The kids of Kobani are back in town
'I am so happy to be in school again,' student says as children return to war-torn city on Syria-Turkey border, previously held by ISIS.
In a classroom recently cleaned from rubble and garbage left by Islamic State militants, a young schoolgirl expressed her excitement at being able to sit at her desk again, “I am so happy to be in school again, with my pen and my book,” Alin Othaman, a nine year old girl from Kobani, told i24news. Her school is still pockmarked by bulletholes from the fighting, “we don’t have anything in our school, which was destroyed because of the war, but it’s ok. I am able to learn, to help me follow my dream of someday being an architect.”
Before the war, which turned Kobani into an international symbol of Kurdish resistance to the Islamic State, there were 45,000 inhabitants in the northern Syrian city. Alin is just one of many children in the war-torn city who have returned to the few remaining schools after fleeing intense fighting between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters, who after four months of control over the city left most of it in ruins.
The children have experienced a lot during the fighting, witnessing death and destruction at an age where they should be learning and playing with their toys instead.
Bilind Ali, an eleven-year-old boy, is another one of the many children who have returned to school. i24news interviewed him and other kids through Mustefa Ebdi, an activist in the town.
“We lost a lot during the fighting. Our education suffered a lot because we were away for so long,” he told i24news. “But we are here again, at school, and it’s a great feeling. I like to read a lot, and in the future I hope to be a journalist.”
While the children are excited about returning to their books, their parents remain concerned about their safety. Sporadic shooting still sounds in the town, parts of which are believed to have been mined by IS fighters before they retreated. Unexploded bombs also litter the town.
Nasan Ahmed, the health minister of the Kobani canton said in March that “since the day we started to clean up Kobani and nearby areas, at least 40 people have been killed and dozens wounded by IS mines.”
Yet the danger does not only lie within the city, but also on the students’ way home from their studies.
A report by Human Rights Watch last year detailed the horrific experiences of four children from Kobani who had been abducted on May 29 on their way home from taking their exams. The four boys interviewed were held by IS militants for four months with 153 boys from Kobani.
One boy told Human Rights Watch that the militants “beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet. The tire was used less often. I was once put inside the tire and beaten. They sometimes found excuses to beat us for no reason. The Syrian guards were the worst and beat us the worst. They made us learn verses of the Quran and beat those who didn’t manage to learn them. When some boys tried to escape, the treatment got worse and we were all punished and given less food.”
While some residents never left, many families fled across the nearby border to Turkey and started returning in mid-February after Kurdish fighters, aided by US-led coalition airstrikes, forced IS militants out of the town. Since then, residents have been trying to rebuild their lives amid the rubble and children have begun to return to their classrooms after months of being away.
The schools of Kobani, which started reopening in April, have been heavily damaged during the months of fighting. Out of ten primary schools, only four remain; only two middle schools have been deemed safe enough for students to return to,and both secondary schools in the city have been completely destroyed.
In late June, IS fighters once again attacked the city, and after days of intense clashes Kurdish fighters once again successfully drove them out. An estimated 262 civilians were killed and another 273 were wounded in just 72 hours. A report by HRW said IS fighters drove around shooting at civilians after setting off three suicide car bombs on the outskirts of the town. The militants followed fleeing civilians into their homes, shooting dead whole families.
The recent fighting saw another boys’ school destroyed by IS militants who set off explosives inside after being surrounded by Kurdish fighters. The remaining schools are barely able to provide any services apart from basic instruction to the children but still, they are happy and excited to be back.
The teachers are also happy to be back in the classroom, to fight the Islamic State with “our pens.” “It is not our mission to fight with fire,” one teacher told i24news. “It’s such an honor for me to be part of the education system here in Kobani, especially during times like these,” said Nourhan Mustafa, a 22 year-old teacher. “I feel so proud to be able to teach these children Kurdish, after so many years of it being banned.”
Syrian Kurds claim they suffered years of discrimination under Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, with the teaching of the Kurdish language and its use being extremely restricted. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were considered “stateless people” by the Syrian government from 1960 until 2011, when the Assad regime issued a decree granting them citizenship in an attempt to gain their support in the fight against the dozens of rebel groups fighting in the country’s civil war. But, even though they are considered instrumental in the fight against IS militants, they continue to be marginalized.
Osman Medres, a 42-year-old teacher, told i24news that “even if the situation is bad, and we don’t have a lot, we are happy to teach these children and provide them an education so that they can have a future.”
Residents are overcoming the shock and horror in their own way, but they have one request of the outside world. “Kobani fought the terror of IS on behalf of the entire world. Now we need help to rebuild. Don’t forget about us,” Ebdi said.
This story was reprinted with the permission of i24news.
