My grandfather’s dream was to have a literate son. At that time the only way to get literate was to go to the mosque and being taught by a Mala, the Muslim teacher and religious man. He sent Karim to study at the Hujra and by that, Karim had started a very long and difficult journey.

Karim was a tall boy with black eyes and black twisted wide eyebrows. He had a sense of humour and even his status as a Mala or Imam did not prevent him from that. He was dressing proper dress like any other traditional Kurdish Mala and he put a white turban on his head.

He was suffering from kidney disease, the disease which led to a complete failure in his kidneys and his death at a relatively young age. When he was a small boy his father told him to climb the mulberry tree in their home garden to have good view to watch the big fruits garden behind their home, to make sure no animal ripping the fruits and vegetables. Karim climbed the tree but one of his feet slid and he fell on the main branch of the tree with his legs each one to a side and where hurts more in the centre. He did not get a proper medical treatment at the time, except the village’s physician with some herbs or some good Du’as i.e. prayers of supplication.  Later on in his life the problem with his kidneys got more and more complicated and the only place where he could had an operation was Baghdad. He went to Baghdad, with the help and assistant of a rich and generous nephew, where they did an operation but it was in vain. His kidney was totally damaged and there was no any kind of plantation at that time. They sent him home to suffer and wait for his death, which he welcomed it, as there was no way out. He nominated his tomb place and gave his last will with courage and bravery of a man who could understand the meanings of life and death.

At that time, anybody who studied to become a Mala had to study all the 12 religious and language sciences of Islam including literature in Arabic and Persian (Farsi). They had to take a black chicken to their teacher when they have learnt the alphabetic and know how to write their first sentences! This stage was called ‘The Black Chicken’s Stage’, as it became in Idiom in Kurdish language and people use it to indicate success in the first stage of any task. They had to go from one village to another in search for appropriate teachers to teach them the basics of their sciences. They lived and slept normally in Hujra, a small room attached to the mosque or including in the same building. They were collecting food from house to house, as it was a tradition each house give them some food. They had a hard life as students and most of them continued to live the same hard life after their graduation. A man, usually an old man, takes care of the mosque for cleaning, warming and lighting; similar to a care taker in the west, that man is called (Mujawir). Mujawir collects food from all the households by taking a pot to every door and they pour some food into the pot. When he completed the whole village he got a pot full of different kinds of food all mixed together, this became an idiom in Kurdish language and they use it for anything which is mixed all together irregularly. The term ‘melting pot’ in English has a similar meaning.

When they had reached a higher stage and needed to search for more specialist teachers, they had to complete their study in different cities and towns, including travelling to different parts of Kurdistan such as the eastern Kurdistan or the part linked to Iran and Baghdad. When my father went to Baghdad once he was tricked by some local young people and robed from his little money he had. On his penniless journey back, on board of a train to Kirkuk, he had to hide in the toilets when the operator was in action. 

 After graduation, my father became the Mala and Imam of Parazan. My father taught children literacy, judged between people when they had any point of dispute according to (Sahri’a). I can remember a man came to ask my father to look at Sahri’a about a piece of land, to know whether it belonged to him or not. I was insisting how the old books of my father include the name of that Mr Faraj Mohammed! My mother and my elder brother were explaining to me that it did not necessarily include his name but there are similar cases. This matter is very similar to the court of law where the judge looks for similar cases to apply the law.

My grandfather’s dream was to have a literate son; his dream came true with Karim. I am not sure what they did before with letter writing and reading, but I am sure that my father was one of the first few literate boys of his village. Everybody was coming to him for matters relating to religion: what are allowed called Halal and what are not, called Haram. They came to consult him and take advice and find solutions about marriage, divorce, arguments and dispute, land and lease problems and general daily letter writing and readings. He was not officially paid for his service but he accepted gifts and in general it was the responsibility of the village to provide the basic life requirements for him and his family. Until the first school was opened, he was the main teacher for the village children. When the school was opened, he first of all sent his offspring, Mohammed to the school, as a sign of good intention and to show everybody that school is better than mosque for teaching children writing and reading. When people objected, he simply said, ‘it is better for children to be taught at school first and later be taught in the mosque’. However, some people still believed that the official government school was teaching their children Satanic lessons not Rahmanic lessons, referring to the God. From the time I could remember, there were few children, whom taught at the mosque only, and none of them was from Parazan, but they were from the neighbouring villages.

Due to the instability of the political situation in the area, the school did not last long and with every new situation they sent a new teacher, and the children had to start from the scratch. The school system in Iraq and Kurdistan, until present day, is according to the child’s pass from one class to the other and not according to age, as it is the case in the UK. Children from the age of 6 enter school, without reception or nursery, and have to pass exams from the first year in order to go to the year two. Children were smacked regularly for bad behaviour and for doing badly at the lessons. Shariff Hama Hussein, one of the pupils of that time told me his story like this: “I went to school as soon as the school arrived, I passed to year one and the teacher left, so the school was closed. After two years a new teacher came and I had to start right from the beginning, so I sat in year one again. This time it was good, I passed and the school stayed until year three. After that the school was closed again and I had to wait two years and to start right from the beginning again. With this snake and ladder game I had been to year two, three and four and going back to year one several times, until I left school for the good.”