Shahab Ahmed simultaneously managed both school and a job. On July 14, shortly after completing his final 12th-grade high school exams, he decided to go for a swim in the Tigris river where he met his tragic end. It took three hours to recover his body, his family say.
Shahab's exceptional performance in the 12th grade positioned him among the highest achievers in Nineveh. Despite hailing from a lower-income family, he worked to financially support both himself and his family.
Ahmed Hail, Shahab's father, experiences a deep sense of sadness whenever he sees his son's belongings.
"While we were having a meal, news of his drowning started spreading online. We left our food and tears started flowing. We had a kind-hearted son, and now he's resting beneath the ground. We've entrusted everything to God, even as challenges continue to rise,” the distraught father told Rudaw’s Hunar Rasheed on Sunday.
The grieving father who is yet to reel from the shock of the passing of his son sighed that they “never envisioned that we would end up in this difficult situation.”
Shahab resided in a simple house within Mosul's Hadbai neighborhood. He pursued studies in the science field at Ibda Boys High School. Diligently, he studied on a makeshift platform outside his house, achieving impressive grades without the need for private tutoring.
Just like his father, Shahab’s brother glued his eyes to the screen of his smartphone, silently looking at his brother’s photos.
"He chose to take external exams, didn't regularly attend school, focused solely on the mid-year exam, and successfully advanced to the end-of-year assessments," his brother elaborated. “He scored 98.57 in his final exams, securing first place across the Nineveh province.”
