Corporal punishment in Kurdish schools draws public outrage

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A series of high profile incidents of violence against children in schools has sparked strong public fury across the Kurdistan Region with parents condemning the use of corporal punishment and calling for judiciary actions against teachers. 

The latest incident, involving a nine-year-old student, whose eardrum was ruptured after his teacher struck him in the head, prompted the parents to bring legal charges against school officials in Qalat Diza town near Dukan Lake in the east of the Kurdistan Region. 

“Based on the father’s report, we have launched an investigation into the incident and on the teacher who was later released on bail after questioning ordered by the judge,” police spokesman Karwan Mahmoud told Rudaw.

The incident follows a number of other recently reported cases, unveiling the practice of physical punishments in some schools which is explicitly outlawed in Kurdish codes of education. 

Angry parents took to social media last week to voice their outrage, calling for tougher government actions. 

“The teachers should be stripped of their license to practice if they were convicted in the court,” wrote Naze Hawrami, a school teacher, commenting on a different case involving a first-grade student beaten up by his teacher. 

“The schools that allow such barbaric practices to happen should be shut down in order to send a warning against others,” said Mariwan Ibrahim, also a school teacher. 

Earlier last week, the Ministry of Education removed a teacher from his position and revoked his teaching license after Rudaw TV interviewed a first-grade student from the town of Khabat in Erbil who underwent surgery on his ears after a teacher beat him. 

The teacher was arrested last Thursday and was denied a bail until the court begins procedure.    

Corporal punishment has been banned under Iraqi law including in the Kurdistan Region since the late 1990s but no convictions have been made in an infrequent but widespread practice of physical violence in Kurdish schools.