Bilqis is a female student, who paid the price for her parents’ separation, after she moved forcibly to a new environment against her will and desire, leaving behind a lifetime of memories of her school, in which she had studied since childhood with her classmates and friends. This student represents an example of a case of forced reverse displacement, as she was forced to join her father’s family in the city of Taiz, following the separation of her parents.
Bilqis (a pseudonym) found herself in the middle of a new situation and society that she knew nothing about and could not adapt to, in the midst of an uncompassionate and complicated family, according to her description, where they view the role of the female as limited to cooking and managing the household.
This student, like dozens of female students in basic and secondary education in Taiz, was exposed to psychological disturbance that has not disappeared to this day despite the attempts made by specialists.
Intensive Social & Psychosocial Support
The specialist at the new Bilqis School said, in an exclusive interview with Khuyut, that the student Bilqis was subjected to continuous psychological sessions in order to mitigate the effects of abuse and psychological ordeal, integrate her into her new community at school as well as establishing new friendships with female students of the same age as her. The social worker confirmed that she is communicating with the Bilqis via WhatsApp, and has included her in the talent groups because she has many talents that she acquired through the Internet due to her frequent confinement at home.
Cases of psychological disturbance range from depression, aggression, fear, bedwetting, lack of concentration, and forgetfulness. Such cases are involved in classroom activities, Scouts and Guides activities, class leadership, environment and agriculture, and participation in presenting school radio broadcasts.
Persistent School introversion
Nawal (a pseudonym), a female student in the first year of secondary school in a girls’ school in the city of Taiz, suffers from severe introversion and refuses to speak at all to her classmates and teachers at school. She has been in the same condition since she joined school in the seventh grade. "From the time she enters the school gate until the moment she leaves at the end of the school day, she does not speak to anyone at all, but she passes the written exams, and on the other hand, she fails the oral exams and her grades are zero". Her teachers said.
Moreover, the school psychologist says that she failed to deal with Nawal over the past year, and that she responded to her with difficulty, saying: “I don’t talk to anyone, please leave me alone.” This year, the situation is still the same. Nawal's teachers are concerned because of her condition, to the point that one of the teachers a week ago insisted that if the student did not verbally participate in the discussion, she did not want her in the class.
The strange irony, according to what the psychologist said, was when her mother was summoned to school, and the mother said that her daughter’s condition was normal at home, and that she was one of her daughters who spoke the most and “argued loudly,” according to her description. However, her condition is still unresolved, according to what the specialist said.
A psychosocial support specialist in one of the girls’ schools in the city of Taiz pointed out that a number of young female students, and others are adult female students, do not know their mothers at all, due to parents' separation, the mother’s marriage, and sometimes not asking her about her children, and this is what leaves a dark imprint on the student’s life over time.
The psychologist added that she asked one of the students: “Don’t you miss your mother?” “No, and I don’t want to see her.” She replied. Although her mother writes and calls her by phone, she does not respond to her, which shows that there is a deep wound in the feelings of these students.
The psychological support specialist continues her speech with Khuyut saying: “When we set with these cases, we try to bring emotion into their hearts and lessen the tragedies so that they can grow up normally.” Regarding the interventions carried out by the school and the social and psychological specialist, Al-Harwi said that they vary between training and psychological support, continuous rehabilitation sessions, playing games, tug-of-war, and mental exercises, in addition to writing stories, practicing hobbies, and attending religious lectures as well as emotional containment through visiting their families and field visits.
Supporting School Rehabilitation Unit
Aida Al-Harwi, a psychological support specialist and activities officer at Zaid Al-Mushki School for Girls, told Khuyut that the school lacks many of the equipment and tools needed for a specialized psychosocial support unit. According to Al-Harawi, the school needs a hall for psychological support, games, and activities, in addition to providing supportive games, incentives, gifts, a camera, flashlights, a display screen, a power system to operate computers, and a special hall for individual sessions. In addition, it is considered necessary to allocate a hall away from the school yard which meet all the requirements and be far from disturbance inside the school grounds. This will contribute to implementing sound psychosocial support and removing negative energies.
Cases of psychological disturbance range from depression, aggression, fear, bedwetting, lack of concentration, and forgetfulness. Such cases are involved in classroom activities, Scouts and Guides activities, class leadership, environment and agriculture, and participation in presenting school radio broadcasts.
