Hard lessons for Baghdad teachers

Teacher Awatef Ala’a, 40, said it’s a challenge getting to school every day but she does so because its important that children get the education they need to build a better Iraq.

“Many times I’ve found it hard to go to my school, either because of violence in the streets or because of attacks on teachers… but I take this risk because if I don’t try to make good students in my class, the streets will get the better of them,” said Ala’a.

Ala’a said she sets off early to school so she doesn’t get stuck in traffic jams and so she can make sure all her pupils are accounted for. Suicide bombings in the streets and the kidnappings of teachers and children are a common occurrence in Iraq today.

She needs to work to help her four children, especially the two girls who are in university. Her husband has been unemployed for three years because he was a Ba’ath party member through no choice of his own.

“They fired my husband who was a very knowledgeable teacher in Baghdad University - even knowing that he didn’t have any option under Saddam Hussein’s regime and today we depend on my salary of US $300 dollars [per month]. It is not enough even to pay for our essential needs,” she said.

Ala’a’s rent is $150 per month. The rest of her salary does not cover the family’s expenses so she has to borrow extra money from a friend or neighbour to make ends meet.

“They know how hard I work and trust us after years of living near each other, but I feel ashamed every day to look at their faces and say that we need more time to pay them even knowing that it might take a year,” she said.

At school, Ala’a said limited resources made her job difficult. Books and equipment are in short supply. “Sometimes our students do not even have a pen or pencil and we have to wait until one student finishes for the other to write. This slows down the teaching process,” she said.

Daily tragedies

When Ala’a leaves the school, after all the students have been picked up by their parents, she goes home and updates her family on the often tragic incidents of the day.

“Every day I come back home and tell of the latest kidnapping of a teacher or student, the killing of a colleague or the new insults that the students have learned and told me,” Ala’a said.

“Last week, a seven-year-old student told me that I was nothing else than a servant of Iraq’s good families and that I deserve worse treatment than his mother gives to their dog.

“There is no respect for us [now] and sometimes even the school director is afraid to punish a child because she is scared that his or her family might kill her, as many such cases have already happened in our country [due to sectarian violence],” she said.

Ala’a said she knew that she could change jobs and do something else less demanding but she felt she had a role to play in educating the younger generation and ensuring a better future for Iraq. And because teachers are becoming scarce in Iraq, with thousands fleeing to Jordan and Syria, or being forced to stay in their homes, she felt even more compelled to carry on.

Since February this year when sectarian violence began to escalate, nearly 210 teachers have been killed and at least 3,700 have fled Iraq to neighbouring countries, according to the Ministry of Higher Education. But Ala’a said she will not flee, though she worries for the safety of her family and herself.

“I’m tired and stressed. In the past few months, I have been seriously afraid that something could happen to me and my daughters. Women in Iraq are in constant danger because of the increase in violence, especially rape,” Ala’a said.

“Ten days ago my colleague was raped by four men on her way back from the school. She lost the most precious thing she had - her virginity. She is depressed and just wants to kill herself because she feels shamed in the eyes of society.

“I really don’t want this to happen to me and my daughters but there is no alternative but to stay and work. We have to be stronger and believe that we are immune to all this violence. It is the only way to live in Iraq now,” she said.

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