Money Talks (4): The Unspoken Discrimination

Some of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani students are sponsored and paid all the tuition fees necessary. Those who are sponsored are not required to get more than 2.0 GPA. So these students have the best chance to pass classes easily without bothering even to study.

However, sponsorships have become an open gate for political and ethnic discrimination at AUI-S.

Political Discrimination:

Faruq Mala Mustafa, Owner of Asia
Cell company with a large number of
sponsored students at AUI-S

Most of the sponsored students by the Kurdish businessmen and politicians are one of these:

1-      Son, daughter or close relative of a politician from the ruling parties

2-      Someone who has connections in the ruling parties

3-      A student in need for financial aid

While the first two groups comprise the majority of the students sponsored by Kurdish businessmen and politicians, they are always vulnerable to all sorts of political pressure. The best example for this is the last incident of some sponsored student being threatened with cutting their financial aid if participated in the demonstrations against corruption and despotism at Sera Liberation Square. {Student Eye keeps the name of 

the name of students anonymous}



Logos of the Two ruling Kurdish parties 



Looking at the student body at AUI-S, one can easily track the large number of sons, daughters and relatives of politicians from the ruling parties in Kurdistan. This large number of students from the ruling parties and families has made serious problems for the university. {Student Eye has eyewitnesses and evidence to prove 

this}

Ethnic Discrimination:

Ethnic discrimination reached its peak when the American Embassy in Baghdad announced a scholarship only for non-Kurdish students. After publishing the news on Student Eye, U.S. embassy removed the press release on its website and changes the naming from "non-Kurdish students" to "student from outside KRG region". While the naming matters a lot in such a situation, the result is the same: The scholarships are given based on the ethnicity of the students. 

On the other hand, in a visit to the Yazidi religious leadership in Shekhan (25 km north to Mosul) AUI-S has promised Baba Shekh, a Yazidi religious leader, to grant Yazidis scholarships due to "humanitarian 

circumstance of the Yazidis".

The fact that most of the Arab students are sponsored by one of their political leaders is another problem. Some of the Kurdish students, who don't understand how the sponsorship works, have political and ethnic explanations for that. While some unknowingly accuse the administration, others blame Kurdish political leadership for that. 

Some students ask about the reasons why most of the Arab students are either sponsored or on scholarship program. The answer to this question is that AUI-S opened its gates in the past for political interference in the past and has not closed that gate now. 

Allawi                         Hashmi                           Abdulmahdi 

 

 

Adil Abdul Mahdi, Tariq al Hashimi and Ayad Allawi are among Iraqi politicians who have sponsored large numbers of Arab students at AUI-S. 

Now let's see who has lost the opportunity to study at AUI-S because of this unspoken discrimination at AUI-S.

(I.H) a brilliant student with the highest grade in Baccalaureate exam couldn't join AUI-S because he was asked to pay $3000 per year. This brilliant but financially inadequate student loses the opportunity to study at AUI-S while students with questionable morality are accepted for mere political and financial connections.

The examples we have given are only a few of what have in hand. The sponsorship program has in fat become an open gate for political and ethnic discrimination. While the university can blame Iraqi and Kurdish politicians for this, it shares the responsibility of not acting to end this unspoken discrimination.