The leakage of explicit scenes involving the dean of the College of Computer and Information Technology at the University of Basra, Imad Shaalan al-Shawi, in a compromising situation with one of the students inside the university, has sparked widespread debate within political and popular circles.
Activists on social media criticized the moral decay that education in Iraq has reached, affirming that money traders and politicians are behind the spread of such morally reprehensible actions. They demanded the dismissal of the academic and revocation of his scholarly title, as well as refusing to accept him anywhere, regardless of the justifications and motives.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research confirmed today, Wednesday, that preliminary measures have been taken against the dean of one of the colleges at the University of Basra, who was involved in explicit scenes with one of the students in his office.
It is noteworthy that although this incident is considered “shocking,” it is quite common; it is only distinguished by being “rarely discovered,” according to specialized legal observers.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education, Haider Al-Aboudi, stated that the ministry “has taken legal measures in this context, and the first step is to withdraw the person’s hand, after which a ministerial committee has initiated an investigation,” explaining that “this committee has its procedures for verification and will announce its decision upon completion of the legal procedures.”
The educational system in Iraq witnessed significant transformations after 2003, as its levels experienced trials no less bitter than other aspects of Iraqis’ lives. Twenty-one years later, education in the country still suffers from structural problems, such as funding and resource shortages, a lack of qualified and trained teaching staff, and inadequate infrastructure, keeping it out of reputable global education rankings and quality indicators.
The penalty for harassment, extortion, or any type of unprofessional behavior by an employee or university professor can lead to dismissal according to the provisions of Law No. 14/1991 on the discipline of state employees.
On the other hand, sources from within the University of Basra confirmed that “Dean Shawi promises female students in exchange for immoral matters,” indicating that “the dean began to blackmail female students with video clips, and the matter escalated to obtaining money and blackmailing them.”
They added that “there are cases of rape on campus, and the dean did not stop at this point but found victims among males without further details.”
Although there are more than 35 government universities and 45 private colleges in Iraq, they are outside advanced university rankings. In the QS University Rankings released in 2022, no Iraqi university was ranked among the top 100 in the world, and in the latest Webometrics ranking released in January 2023, the University of Baghdad was ranked as the best university in Iraq, ranking 1779 globally, followed by the University of Mosul at 2706 and the University of Nahrain at 2816, which are considered late rankings.
During the academic year 2015-2016, Iraq had 544 private schools with 73,000 students, and this number increased to 1,254 private schools teaching about 151,000 students in 2020, while it reached 2,884 schools during the current year 2023, according to statistics from the Ministry of Planning.
As for private universities, their number between 1988 and 2000 was only 10 colleges, and since 2004, college establishment has been accelerating despite the changes witnessed in the country, reaching 75 colleges by the end of 2019, comprising 570 study branches distributed among departments and colleges. In contrast, there are 35 government universities. “The New World” shed light in a previous report on professors’ harassment of female students and the discrimination between females and males, and the reasons that led them to remain silent about such despicable acts.