School principal dismissed because of a poem he wrote and published on Facebook

Shafaq News/ An official in al-Anbar Education Directorate in western Iraq reported today that an order was issued to relieve a school principal from his post and transfer him to a border area, due to a poem he wrote in which he criticized the poor supply of electricity in the governorate.

The official who preferred to remain anonymous, told Shafaq News Agency that the Director of al-Anbar Education, Nafeh Al-Dulaimi, issued an order relieving the director of al-Shams al-Mushriqa Elementary School for Boys, Ahmed Zakrout Al-Halbousi, located in Fallujah, from his post and transferring him to an area near the borders with Syria.

"The school principal who has been excused from his post is a poet and civil activist in al-Anbar, and his criticism came through a poem he published on the Facebook, which prompted the influential authorities in al-Anbar to issue an order to relieve him and transfer him to al-Qaim border district with Syria in the west of the country."

Shafaq News agency contacted the exempted school principal, Ahmed Zakrout Al-Halbousi, who said, "I published a poem on Facebook, in which I criticized the poor power supply. This angered some members of a political party, who excused and transferred me to Al-Qaim."

Al-Halbousi explained, "The Deputy Governor of al-Anbar for Technical Affairs, Jassem Al-Asal, filed a complaint against me because of the poem, and he contacted the Director of al-Anbar Education, Nafeh Al-Dulaimi, and the latter summoned me to his office to inquire from me about the matter, and then directed to excuse me and transfer me to a school in Al-Qaim district, and refer me to an investigative council unfairly.”

"The poem was about electricity, and education has nothing to do with it. I did not mention the educational cadres or their reality with anything, so I demand that the matter be canceled and that the Teachers Union in Fallujah have a role in speaking the truth and regaining my right."

For his part, the director of the Fallujah sector of the Teachers Syndicate, Rabie Abbas, said, "the issue is political and not educational, so we have nothing to do with it", adding, "There is no such thing as freedom of expression, for the strong here eats the weak."

"we stand with the dismissed director, but since the issue is not educational, we have nothing to do with it, as it is political and can only be resolved between them."