acknowledges that he no longer allows his daughter to attend classes because he feared she could be killed or sexually assaulted, “which would be a stain on the family’s honor.”

“It hurts me to see her so sad because she had to quit school. We want all our children to be educated and get good jobs in the future,” said Huda’s mother, Faza.

Daliya Mukarram, 33, a social worker specializing in education, noted, “The rates of girls leaving schools have soared recently due to the deteriorating security situation and the fear that (girls) will be targeted by terrorists.” But, she added, educational opportunities for girls have always been limited by tribal and social restrictions.

Nawal Hasan, a 41-year-old housewife in Kirkuk, sees no need for her daughters, ages 9, 12 and 17, to receive an education. She attended school only long enough to learn the alphabet and write her name.

High dropout rate

Nadwa Mahmood, the head of the al-Intisar Girls’ School in Kirkuk, said she’s alarmed by the high dropout rate among girls ages 13 or 14 and worries about the impact it will have on the country’s future.

“The issues of illiteracy will have a huge impact on the girls,” he said. “Even when they get married, it will have a bearing on their children because they might continue the tradition of their families and keep their daughters at home,” he said.

Ali Ghadir, 35, a writer from Kirkuk, said that girls and women are losing what little independence they had because of the security situation. He said an entire generation will be lost if girls continue to leave school at current rates.

“In the future, there will be a huge class of uneducated women and that will affect their children,” he said. “These girls will spend the rest of their lives working in their homes and will marry whomever their parents want.” Since 2006, the Ministry of Education has provided armed guards at girls’ schools in an attempt to improve security and lure back female students.

While improved security might encourage some families to allow their daughters to resume classes, it will do little to change the minds of those who believe the education of women is unnecessary.

X Samah Samad is a reporter in Iraq who writes for The Institute for War Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization in London that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.