As the principal of a girl’s school in Mosul, Om Mostafa had only a burnt-out shell of a building to work with after the liberation from Daesh in 2017.

The school had been ransacked during the fighting. Colourful Illustrations on the walls had been covered in black paint. The windows were smashed, and the facilities destroyed. There was a mountain to climb to repair the damage. 

The wellbeing of children is an important part of Om Mostafa approach to learning. The teaching environment had to be right. She knew that if her students saw black paint on the walls, this would reignite the trauma of the occupation experienced by many children in the city. She worked tirelessly to have the school repaired and refurbished, and even had to create a new library from scratch. After the chaos left by the fighting, that was the first place to start.

“I went to anyone who could help”, said Om Mostafa. “I went to the government and NGOs in the city and It was exhausting. There was so much to do but thankfully they refurbished much of the building eventually. It was no place for students before.”

The challenge she faced after the liberation of Mosul wasn’t just about broken windows and black paint. The social fabric of the community itself had been torn apart. This alone could have a devastating effect on the students’ ability to learn. 

Children from widowed households were often treated with suspicion. Questions over whether the father had died while fighting for Daesh meant some pupils were often left ignored or stigmatised through no fault of their own. She overcame this by ensuring that teachers took a patient and sympathetic approach, banning words used such as “lazy”, which would hurt children who were often doing their best to learn.

Many of the students’ parents were out of work and poor. Some mothers were widowed, others were merely day-wage workers, with no guaranteed income. For many families, just putting food on the table was difficult. Some students would make fun of their poorer classmates. Many had well-worn clothes and holes in their shoes. This caused further distress, after an already traumatic childhood in the city. 

Knowing that parents would fear a stigma around receiving charity, Om Mostafa took it upon herself to collect clothes that were no longer needed from wealthier families. She did this without the permission of the parents to avoid embarrassment. She also knew it was important that clothes were simply outgrown, and not visibly tired. This would stop the bullying by classmates while avoiding stigmatising parents.  The effect on the students’ wellbeing, she explained, was transformative: “The children realised the school cared about them. It had a positive impact on their behaviour.”

Knowing there was a lot of judgement and fear of embarrassment, Om Mostafa used this approach to anonymity and applied it to other areas of her work. She allowed her pupils to give feedback anonymously about their experience in school. This resulted in her hearing some views for the very first time. She said: ‘Being anonymous allowed the children to be more comfortable. I learnt that many of them felt under pressure from both the school and at home. There was lots of negative energy.” Intada was relieved, she now had a better insight into the hearts and minds of her students. 

The lived experience of pupils is often different between genders. Intada is often concerned for the welfare of young girls who face harassment from boys and men. “Girls and women are oppressed”, she explained. “They need to protect themselves by having qualifications.”

“Girls are often exposed to harassment, I know one parent who stopped her daughter going to school because of how she was treated, she cried because she wanted to continue but just couldn’t.”

Om Mostafa believes the community must play a more substantial role in protecting women and young girls from harassment. A proper education, she believes, is one of the most powerful tools in achieving this by empowering girls with skills and qualifications.