Iraqi collegians use summer break to train against the ISIS
While summer offers a lot of job opportunities and rest days for American collegians to enjoy, Iraqi students make use of the break to learn how to fight their country's sworn enemies: the Islamic State.
Shadad Haider shared her summer break activities to NBC News, noting that she is currently completing her master's degree in media studies, but now that classes have concluded for summer, she has found a new way to spend summer time.
The 25-year-old collegian is learning how to dismantle and operate an AK-47 assault rifle. "This is the first time I have ever carried a weapon," she said. She also said she has no plans of using her learning toward violence, but she would be "ready to carry a weapon to fight, in order to defend my country."
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Last month, the Iraqi Education Ministry released an order that asked all colleges and universities outside ISIS territories to train their students to fight the extremist group that has been terrorizing various locations for the past several years.
The training camp offers 15 days that could stretch to four hours per day. Despite being an nonobligatory order, the University of Baghdad has reported that 100 men and women have signed up for the summer program.
Another student, Zahra'a Mohammed Abdul Hassan said she was inspired to join the summer camp after being exposed to the Islamic State's brutality against women.
Hassan, 21, said, "We are facing an enemy who has no mercy toward women, in particular. Being a woman herself and against the ISIS' treatment of women, she added that "ISIS committed against all Iraqis, and women in particular, is not connected in any way to Islam."
Hassan said the training taught her how to properly be in firing positions, dismantle an assault rifle, and perform first aid, in case unexpected incidents occur.
Meanwhile, Sami Aziz Ramzi, 21, said he was fired up to be part of the program after seeing how his fellow Christians were treated by the extremists. The science student said the training will ignite in him "the will...to defend my country, as well as my community."
