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Kurdistan offers women second chance at
education
27.2.2007
By Azeez Mahmood in Chamchamal (ICR No. 213,
26-Feb-07)
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Schools
in the Kurdish north are encouraging adult education
for women who never had a chance to go to school
when they
were young.
February
27, 2007
Kurdistan region (Iraq)
Until three months ago, Miryam Majeed’s early
morning routine involved feeding her two children
and starting on the day’s chores. But now there is a
new task that gets her out of bed and fills her with
enthusiasm – she has gone back to school.
Now 29, Majeed from Chamchamal, 60 kilometres south
of Sulaimaniyah in Iraq’s Kurdish region, never
received an education as a child. "My father didn’t
let me go to school", she explained.
Now she carries her books to classes four days a
week, and spends several hours studying at home.
Majeed counts herself lucky that her husband has
backed her in her desire to get an education.
"Illiteracy is like being blind," she said, "I
always had to ask other people to read me things."
When she was at a bus stop, for example, she would
rely on strangers to read out routes and
destinations so she would know which way she needed
to go to get home. Now she can read the signs for
herself.
A combination of social restrictions, war,
population displacement, and lack of provision in
past years meant that Majeed and many other women in
this poor part of northern Iraq were deprived of an
education as children.
To make up for what these women lost out on, the
Kurdistan Women’s Union, KWU, launched the
Accelerated Learning School in Chamchamal this
academic year.
The school accepts women regardless of age, and puts
them on an accelerated learning programme where, for
example, the standard primary school course of six
years will be halved to three.
Kurdistan’s education ministry is providing
textbooks, desks and other material, and will accept
the school’s leaving certificate, meaning graduates
will be able to go on to higher education.
Omed Kaka Rash, director of the illiteracy
eradication programme for Sulaimaniyah province,
said his office will offer all the support that is
needed to make the school a success.
Many of the students have young children, so KWU
staff look after them while the mothers are
attending classes.
Chamchamal is one of the Kurdish areas badly hit by
Saddam Hussein’s Anfal campaign, in which thousands
of Kurds were forcibly relocated, killed, or
“disappeared”. The district is home to one of the
largest camps housing Anfal survivors.
There are no statistics showing how many women have
missed out on school, but Miryam Mohammad, who heads
the KWU branch in Chamchamal, believes the figure is
high.
Education officials say 27 per cent of people over
the age of ten in Sulaimaniyah province count as
illiterate.
Kaka Rash said a broader literacy campaign is under
way in Sulaimaniyah. "Everyone who is now illiterate
will be able to read and write within the next three
years," he promised.
The campaign has been going on for several years,
but most of the adult education schools were located
in the city of Sulaimaniyah rather than in
surrounding areas. Chamchamal’s Accelerated Learning
School is an attempt to widen the reach of the
literacy programme.
The adult students have two hours of schooling a
day, in which they are taught Kurdish, Arabic,
English, science, mathematics and social studies.
Sheerin Ibrahim, 36, one of just two teachers at the
school, is full of praise for her students. “They
are very smart, and very good listeners," she said.
The new school has had an enthusiastic response from
local women, although some have reservations about
it because it is located inside the KWU office – an
institution closely affiliated with the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, PUK, the dominant party in this
part of Iraq.
The link has given rise to concerns that the PUK
could be supporting adult education as a way of
recruiting party members. One student recalled how a
classmate withdrew from the school after her husband
objected because of the political party connection.
KWU branch chief Mohammad agreed that the school’s
location might be one reason why student numbers
have fallen from an initial 50 to 25. She hopes the
school will acquire separate premises at a site
viewed as neutral by the time the next academic year
starts.
The remaining students appear unconcerned about
where the school is located.
"I'm extremely happy to have the opportunity to
study and learn to write," said Bokan Ghazi, 20,
whose father prevented her from going to school.
"I will continue studying until I finish school and
get a job so I can earn my own income," she said.
Teacher Ibrahim said the literacy drive was about
much more than just education.
"Most of these people are survivors of the Anfal
campaign," she said. "We need to offer them
something that might help them forget those
atrocities."
Azeez Mahmood is an IWPR contributor in Kurdistan
- northern Iraq.
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