It is no new phenomenon that students in Iraq are exposed to physical punishment at the hands of their teachers. But a video posted on YouTube and social media sites on March 25 showed a school principal slapping students violently in their faces. Ali Hassan, a teacher from the Maysan governorate in southeastern Iraq, told Al-Monitor that the students in the video are 8-10 years old. According to the educational media manager for the Maysan governorate, Mohammed Hamza al-Kaabi, the video had been in the possession of the Directorate of Education for two weeks before it went viral on social media.
As a result, there was a massive wave of demands to dismiss the principal on the grounds of using excessive violence, and to prosecute him.