Some media reports from Iraq show some incomprehensible and strange happenings in Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s cabinet and it seems that they have paved the ground for tension in the cabinet and the resignation of the education minister.

BY: Hamid Reza Naghashian

New education minister Shaima al-Hayali, who won the vote of confidence late December, submitted her resignation to the prime minister.

Before winning the vote of the confidence, Al-Hayali had come under pressures after allegations her brother has ties with the Islamic State (IS) arose on the social media. She had admitted that her family had ties with the Daesh but she had no connection with them. She had vowed that if it was proved that she had been in touch with the Zionist-American movement Daesh, she would resign. She asserted that her brother was forced to make those statements like tens of thousands of people who were forced to do so by the IS.

News sources in Iraq Parliament have announced that the minister has officially submitted her resignation to the cabinet and fulfilled her promise. Late December, some allegations got viral which claimed Al-Hayali’s nephew was a suicide bomber  and her brother Laith al-Hayali was a senior official in the IS. Some reports claimed that some members of Al-Hayali family had control of Nineveh in Mosul Province during the IS dominance over the province. Shaban al-Jabouri, a former Iraqi Parliament lawmaker and representative to Salahuddin Province  in north Iraq, neighboring Al-Anbar Province, was the first who made online the link of Al-Hayali’s family with Daesh in his Twitter and Facebook accounts. Videos circulated on the social media show Shaima’s brother in the takfiri group  IS clips, condemning attacks on Mosul by the anti-IS coalition. Al-Jabouri also claimed that Al-Hayali’s husband was an IS militant who worked as the guard for former Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osamaal-Nujaifi and head of Al-Qarar Fraction but he resigned his job when the IS took the control of Mosul and joined the group.

Al-Hayali and her family are all from Mosul and she herself was one of Mosul University teachers.

According to media reports, Secretary General of Arab Project in Iraq Mr. Khamis al-Khanjar as one of the Fatah Fraction (One of the two major parliamentarian fractions who back Al-Mahdi Government) allies had recommended Ms. Al-Hayali and supported her for getting vote of confidence. Iraq’s political climate in recent months has witnessed growing concerns for infiltration of Daesh and dissolved Baath Part in the body of the government and top government jobs. The concern raises when we see al-Khanjar is himself accused of having ties with the IS when the group had control on some parts of Iraq. Before picking al-Hayali for the education ministry, al-Khanjar had another pick who had connection with the dissolved Baath Party and he was replaced by al-Hayali because of the public and political parties’ pressures.

Such revelations and allegations, some of them have been verified by video clips, have led to uproar and criticisms from political elites and public opinion in Iraq against Iraqi Prime Minister and Fatah Alliance Fraction over picking such persons for top sensitive government jobs. The unpleasant and controversial climate  in Iraq ultimately forced Al-Mahdi to recommend Savana al-Hamdani to replace al-Hayali and he was introduced to the parliament for getting vote of confidence. But Iraqi lawmakers have announced readiness to discuss the new pick if al-Hayali submits her resignation officially. I wish some machine or equipment were invented in the world which could have x-rayed the intention and true nature of people in order that no traitor to his country could infiltrate into the sensitive posts in their countries.