Simple and Straight: Examining the Red Lines

by Shallaw Fatah

Don’t be surprised if I say, sometimes, the root of a deformed image of an institution stems from rumour. Some people don’t dare

to write about what they think so then they will form a story, claiming that they can’t write because of such and such pu

 nishments. It’s true that in any educational institution of our era, there are some limitations and rules because of the hierarchical nature of such institutions; university is not an exception of course, but do we really have many red lines in our university?

Claiming things before examining the limits of freedom is not just a rumour but prejudice. Prejudice, which our world suffers from, is nothing but making up unreal stories, and retelling it, not to convince our friends, but ourselves first to believe in the story, then to claim it even more in an interesting form.

I’ve seen many people talking about what they think is a RED LINE for our university, and I wasn’t sure about the honesty of their claim. Here is a chance to examine these red lines and decide what to do about them. If they are really red lines, it’s better to have a logical explanation for them, an explanation that can convince us about the issue. Otherwise, why should they deform the image of AUI-S? But first, we should have the courage to testify the red lines, creating such a blog is the first step, writing this article is second, but the most important step is not passed yet, which is testifying the red lines, or what do we suppose as red lines.

I’ll start by talking about the issue of rising grades for scholarships from 2.7 to 3.0, since then, you should dare to write about something else, or you are not free as I see it! So be brave and take the third step before me, you may not have so much time to do so! This column, let’s dedicate this column, Straight and Simple to simply address what should be said, straight of course.

*Shallaw Fatah is an International Studies and Political Science Junior at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. He is also a journalist.