Show A cautious comeback on campus Joshua Partlow The Washington Post During his year eight-year endeavor to complete his undergraduate degree Haider Kareem has witnessed more than hed he'd care to remember at Baghdad University From the vantage point of ofa a plastic table in the student cafeteria Kareem witnessed the point-blank point slaying of a year old US U.S. soldier shot in the back of the head after buying a 7 That was in the summer of 2003 In the same cafeteria Kareem later saw fliers scattered on the concrete floor demanding that all students abandon the university by the order of al in Iraq He has watched as f friends have died and teachers have left the country His family fled for southern Iraq a and a insurgents rs' rs took over his childhood home jn in in Baghdad forcing g. g him im to live alone in a dorm dorm room on campus When I first got here hereit it was safe he recalled wistfully And how is it now For Kareem and some other students professors and administrators th the answer is better but a tentative heavily qualified better As levels of violence have fallen in hi Baghdad over the past six months the tension at the university has lessened with more people returning to their studies and trying to turn rum their thoughts to the future The campus is something of an oasis in Baghdad and the diverse student body from all over the city and the country offers a glimpse into the national mood at a time tune when Iraqis are experiencing a relative lull in the war With undergraduates Baghdad University is the largest in Iraq It is protected on three sides by water and on the fourth by plainclothes gunmen Its location on a peninsula formed by a abend abend abend bend in the Tigris River in a relatively peaceful neighborhood where several prominent politicians have their compounds has hel helped ped keep it from suffering the kind of gruesome bombings inflicted on other campuses in the capital Still about 80 professors and many more students have been killed since the war began university officials said During the last school year about 50 percent of students went to class regularly and hundreds of faculty members took unpaid leaves of absence This year attendance is about 80 percent and many teachers have returned said Riyadh Aziz Hadi the university's assistant president Of course there are many challenges but less than before because the sec security r Y situation while not t percent has improved he said I cant can't say that Im I'm optimistic But I hope Outside Hadis Hadi's office on ona ona ona a stone bench shaded by a small tree year first-year student Abed 18 surveyed the courtyard filled with groups of chatting friends and students rushing to class Her threshold for judging improvement was admittedly low Look around you cannot see people killing each other bombing each other Of course its it's safer sater she said We feel we are safer here at home Several students however described a persistent culture of intimidation and intolerance Fliers celebrating the family of al Sack the leader of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militias are tacked to campus buildings despite the administrations administration's ban on political activity on campus The majority of women wear head scarves and say that dressing in a amore amore amore more Western style which many claim to prefer attracts dangerous attention in the strict religious climate t U Ur L r 4 I V. i-V. r i I 4 ra ye v 3 Washington Post photo by Joshua Partlow Ali left and Donia al l visit with former a f student campus courtyard The campus is something of oran an oasis in Baghdad You Vou k know ow for example we are two girls and a man said computer science student Nour Kamal 21 as she sat with friends eating popcorn in the cafeteria Some people dont don't like this idea at all girls talking to a man They will instantly mark you with an X These people are savages Abbas Saad 21 recalls a heated conversation about Islam he had with a group of classmates during his freshman year Two days after the argument a dozen of the students involved were abducted as they left the campus he said their fates were unknown I Id d dont don't nt talk about religion very much anymore he said Saad took a year off while his family was moving from a town south of Baghdad in what is known as the Triangle of Death after his uncle was beheaded by ins insurgents If you will compare the security situation to last year it is much better Last year even the professors were afraid to come to class he said But of course the militias are inside the university and they're involved in almost everything Special correspondent Dalya Hassan contributed to this report |