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Blind seek dignity through education
5.5.2006
By Talar Nadir in
Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 175) |
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Visually impaired Kurds
face discrimination, but many are determined to
learn despite the obstacles.
Kurdistan-Iraq, - When he was 14, Mukhtar
Tofiq's weakening eyesight failed completely. But
even as a young teenager, he decided that his life
was far from over.
Tofiq, from the town of Halabja on the border
between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan, begged his family
and teachers to let him go to school. He cried when
they turned him down – but he persevered, and
eventually discovered an educational programme run
by the Kurdistan Union for the Blind in Sulaimaniyah.
He made the difficult decision to leave his family
and move to the city to pursue his dream of an
education.
He got through intermediate school on his own and
also took a music course, where he took up the
keyboard. Now, at 21, his dream is to start a band
with some visually impaired friends.
"If it wasn't for this union, who would have taught
me music and helped me finish school?" he said.
"This place made my dream a reality."
Organisations like the Kurdistan Union for the Blind
are almost entirely based in Kurdistan's two main
cities, Sulaimaniyah and Erbil, but despite limited
resources they have made considerable strides in
helping visually impaired people.
Next door to its run-down offices, the union has a
dormitory which can accommodate 20 students, aged
from 12 to 30. With about 3,000 registered members,
the organisation has to turn down dozens of students
from outlying areas because of the lack of space.
The government has promised to build a boarding
house in Sulaimaniyah to accommodate blind students
from outside the city, and there are also plans to
send some visually impaired Kurds abroad for
treatment.
While the government does not have any official
statistics for northern Iraq, Abubakir Ahmed, the
head of the Kurdistan Union for the Blind, estimated
that about 10,000 people here are sightless. About
80 per cent of them had their sight damaged by
conflict.
Many visually-impaired people face financial
hardship.
The Iraqi Kurdish government's Sulaimaniyah
administration pays a 20 dollar monthly benefit to
citizens with disabilities. That is hardly enough to
scrape by on, so many blind people remain heavily
reliant on their families.
About 200 members of the union for the blind are
employed to recite the Koran at mosque services and
funerals, a common profession for the visually
impaired.
For blind students, getting through school is hard
work, but some like 27-year-old Umed Salim Fatah
have made it to university.
Fatah was six months old when he came down with
measles, which weakened his eyesight. He became
blind at 13 after Saddam Hussein's relocated his
entire village to a township where there were no
medical services.
Fatah pushed his family to enrol him in the
Institute for the Blind in Erbil, where 60 students
– including 40 women – graduated last year. He
completed his education there, studying from
recordings of books. Braille material is still hard
to come by in Iraqi Kurdistan, although the
government recently signed a contract to import a
Braille printing press.
Doctors have told Fatah, now a fourth-year student
at Sulaimaniyah University's college of languages,
that he might regain his sight if he could find
4,000 US dollars for an operation which can only be
done outside Iraq. But he says this is unlikely, and
has made other plans.
He edits a magazine for the blind, and says he wants
to teach at the institute when he finishes his
studies.
Fatah has had a lot of help from friends who
audiotaped textbooks for him.
But he will not accept pity. "I love the fact that
they help me as a normal person," he said.
Discrimination against people with disabilities is
common in the region, as it is in much of the world.
Iraqis with disabilities are often isolated in their
homes and find it difficult to get around without
the assistance of others.
Student Chiya Fatah, 25, was born blind and spends a
lot of time at the union. She refuses to use a cane
because she does not want to be mocked, but she
finds it difficult to get around.
Chiya is a talented singer and has already recorded
a song. But she said the union needs a better
recording studio for talented students, who she said
find particular solace in music.
"Music is the only way we're rescued from darkness,"
she said. "It's the only way to discover ourselves."
Talar Nadir is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr net
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