Reuters, Mosul :
A group of Iraqi university students have found a cause in the ruins of Mosul.
They are salvaging what is left of its rich heritage, clearing rubble and distributing aid in a city crying out for help after the war against Islamic State.
The project began when Raghad Hammadi and a group of students decided to launch a campaign to help rebuild the Central Library of Mosul University, burnt and bombed in the war. Its vast contents had been all but lost.
But they found buried under layers of ash some 30,000 books almost intact. Over 40 hot days, with the war still raging on the other side, the students moved the books one by one using holes made by rockets to carry them to safety. “An entire city with a glorious past and ancient history lost its heritage and culture: the tomb of the Prophet Jonah, the minaret of Al-Hadba which is older than Iraq itself. It is great that we were able to save a part of this heritage,” said Hammadi, 25, a nursing student.
Both the leaning minaret of Al-Hadba , part of the 12th century Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where in 2014 Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared a caliphate, and the ancient tomb of what is believed to be the Prophet Jonah were destroyed in the military campaign to retake the city.Hammadi says among the books salvaged were some handwritten by Mosul scholars. They included editions written in Moslawi, the distinct dialect of the region once known as a center for scholarly Islam and the pride of many for its ancient mosques, churches and Old City architecture.
Elsewhere, volunteers cleared rubble and garbage, opened roads, drilled water wells and distributed aid.
“The situation in Mosul is so much better now and this is because of the revolution that happened within Mosul, within its young people,” she said. After living under Islamic State’s strict rule and then the war to retake the city, young women feel as though they have been liberated.
The team that set out to rescue the books was mixed, a rarity in Mosul’s society, where mingling between sexes outside the family or university was limited even before Islamic State.
“An unbelievable barrier has been broken, it might be a trivial thing for the rest of the world but for Mosul it is huge,” she said.
Months after Iraq announced full control of the city, life is back in many parts. But much of the Old City, where the last and the bloodiest battles were waged, is still in complete ruin.
A group of Iraqi university students have found a cause in the ruins of Mosul.
They are salvaging what is left of its rich heritage, clearing rubble and distributing aid in a city crying out for help after the war against Islamic State.
The project began when Raghad Hammadi and a group of students decided to launch a campaign to help rebuild the Central Library of Mosul University, burnt and bombed in the war. Its vast contents had been all but lost.
But they found buried under layers of ash some 30,000 books almost intact. Over 40 hot days, with the war still raging on the other side, the students moved the books one by one using holes made by rockets to carry them to safety. “An entire city with a glorious past and ancient history lost its heritage and culture: the tomb of the Prophet Jonah, the minaret of Al-Hadba which is older than Iraq itself. It is great that we were able to save a part of this heritage,” said Hammadi, 25, a nursing student.
Both the leaning minaret of Al-Hadba , part of the 12th century Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where in 2014 Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared a caliphate, and the ancient tomb of what is believed to be the Prophet Jonah were destroyed in the military campaign to retake the city.Hammadi says among the books salvaged were some handwritten by Mosul scholars. They included editions written in Moslawi, the distinct dialect of the region once known as a center for scholarly Islam and the pride of many for its ancient mosques, churches and Old City architecture.
Elsewhere, volunteers cleared rubble and garbage, opened roads, drilled water wells and distributed aid.
“The situation in Mosul is so much better now and this is because of the revolution that happened within Mosul, within its young people,” she said. After living under Islamic State’s strict rule and then the war to retake the city, young women feel as though they have been liberated.
The team that set out to rescue the books was mixed, a rarity in Mosul’s society, where mingling between sexes outside the family or university was limited even before Islamic State.
“An unbelievable barrier has been broken, it might be a trivial thing for the rest of the world but for Mosul it is huge,” she said.
Months after Iraq announced full control of the city, life is back in many parts. But much of the Old City, where the last and the bloodiest battles were waged, is still in complete ruin.
