Teachers are the quiet heroes of Baghdad

An astonishing picture of life inside Baghdad's schools has been revealed by a group of Iraqi teachers who have travelled to the UK to gain respite from the daily bloodshed they witness. One, Suad Saleem Abdulla, described how she pulled her own children close every morning and said goodbye as if it was the last time she would ever see them. It was a daily ritual shared by parents throughout Iraq, she said. Only then did she start her treacherous 20-minute walk to school.

Suad, who told her story for the first time this weekend, has seen corpses and even 'flying body parts' on her journey to the school where she is head teacher, but carried on walking because she was determined to keep it open.

The 43-year-old is one of 10 teachers, heads and school inspectors who have come to the UK from Iraq's capital after being invited by the NASUWT teaching union. They spoke of teachers assassinated as they walked to work, or kidnapped in front of pupils, and a daily battle to keep the terror outside the school gates. Their stories give a remarkable insight into the lives of Iraqi children who turn up for lessons day after day despite the bloodshed and violence. Last month, a photographer captured an image of a girl in uniform on a blood-stained step after insurgents launched a mortar attack on her school. To Suad and her colleagues, the image was disturbingly familiar.

A similar attack has been launched four times on Nasser Kdhim Nasser's school in the al-Husseini area of Baghdad, leaving one student dead. 'The atrocities impacted so badly on one boy that he did not come back in, but for most, even though they have seen horror, school life continues as normal. We teach children to paint, draw and sing. Every morning they stand up, raise the flag and sing the national anthem.'

Suad is similarly determined: 'We have no choice. We have to carry on living, we have to go out. These extremists want to stop life and the best thing to them is to stop us going to school and teaching the children. But if they stop that then everything will collapse.'


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2015678,00.html

Give it another year or two and someone will be calling them terrorists...

I'm not so sure about the closing line that quotes a teacher as saying that things are better than they were... "A bloody dictatorship has gone."

Are things really better than they were? Well this was a quote from a resident of Baghdad, so I guess I can't argue, but I'll bet there are residents there who would argue with this teacher. :shrug:

We often forget the terrifying conditions of daily life in a war-torn region. It doesn't surprise me that the teachers (and their students!) would still show up and try to carry on. And . . . I'll bet they aren't receiving any pay for their bravery and dedication.

Welcome to DU!

:hi: