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Kurdistan University is Oasis of Free Thought in
Chaotic Iraq
21.4.2007
By Jason Motlagh |
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Kurdistan region (Iraq) attracts wanderlust teachers
April
21, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq) -- A guard
armed with a machine gun stands at the gate of the
compound, which shares a high concrete wall with a
prison at the rear. But inside the University of
Kurdistan, the only English-language university in
Kurdish-controlled Iraq, free minds are at work.
Gates open to a freshly laid lawn area. Off to the
right, a four-story steel-and-glass facility comes
equipped with lockers, air-conditioned computer labs
and prayer rooms. Faculty members and students say
their college is a break from the Saddam Hussein
era, when the curriculum was controlled from
Baghdad.
"Freedom of expression is the mark of a modern
community, not the buildings or technologies," said
Abbas Vali, the school's dean. "Under Saddam,
university education was an extension of a political
system adapted to meet state demands. Today we are
free to teach what we feel students need in a
democratic climate. We have a novel system here and
we hope it can become a model."
Opened in September, the school has about 300
undergraduates and 50 graduate students, ages 18-45,
in disciplines ranging from economics to petroleum
engineering. This is the "nucleus of a very large
university," Vali noted, adding that the student
body might one day exceed 3,000 men and women spread
out over multiple campuses.
The Erbil-based Kurdish Regional Government, granted
autonomy under the Iraqi constitution, pays full
tuition for all students. Officials are banking that
a new crop of English-speaking, Western-savvy
graduates will ensure the kind of enduring stability
and growth that might one day lend leverage to
independent statehood.
The opportunity to be part of such a high-stakes
project has attracted what one instructor dubbed the
"academic foreign legion" -- international teacher-travelers
whose previous posts have included places like
Nigeria and the Marshall Islands. All live together
in a nearby motel until housing is constructed.
Christopher Whitney, director of English studies,
said the program has attracted "alternative types
who are not afraid to go to places where factors are
unknown." Originally from Victoria Island, Canada,
Whitney has taught in Asia, Africa and elsewhere the
Middle East, and came to Iraq to up the ante. "Most
teachers here have the same story," he said.
Robert Doebler of Princeton, Minn., also a teacher
in the English department, came here after a
nine-year stint in northeast China, interrupted by
flood relief work. So far, the biggest surprise is
the absence of a siege mentality, he said. "I've
walked around alone from day one, and people just
let you go, no staring, nothing."
Simon Duffin, from London, is an Oxford graduate and
self-described history junkie who teaches English
literature. He said over tea that he had spent an
8-month term teaching English in Diyarbakir, the
Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey, where he saw
first-hand the repression of the Kurds at the hands
of Turkish authorities.
The vast majority of the students are ethnic Kurds,
a minority that was particularly brutalized under
Hussein's reign. School officials say they want to
empower young Kurds, but not to the exclusion of
other ethnic groups. Arab Muslims and Assyrian
Christians are enrolled, and future plans call for a
diversified student body that reflects the cultural
kaleidoscope of Iraq.
Despite the violence that besieges the rest of Iraq,
the faculty has nothing but praise for the first
class to enroll. The admissions process is rigorous,
involving a comprehensive exam in English and good
marks from high school.
"Students here are keen and sophisticated," Whitney
said. "It's very important for them to do well in
their studies, they're confident to take you on, and
they will disagree and stand their ground."
Students say they are driven by the chance to learn
in a free-wheeling environment where dissent is not
only tolerated but encouraged.
"New connections are being made between teachers and
students -- there is normally a huge gap between
sides that has been broken," said Hara Ayoubi, 34, a
Kurdish graduate student studying economics.
"Schools we studied in before in Baghdad used old
teaching methods, where there was no dialogue or
discussion. We feel free now."
Women make up about 40 percent of those enrolled,
and Duffin says there's no distinction along gender
lines. "The women are very assertive," he said.
"They don't want to be housewives, they want to be
nuclear physicists."
Some, but not all, female students and teachers
choose to wear Islamic head coverings; others flaunt
blonde highlights.
Zhiyan Hassan, 26, currently the only woman in the
political science department, said she tried to get
into programs at other colleges, but faced sex
discrimination. She added that she wants to pave the
way for other women to enter a field dominated by
men.
Tanyel Taysi, a lecturer in the political science
department from Seattle, says her class will focus
particular attention on the dynamics of the modern
nation-state, a matter of deep interest in Iraqi
Kurdistan. "There is a big debate in this region
whether the nation-state is even viable," she said.
"Here, the hope is alive and well."
As secular-minded as school policies are, the
openness occasionally can be tricky, as relatively
conservative values still prevail in the region.
Whitney tells of a recent class in which his
explanation about why short legs gave
Australopithecus -- an extinct hominid species
related to humans -- an evolutionary advantage in
fighting for females was met with confusion. A
lecture on bronze statues came to a dead-end after
much tiptoeing around the word "nude."
"Sometimes there is a clash of cultures here: We
realize something is sitting uncomfortably, with
students not sure what to think," Whitney said.
A few students see Western training as a ticket out
of Iraqi Kurdistan. But most insist they will remain
here to help in the reconstruction of their would-be
country, where the Kurdish flag flies everywhere and
the Iraqi one is rarely on view.
Bakhtiar Hussein, 26, a Kurd from Irbil, said he'd
like to go to Britain for a master's degree, after
which he pledged to return.
"I want to serve my society along with other
students here, committed to the future of
Kurdistan," he said. "Here it's a new style, a new
life for us, and we are excited to become the
leaders of this generation."
Jason Motlagh is a deputy editor for UPI.
worldpoliticswatch com
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