July 3, 2001

The Use of the Internet to Overcome Isolation in Iraqi Kurdistan

By: Michael Rubin
Future

Neglected by Baghdad for decades, Iraqi Kurdistan is among the world''s most politically
isolated regions. Yet the recent revolution in information technology promises to bring
remarkable changes to the way people in this essentially autonomous region relate to
one another and to others throughout the world. The transformation will be particularly
acute in the sphere of higher education, where decades of authoritarian government, a
stagnant curriculum, and the practice of rote memorization have created a culture that
devalues students'' use of their analytical ability.

Moreover, the adaptation of the new technology will dissolve many current
misconceptions and ill-informed expectations people have of the Internet. Sophomores
at Dohuk University, for example, raised in a system where it was forbidden to question
sources, insist that all material published on the Internet must be of good quality,
because "it was published, after all." Many professors and even department chairmen
have inflated hopes that the Internet will overcome material shortages, believing that
the texts of all books and academic journals are freely available on the Internet. When
they learn that this is not the case, some dismiss the new technology. Beliefs such as
these may complicate the acceptance of the new medium - but they cannot prevent it
altogether.

Three universities operate in northern Iraq: Sulaymani University, Dohuk University, and
Salahuddin University in Irbil. While all maintain Internet centers, in many ways their
administration and pedagogical methods still reflect the conservatism of a people who
have lived under conditions of extreme repression. Most Iraqi Kurdistanis only have
experience in Saddam Hussein''s Iraq and in Iran (where many fled and lived for years
following the 1975 Algiers Agreement). Many professors and university administrators
received their training in the former Soviet Union; only a handful of professors at each
university received degrees in the United States or Great Britain. This provincialism is
reflected in the fact that, faced with an uncontrolled source of information, university
administrations have focused on the issues of access and control.

Since its establishment as a "safe haven" after the Gulf War, northern Iraq has been
divided between two political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP); all three universities are managed by one or the
other of these parties. The KDP-run Salahuddin and Dohuk Universities were the first to
offer limited Internet access, as both have greater financial resources than PUK-run
Sulaymani. Salahuddin University now boasts computer centers in most of its constituent
colleges, though the university president and several of the college deans have hesitated
to allow access to students. Dohuk University allows all professors and graduate
students access to its Internet centers, and the president has promised undergraduates
access beginning in summer 2001. PUK-controlled Sulaymani University initially trailed
behind its two sisters in creating an Internet center, but it just opened a
twelve-hour-per-day, thirty-computer facility this March that is available to students and
faculty at all levels.

Given the current conditions of the institutions of higher education in northern Iraq, one
can safely predict that the impact of the Internet upon them will be immense. The
educational system in both PUK- and KDP-administered areas is both rigid and
antiquated. As elsewhere in the Middle East, the pedagogy discourages independent
thinking: professors often read lectures to students, who copy and memorize them
verbatim. While some students clearly thirst for knowledge, many professors remain
unqualified by Western standards, their degrees having been given in Iraq or the former
Soviet bloc - often less for academic merit than for political expediency. Curricula have
changed little for years, as primary research is rare and professors have no incentive to
update their information. At Sulaymani and Salahuddin Universities, for example,
students still learn BASIC in computer class, though the programming language has not
been used for more than fifteen years. Few students know how to use a mouse, let alone
word-processing software.

Another important effect - though it may be more difficult to track - will be the
acquisition of the English language by Kurds. In Sulaymaniyyah, which suffered
disproportionately the trauma of the repression - summary executions, retaliation during
the guerrilla conflict, and nearby chemical attacks in the 1980s - Kurdish authorities
virtually ceased serious Arabic instruction. As a result, much of the youngest generation
speaks only Sorani Kurdish. In Irbil and Dahuk, Arabic is more widely employed, though
English is commonly understood by the more educated as the Iraqi university system
teaches science and medicine primarily in English. Since some 70 percent of Web sites
are in English, the Internet promises to help transform English into northern Iraq''s
second language. This would, in turn, aid the region in overcoming its intellectual
isolation, while also widening the mental wedge between the burgeoning civil society in
the north and the repressed society in areas of Iraqi government control.

The unprecedented access to information has created challenges for a society trying to
emerge from decades under Baathist dictatorship. Dohuk University''s actions have
shown that it is sometimes difficult to abandon the culture of control. This past March, it
installed Starr Surveillance software to ensure that students and university personnel
use computers "properly." Not only will the surveillance software monitor Web sites
visited, it will also record all keystrokes, compromising both e-mail account passwords
and all word-processed documents. Foreigners will be limited to a single computer.
Internet center officials will not define what "proper" means, nor divulge who specifically
will receive reports of the computer use. Because northern Iraq retains a state-centered
economy, such information may be used to determine the "loyalty" of potential hires; it
may also be used to ensure that only politically acceptable candidates are admitted to
higher-degree programs. Dohuk University''s decision has been criticized and - to the
KDP''s credit - will likely be reversed.

Just as the small measure of openness afforded by new information technologies may
help erode isolation in northern Iraq, it also forces northern authorities to negotiate the
dilemmas of globalization and liberalization faced by many other parts of the world that
are emerging from authoritarian regimes. In particular, managing the modernization of
education in a region where pedagogy has been stagnant for decades is one of the
crucial elements in the process. How well the Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq
will be able to handle the transition to the Internet age remains to be seen, but events of
the last few months give cause for optimism.

Michael Rubin is a 2000 - 2001 Carnegie Council Fellow. This article is based upon his
observations and interviews during his nine-month residence in northern Iraq.
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