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CounterPunch
February
22, 2003
The Students of Moustanserya
University
How Sanctions
Destroy Iraqi Education
By MICHAEL WOLFF
"During the war, Iraq's infrastructure
was completely destroyed. The devastation was total."
Dennis Halliday
UN Coordinator of Humanitarian Aid to Iraq
In the morning, as our bus drove through the streets
of Baghdad, our delegation was able to get a close-up view of
conditions in the city. I noticed a number of interesting things.
I saw two motorcycle officers on large Japanese motorcycles.
They wore helmets and polished boots. They were very clean--very
professional in appearance. I was sort of surprised to see them.
There were some relatively large traffic jams. The freeways were
nice and very modern, but without lanes. The driving was chaotic.
Earlier in the morning, an old Chevrolet sedan had sideswiped
our bus. The two drivers had stopped to yell at each other for
a minute, then drove their separate ways. The cars we se saw
were mostly German and Japanese models, all beaten up with fading
paint. Almost every car had a badly cracked windshield. Many
cars were missing headlights or had none at all. Driving at night
can be a very dangerous proposition because many vehicles don't
have headlights. We saw everything from donkeys pulling wooden
carts to big Mercedes gasoline trucks belching smoke. I was continually
fascinated by the sight of these antique behemoths roaring down
the highways or idling in traffic.
The buildings were in a various state
of disrepair--chipped paint, rusting signs, weeds, abandoned
stores, garages and gas stations. We saw a BMW car dealership,
but the parking lot was completely empty. It was like traveling
through a place where time had stood still. The clock had stopped
on August 6, 1990--the day the economic sanctions were imposed.
Amazingly though, the Iraqi people have adapted. Despite twenty
years of war, despite the unremitting toll of the strictest blockade
in modern history, life in Iraq goes on. The Iraqi people are
truly survivors.
At ten o'clock, our delegation arrived
in front of Moustanserya University where we were warmly and
generously greeted by members of the faculty and student body.
As we debarked from the bus, a number of delegates held up signs
denouncing U.S. military involvement in the region and chanting
"<U.S./UN>, END THE SANCTIONS NOW."
My goal was to interview as many of these
students as possible. I wanted to find out what they thought
of the sanctions and how their lives had been impacted by U.S.
policies. I wanted to hear about the subjects they were taking
and what they thought about the school and the government. I
wanted to listen to them and get to know them.
Standing next to me was Samaa Elibyari,
an Egyptian-born Canadian from Montreal. I didn't know it at
the time, but she was a lifetime religious and political activist
who was involved in numerous projects. She was a radio talk show
host and a writer. She was working with the Canadian Islamic
Congress. As I came to know her better, she struck me as a woman
with a strong moral conscience and a good understanding of Iraq,
Islamic culture and the Middle-East in general. I explained to
Samaa that I needed a translator so that I could interview the
students. I requested her assistance and she agreed to help me.
While the other delegates were standing
out front, Samaa and I immediately waded into the group of students
in search of an interview subject. We came across Mahmoud Yelya--a
foreign student from Yemen. As he spoke to us in English, several
students gathered around to listen to him. He was working on
his second year at the University and taking computer science
and engineering. "There are a lot of Yemenis," he told
us. When asked about the sanctions, he gave us a response that
we found very common among the students. "There's no reason
for it," he explained. Time and time again the students
expressed to us an inability to understand why they were the
ones who had to be punished by the sanctions and why their education
had to suffer for a lack of books or references. Clearly, these
students are innocent victims and not only are the Iraqis innocent
victims, but the foreign nationals who come to Moustanserya to
get an education are victimized as well.
The delegation went inside where we met
with the University President who told us about the school and
explained the negative impact the sanctions have hand on the
educational system.
Moustanserya University is one of the
oldest schools in the world with a lineage that goes back at
least 800 years. The school has quite a history. During the Gulf
War, the campus was damaged by a cruise missile, and in 1980,
there was an Iranian assassination attempt on Tariq Aziz who
was giving a lecture on the campus--an event that helped precipitate
the Iran-Iraq War.
