By Zhiyan Sabeer
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish students studying in Baghdad are afraid to return to take their exams and finish studies because of abductions by Shiite militias that have been reportedly on the rise.
Bahadeen Hassan, a Kurdish student in Baghdad, will never forget the bitter experience of four days in captivity by a Shiite militia. "We were very close to death all the time there. We would stay within our four walls and rarely step out of the dormitory," he told Rudaw.
He and three other classmates were stopped at a checkpoint and abducted by a Shiite militia in Baghdad.
"They told us we had to pay for the actions of our government," said Hassan, who added they were tortured by their captives until freed for a ransom of nearly $11,000.
To avoid experiences like that of Hassan and his friends, Kurdish students who study at Iraqi universities in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces have chosen to stay at home over endangering their lives by going to the examination halls.
Anwar Sabah, another Kurdish student studying in Baghdad, called for the Ministry of Higher Education in Erbil to help students like him.
He said that vigorous efforts by the deputy minister and the ministry’s general director had come to no avail: “So we have to go back to Iraqi provinces to take our exams."
The recent breakout of violence and deterioration of the security situation in southern and central Iraq, where Shiite militias have emerged to fight the Islamic State (IS/ISIS), has put the lives of Kurdish students studying there at risk.
Following efforts by a Kurdish MP in Baghdad, and with the expenses borne by Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the students were flown out of Baghdad to the safety of Kurdistan.
"Only a few of the 700 Kurdish students have returned to their universities" said Hassan, explaining that efforts by students like him to take their exams in Kurdistan or continue their studies there had failed.
Hassan, who was pursuing Islamic Studies at the Iraqiya University in Baghdad, is unhappy with the response of the Kurdish government, which he accused of not taking the issue seriously.
"We contact out universities in Baghdad, they have no answers for our questions. We have been promised compensation, but no visible steps have been taken so far," he complained. "Many of my friends and I have decided to stay home and not return to Baghdad. I am not willing to jeopardize my life for a degree."
Aras Fareeq, student affairs consultant at Sulaimani University, said that the issue of students studying at Iraqi universities is out of the hands of Kurdistan’s higher education ministry.
"These students have chosen to study at Iraqi universities on their own,” he said. “Their decisions were taken without the influence of the Ministry of Higher Education. They chose to study in Iraqi universities because their grades were too low for Kurdistan universities."
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