Lifeless Summer for Iraqi Students

This past summer holiday seemed somewhat short in comparison to the preceding ones as the final exams were delayed because of the harsh, deteriorating security situation with which students had to live. Their everyday life was not free of terrorist attacks that targeted universities and schools, generally disrupting the academic year.

Were the needs and hopes of those students less patient Than in the past IslamOnline.net listened to these students' frank opinions.

Holiday Blues

Hamza Noury, a student in his third year of Economics, said,

I no longer have dreams for the summer holiday as I used to do after going through - usually - confusing and heavy exams. The holiday has become a burden for us, not a comfort or fun. There is nothing one can do but waste time in useless things. For example, I went for my exams and worked hard for excellence and I got what I wanted, but weeks and days passed and I hoped to find a job to spend the rest of the boring holiday, but all in vain. My family had expected me to find a job.

When I was in high school, during summer there were many jobs awaiting us and giving us good income. We enjoyed work and felt that it was important. I used to spend long hours at a restaurant tirelessly and until a late hour at night. Now everything has changed for the worse. Our holiday seems to have nothing for us but slow, cold times. And our dreams evaporated. We just stay in our homes and alleys wandering and hanging around with friends, sharing common grief, repeated talks, and old and recent news.

Everything Forbidden

Mahmoud Ahmed, a student in a preparatory school said,

Lately, I stopped longing to have a summer holiday because I don't know where I'll spend it. Family visits are very few and may be prohibited for us now. Traveling is too expensive, parking is almost unavailable and mostly inconvenient, and going out with friends for any reason is also forbidden because of the security issues especially car bombs and terrorist attacks.

Holiday for us is to hang out around the streets of the neighborhood with friends, playing billiards, or browsing the Internet. Then we go home to listen to a stream of blaming and warning from parents. So, where is the joy of the summer holiday we used to long for? Where are the family travels and picnics with relatives and friends in other governorates when we used to form teams for sports and games and go to clubs, youth centers, and camps? Everything has vanished.

We no longer see these things or enjoy anything, and this is all because of terrorism and lack of security. We pray that good days and stability return. Our young days are being wasted; what for? We really don't know!

Another preparatory school. student said,

Summer times are a lost hope. The summer holiday is now full of undesired days because we don't know how to spend it without jobs or trips. And because I still have two subjects to pass, there's no escape other than studying and even more studying! Besides, as the holiday was short this year in comparison to the past ones because of the delayed exams, I had to make use of it to pass my subjects.

Nonstop Terrorism

Student Muhannad Abdul-Rahman said,

We're so sad about the carelessness and coldness that have gripped this summer holiday. Our happiness is buried in a pile of beautiful dreams lost in the maze of war, terror, and fear of the unknown, which wasted so many things.

In the past, we used to spend the summer holiday with our families and relatives. We used to visit them and they used to visit us. We used to spend weeks with relatives in the country or at the beach. We used to enjoy the mild weather at the beach, dream a little, gain knowledge, work with our parents or relatives, and earn some money, which made our holiday important and beneficial.

Compulsory Laziness

Nada recalled when her summer was a time for happiness. She said,

Summer holidays in the past were months of fun. We used to go on family trips and take the chance to pass the time doing useful things, like reading, relaxing, visiting relatives and friends, picnicking, and sometimes having temporary jobs. Now we wish there wouldn't be any holiday because we get nothing useful out of it; only a laziness that is enforced upon us. Otherwise, we may spend the holiday studying the subjects of the exams that we missed for not attending because of our parents' worry about the security situation.

Solo

Sarab Muhammad Lafta, a preparatory school student, said,

It was definitely not a good holiday. It didn't have anything happy, whether on the family or general level. I spent my holiday at home doing housework, which I don't like very much, so I used to run sometimes to my own world: learning computer. I thank Allah that we have one at home. It's the only thing that I feel fills the spare time with something useful.

Summer holidays get their beautiful meaning when they're invested in a good and useful way. But this summer wasn't as we dreamed. We were tired of the repeated curfews that disrupted the holiday. Even school wasn't worthy of attention. We spent our school year wavering between attendance, absence, and lack of serious commitment, so the whole year has been lifeless and tiresome, not like the previous years.

No Longer Useful

Lafta added,

In the past, we used to make plans and prepare ourselves even before the summer holiday to enjoy it to the full. It had a special flavor in our lives. Even our families waited for our summer holiday to thrust us into activities useful for us and them. They took the holiday as a chance to visit relatives or, whenever suitable, to do some work. Now everything has changed. The atmosphere of the holiday is loaded with worry and instability. It has become a time spent in boredom and meaningless indulgence into some things that may have unsatisfactory results.

Some parents described the summer holiday as days wasted. Hamed Hamza, who has a son in the second year at Al-Mustansiriya University and another in preparatory school, explained,

In my view, the academic year and the holiday are the same. There have been more curfews in the holiday than during school time! The school year was full of curfews, restlessness, delay, and lack of commitment. This affected everyone's psyche and made the youth no longer attentive to the summer holiday, as it has become devoid of things that could fill their time with life and make their days cheerful. Everything that students dreamed of was shattered, and the holiday became a real grief for all families. The one good aspect of the holiday is the presence of our children at home, which eases our concerns about their going to and coming from school.

Psychological Paralysis

Maysoon Matta, a teacher at a preparatory school in Baghdad, shares Hamza his opinion,

Our children can't stand the word holiday because of the repeated delays we suffered academically and psychologically. And with an empty holiday, they don't have the means to make it a period for rest and relaxation.

Terrorism and abnormal life made the students refrain from leaving their homes. Everything has gone and disappeared. We now disregard having a good time at the summer holiday because fear and concern have crept into our life and shook our hope and happiness, even when it comes to our simplest rights, like the normal rights of our primary school children.

But the hardest part, Lafta said, is

To see them [students] get sick of their unvarying days and get bored of staying home and playing the same old games. Their dreams are hindered, and what they did in the summer wasn't up to their hopes and the promises they exchanged. They got used to this and became convinced of the dangers of walks and trips. So they resorted to spending the summer near their homes in the streets and alleys where quarrels and problems occur as a result of their frustrations.

The Iraqi students are fearful about their dreams that vanish as terrorism wastes the hope of a stable Iraq. But we should remember the famous saying of Egyptian political figure Mustafa Kamel,

"Despair never consorts with life, and life never consorts with despair."

Ahmad Hassan is an Iraqi journalist and writer based in Baghdad.