The University currently has about 30,000
students with many of these being foreign nationals. The school
is completely subsidized by the Iraqi government for a number
of reasons, but mainly so the students won't have to drop out
for financial reasons. The range of classes includes everything
from French and physics to computer science and engineering.
High grades are required to attend the University. According
to the University President, Moustanserya also has a student
union with free student elections. The faculty cannot interfere
in the election process. As far as the impact of sanctions on
the University, the main problem is a severe shortage of educational
material. All educational materials are banned by the UN sanctions
committee.
After our meeting with the University
President, we were invited to go out and mingle with the students
and see the campus. Despite ten years of sanctions, the campus
was very clean and well taken care of. The general attitude of
the students and faculty was very positive. It reminded me very
much of the hope and optimism that we have all seen on American
campuses. The students were well-dressed and polite--full of
vitality and friendly smiles. There are not enough words to describe
how pleasant it was to be interacting with these fine individuals.
As Samaa and I interviewed the students,
we were given some unique insights into what was happening on
the campus. At the top of the list, many of the students expressed
a concern about the quality of their education. Their materials
were outdated. The references were obsolete. One student showed
me a crumbling 1952 calculus textbook he was studying from. We
were told that UNSCOM inspectors had entered the central library,
confiscated the chemistry books and burned them. This last revelation
was very troubling. For many of the students, the education they
received at Moustanserya would be their only chance to escape
a life of grinding poverty and hopelessness.
Several of the students pointed out the
fraudulent nature of the sanctions. "Some people support
the sanctions," a student told us. "Too many people
are benefiting from them." He told us about corruption and
how only poor people are affected by the sanctions. The U.S.
government was continually "inventing reasons to continue
the sanctions," he said. Another told us "The Iraqi
people don't care about the sanctions. We have to move on despite
the sanctions. We have to live our lives." This gave me
the unfortunate impression that many Iraqis were beginning to
grudgingly accept the sanctions as a permanent part of their
lives.
We talked to a group of young women.
They were all incredibly beautiful and well-dressed. Some of
them spoke English. They asked me about American culture--Brad
Pitt and Antonio Banderas. "All of us here like Brad Pitt
and Antonio Banderas," one of them proudly declared.
We talked about politics and the Middle-East:
"We don't like the Zionists,"
a young woman told me. "They have come and taken our land."
"Oh, are you Palestinian,"
I asked, somewhat confused.
"No, we are Iraqi, but we support
the Palestinians. They are our brothers and sisters."
She had made a beautiful and remarkable
statement on Arab solidarity.
After talking to several more students,
a picture began to emerge. The students I had talked to told
me that they liked the education they were getting, but that
it had been negatively impacted by the sanctions. All of the
students seemed genuinely thankful that the Iraqi government
was paying for their education. It's really quite a testimony
to the Iraqi educational system--that despite a military blockade,
despite the war, the almost daily bombings, the famine, the lack
of medicine and the enduring poverty, young students from all
around the world still strive to come to Moustanserya University
to get an education and better their lives.
The optimism of the students was an extraordinary
thing to see. They are faced with difficulties that most of us
cannot even imagine. They live in a country that has been wrecked
and ravaged by war and sanctions. They have to deal with emotional
and financial hardship--family difficulties, stunning unemployment,
a nearly complete lack of medical care, outdated educational
materials. They are faced with the constant threat of U.S. bombings
and renewed American military aggression. And yet, despite all
of these obstacles, the young students of Moustanserya University
continue to come to school and they continue to learn. They come
because they want to better their lives. They want to get their
degrees and move on to get good jobs and lead productive lives.
We owe these students and enormous amount
of gratitude. They are a reflection of ourselves and of the ability
of all of us to persevere in the face of staggering adversity.
They are students battling against genocidal sanctions. Their
story is an epic and heroic struggle. I hope they succeed.
Michael Wolff
is a San Diego activist and writer who works for the International
Action Center and A.N.S.W.E.R. He writes for television and radio.
In January of 2001 he traveled to Iraq with Ramsey Clark's delegation
to witness firsthand the effects of war and sanctions on the
Iraqi people. He can be reached at: writewolff@hotmail.com
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