Nooran Al-Taie 21 years Medical student Nineveh Governorate.
My life story began with my grandfather (may God have mercy on him), he was my role model. His house was a place full of magazines, books and newspapers; as he was a journalist. Out of curiosity and imitation - when I was a child - I would sit next to him, hold the book like him and try to read the first lines in my life. He became the support and motivation for me to enter the field of journalism. I wrote my first story at the age of eleven and I read it to my grandfather. He revised it for me and he helped me publish it in (Al-Arabi Al-Sagheer) magazine. He encouraged me a lot, and supported me since childhood, and thanks to his constant encouragement, I made my first step in becoming a journalist by joining the (Mashahir Al Iraq as the youngest editor. In 2015, a journalist held a press interview with me because I was one of the displaced survivors of the occupation of ISIS. (Radio Sawa), and this interview rapidly became popular and it was selected as the best Moseli Statement since the occupation of ISIS. In the interview I spoke about my concerns as a displaced person residing in a new place. And the distortion of facts practiced by the media channels for bad purposes in order to undermine national unity and peaceful coexistence among the population. I started getting involved in social activities and civil work when I returned to the city after its liberation from the hands of ISIS. I did so because the city needed work and volunteering in various areas in order to be able to rise again from the rubbles of the war. My early participation in the field of civil activity was very shy due to the nature of society. I joined a small volunteering team and built small bazaars and youth gatherings, and we started painting many schools and tried to rehabilitate the main streets in the city. The ideas started growing day by day and the steps became bigger. This year, I became the youngest coordinator of a project on education and combating gender-based and ethnic violence of a local organization. All the challenges that I faced were because I was a woman, and due to the city of Mosul being conservative. It does not like the presence of girls in leadership positions or in various fields of work. As a result, my family's concerns were and are still the same, I’d get (looks of surprise and shock of people when proposing a work or volunteering ideas), but little by little it all fell under the matter of work. Volunteering is a way of life for me and for many other girls in the city, so I do not exaggerate when I say that the female workforce has become equivalent to that of the male workforce. Life is full of crossroads and moments of breathlessness, and in many cases we surrender to negative thoughts, despair and fear of big dreams or that those dreams are above reality. However, I always go back to the path that I want with divine signs. As well as my deep belief in that I would like my message in life to be the way I seek it to be. Although society’s view of women who work in areas that are not known to them; is considered to give a look of suspicion and surprise mixed with harsh and intense criticism, and although society’s conservative thinking and stifling stereotypes, does not want to deviate from the usual circle, I did not leave what I wanted to do. Every time I fall or face a challenge, the faith in myself and the path I chose always sheds the hardships. I have many upcomings steps which I will announce soon. My message to the women of my country is that, it must be understood that life is not a rosy road fraught with flowers, and that life is not necessarily represented through marriage and children only - as it’s said - and it is unreasonable for one’s life goal to be to obtain the stereotypical “Knight of Dreams!” I hope they will be completely stripped of the concept of dependency and for them to think of themselves as independent people so that they can find a cause to fight for in life.
Image description: There are two photos. In one, a woman sits on black slightly sloping pavement, her back against the plastered wall of a house. We see her from the right side. She wears brown hijab, a brown and black sweater over which is a red vest, and black trousers with black shoes. She also wears glasses and blue plastic gloves. Her legs are angled so that a sheaf of papers and a clipboard rests against them. She is looking down at the papers, smiling very slightly. In the other photo we see the same woman from the left side, from the elbows up. She wears black hijab and a white jacket. Her left hand holds a remote control and her right hand, next to her face, is apparently holding a phone into which she is speaking. On her right, on a brown tiled wall, are three small signs and large banner; except for the letters UNFPA in an orange circle, we cannot see what they say. Behind her is an image projected on a screen; it, too, this image, too, is indecipherable.