A Star From Mosul

The blogger is an Iraqi woman of about 20 years of age. She writes under the pseudonym Najma (for security reasons) and currently resides in Mosul despite being born in Baghdad. She is a communications major at the University of Mosul, but, according to Najma, the university is currently closed to students.

Najma blogs about her activities and thoughts on different topics stretching the last couple of days. Her current blog mentions a curfew and that students attending the University of Mosul were told to go home. It seems her mom works at the college and Najma wanted to go with her but she overslept. Once her mom comes home, she tells Najma she only received her salary and that there were no lectures for the few students that remained at the university. She repetitively lets her readers know how bored she is and that she cannot stand the curfew. Najma believes she will gain weight as a result of staying home for long periods of time and that she will regain her natural skin color. Lastly, she mentions having her favorite cousin over and playing badminton for a while with her family.

It is very surprising and interesting that Najma is able to read and write English so well. From my experience, students learning a new language do not master it on their own unless they had some sort of tutor or lived in another country for a period of time. The blog she maintains is much like a diary. She is straightforward about her likes and dislikes and also expresses frustration and happiness at certain points in her blog. For example, Najma seems to be frustrated about not waking up in time to go to the university with her mom. In the end, however, when she talks about having a great time playing badminton, she seems to momentarily forget about all the horrible things that go on in Iraq.