Kidnap and veils - student life in Baghdad
- 4 Apr 07, 05:11 PM
As part of Salam Pax's Window on Iraq - for Newsnight's continuing - Baghdad student Ahmed explains the dangers and drawbacks of university life.
University isn't like it used to be. The number of students has gone down and no one keeps a record on attendance any more. We used to have 250 students, now there are less than 120 on what used to be a very popular course. Many have left the country; more took this year off. Then there are those who got kidnapped, like my friend Y.
It happened in the morning just one week after the start of the academic year. He had arrived with his two friends at the university car park when three black Hyundai Sonatas with 4 thugs in each bundled them all into the Sonatas. Quite a feat when you consider my friend Y is as big as a three-door-wardrobe.
Y later told us they were taken to a house in the east of Baghdad. The kidnappers told him they were from the Mahdi Militia and were going to kill him because he was Sunni. Then they made Y take his clothes off and beat him with plastic hosepipes.
He still has injuries from it. Then they contacted Y's father and after a lot haggling Y was released - a ransom of US$33,000 was paid.
Y came to university just once after that. He was not the same Y we knew, he looked tired and frazzled. Seeing him on that day was enough for many students at my university to quit or leave the country. Specially those who lived far from the campus or came originally from other cities, no one wants a degree which might get you killed. Y's father sent him to relatives in Diyala outside Baghdad.
The reduction in numbers can best be seen at the student centre. Last year it took forever to get through the snack bar because of all the crowds, today we can easily find a table. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. It is also easier to get what you need from the library.
But one of the bad side effects is it means even fewer girls, and, considering the laws of averages, fewer good-looking girls. Actually, good looks are not an advantage these days. Most female students now wear veils because they are afraid of kidnapping.
What about the professors you ask? Well they are in the same situation we are in. They have the same trouble getting to university on time and also live in fear of kidnapping. Many professors who left the country or were killed were never replaced because there aren't many left in Iraq.
But I keep reminding myself that at least the location of my university is safer than many others. We have not seen as many suicide attacks or car bombs like other campuses.
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may the whold world take care of those students.there should try to fight aginst the killing and maltreatment of these students because they are the tomorrow's leaders.more3over,they are innocent about the crisis between sadam andv bush.
i am saying so because i am also a student of my own country and will not be happy to received such a treatment.
thanks for receiving me
mofor
from Cameroon
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This isn't news, the kidnapping has been going on for some years now and females are the most vulnerable. Lee Gordon reported in the Camden New Journal 23rd Oct. 03 page 6,
"Women who Walk in Shadow of Fear." He describes how girls who are barely teenagers are kidnapped and sold for as little as $200 and young women $100. Women's groups and through the voice of Yannar Mohammed of the Iraqi Women's freedom Movement, he points out they claim that......
"Women and girls have become cheap merchandise sold into bondage and raped."
"A young girl of 17yrs was snatched from the streets of Baghdad, held for several weeks, sold into brothels and then into marriage to elderly man."
Girls and women have had to start to wear headscarves and more in order not to be regarded as free for rape.
The most horrific account of the sadistic misogyny that is rampant in Iraq is this harrowing story of a 12 year old plucked off the streets by a gang for the purpose of sexual gratification and refused medaical care afterwards because, wait for it, she's no longer a virgin. She is, translated into English, now "garbage"......!
Camden New Journal, 30th Oct. 2003 Lee Gordon, "Children who are the silent victims of war" page 6. it's horrific.
Yet it remains fairly unknown to us in the West largely and I would say almost entirely because it happens to females.
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A deafening silence has descended upon this business of kidnapping now that the facts are out that those predominantly kidnapped and suffering the most appalling sexually violent abuse are females ranging from children to adults.
Now it's of no interest it seems, like all the other sexual violence that females suffer in wars, a dark silence descends over the subject and the patriarchal world turns yet another blind eye to it all.
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Ref pippop #3
"Now it's of no interest it seems, like all the other sexual violence that females suffer in wars, a dark silence descends over the subject and the patriarchal world turns yet another blind eye to it all"
IT'S ALL GONE QUIET OVER THERE ....
.... esp the "anti-war brigade" AND/OR "Islam can do no wrong" AND/OR "arab & persians" are superior beings being from an ancient culture" groupies et al ... & esp the anti-west liberal left varieties.
Well who is doing 99.99 %+ of such killing & abuse :(
Pseudo-Religious & Cultural pontification means nothing when it can be judged by the daily acts of those atrributing their daily life & value to such rhetorical 'dogma'.
vikingar
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Heart-breaking stories: my thanks to Salam Pax and Newsnight for telling them. And women are the worst off now that we've unleashed crime, terrorism and religious fundamentalism in Iraq. I wish we could undo the disaster this invasion has caused (as predicted by the millions who opposed it). Meanwhile, could Gordon Brown, who did nothing to prevent this war, at least take notice and resist the urge to invade anywhere else?
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