Within one of the largest girls’ schools in the city of Taiz, which has 2,800 students, according to statistics obtained by Khuyut, there are at least 50 cases of violated students inside the school, in addition to students psychologically affected by family separation. A model presentation of an abused student in a girls’ school in the city of Taiz, who is studying in the sixth grade, indicates that she was exposed to a violent shock in her early childhood, where she witnessed the killing of her mother by the hands of her father, when she was a young child which was reflected in her behavior as she grew up. As a result, this student became characterized by violent and aggressive behavior with her classmates at school, and its effects began to appear noticeably, and according to the specialist’s description of the student, as “violent and aggressive.” The student was subjected to an individual class, and an attempt was made to keep her busy leading the class and practicing some technical skills, and so that she finally showed an initial response.
The reality of psychological and mental health
In an exclusive interview with Khuyut, about the situation of psychological and mental health among female public school students in the city of Taiz, Mrs. Afrah Thabet, who is the director of the Martyr Zaid Al-Mushki School for Girls in the city of Taiz, which is located near the seam zones on the eastern side of the city said: “Due to these critical conditions that the city of Taiz is going through, including a stifling military and economic siege, there are female students suffering from psychological and mental pressures, as their number ranges between 30 and 40 students in the school.”
She added that psychological traumas were widespread during the actual war, and began to decrease little by little during the current truce period, and that their number currently reaches approximately 100 cases within the school.
Positive role of the school
Regarding the school’s role in dealing with these special cases, Thabet says that the school’s role includes continuous awareness-raising for female students, whether in the classroom, or through morning radio, in addition to ongoing support sessions with social workers in the school, as each educational stage has a dedicated specialist in this field. In addition, the depressed students are involved in artistic, sports, and intellectual activities on an ongoing basis, and engaged in courses and workshops that are organized throughout the academic year either with support from some community organizations, or through self-efforts by school teachers.
Many students suffer from violent psychological and mental trauma. Most of them often lost their parents, a brother, or a relative during the war, and some of them were injured as a result of a shell or fiery projectile. In addition, there are approximately 200 cases of students suffering from psychological disturbance in the school.
Bombed schools close to contact zones
In a parallel, Samir Ali Qasim, the director of Bakatheer Boys School, located within the Al-Rawdha neighborhood, which was one of the areas most bombed and shelled as being close to the seam areas, where the Houthi militia forces are located on the opposite side in the Kalaba area and the mountains surrounding it talked to Khuyut. Qasim stated in an exclusive interview with Khuyut that the Bakatheer Boys School was bombed more than once during the course of the educational process at the beginning of the war, and armed confrontations broke out in the Rawdha area, within which the school is located.
Further, Qasim pointed out that there are many students who suffer from violent psychological and mental trauma, most of whom lost their parents, a brother, or a relative during the war, and some of them were injured as a result of a shell or fiery projectile, noting that there are approximately 200 cases of students suffering from psychological pressures in the school setting.
Female students with torn shoes and worn-out uniforms
In the end of last January, Ashwaq Abdel-Jalil, the principal of Al-Mithaq Girls School on the western side of the city of Taiz, located near the seam zones in the west, posted a picture of a student, whom she said was an example of cases that are widespread within her school.
Abdul Jalil said in a Facebook post, commenting on a photo of a student’s torn shoes that she attached to her post, that it is not the only shoe that looks this bad. Rather, dozens of female students wear torn shoes and walk for far distances every day, back and forth to school. She explained that she and her colleagues constantly deal with such sad situations by providing used or new shoes to female students whose families suffer from harsh living conditions.
The post on Facebook received great interaction and sympathy from a wide audience inside and outside Yemen, and according to Abdul Jalil, she received offers and appeals to open a special bank account for donations in order to confront such difficult humanitarian situations in her school. She said that there are more than 400 female students whose families are living in very difficult circumstances, making them unable to face the simplest school requirements for their students.
Abdel Jalil concluded her post by saying: “The students and I need psychological support sessions after all this, otherwise my place is outside the educational field.”
In the same contest, Aida Al-Harawi, from Zaid Al-Mushki School, says that they - teachers - annually support dozens of cases that suffer from a permanent deficit in providing the requirements for study, and that the school administration, with the cooperation of teachers and some sponsors, supports these students by provision of school uniforms, shoes, and school supplies, in addition to providing some pocket money for poor female students.
Distress, anxiety, and introversion
According to a study conducted by the German organization CARPO, on the impact of the war on the mental health of Yemeni children in schools in the city of Sanaa (northern Yemen), it revealed that 79% of those surveyed suffer from serious manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a similar study conducted by the Social Fund for Development in Taiz Governorate in 2018, it targeted 10,232 male and female students, including 6,071 males and 4,161 females, distributed among 15 schools in the districts of Taiz city, and found that 6,533 males and 2,720 females suffered from various psychological disorders. It was concluded that the behavioral reactions that appeared in the targeted students were: aggression, fear, anxiety, introversion, and lack of concentration.
