After the political shift in Iraq in 2003, some armed groups appeared in multiple areas, carrying extreme ideology and calls for the use of violence, under religious cover, against everyone who disagrees its ideology, practicing torture, killings, forcing displacement, captivation of women, recruiting the young and the children and committing many other severe human rights violations damaging people’s dignity. These groups also called for young people to convert to their ideology and join their armed groups using pull factors represented by money, leaderships, and other seductive factors. The armed groups managed to engage these new recruited young and impact other adolescents and young people with their extreme ideology due to psychological pressure and the forcing of school curricula that calls for violent extremism in the study books, like using mathematical calculation by using vocabulary such as, Bomb + Bomb, bullet + bullet. All these practices are aimed at promoting violent extremism for children and young people and raising a generation that practices violent extremism as normal attitude against other community members, and attracting others to follow them. There are other young people at the targeted areas who are considered vulnerable and subject to being radicalized because of the mobilization and pressure who bear these extreme ideologies, and the existing sleeping cells of the remnant of the armed groups.

After 5 years of the repression and elimination of these armed groups from most of the areas that were controlled by them, and the growth of the children and adolescents who supported the extremists and became adolescents and young respectively, there are other young people from these areas who still are subjected to adopting violent extremism due to some challenges including the mobilization and pressure by the sleeping cells of remnant of armed groups in addition to some other reasons which ate considered as push factors for those targeted groups to be radicalized and converting to violent extremism including the following:

–              Poor services and infrastructures in the targeted areas.

–              Unappropriated attitude  by some security forces members towards/against the young people.

–              Lack of employment opportunities for the young.

–              Isolation of young people from making decisions that benefit their areas by the governmental institutions.

–              Poor implementation of purposeful sports and artistic activities and initiatives that can contribute to converting their ideology and preventing violent extremism through engaging children, adolescents, and young people.

–              Neglecting and discrimination among the young on racial, ethnic, and religious basis by the decision makers in governmental institutions.

–              Lack of awareness of the community members about the active participation of females in social life and discriminating them.

–              Other reasons that call for funding and a wider timeline which is not provided until this day.

These reasons are considered as big portion of the motives, push factors, and gaps that usually pushes young people to adopt violent extremism, as they feel rejected, discriminated, isolated and not truly belonging to their communities. These are considered as big problems that threaten the social cohesion, stability, and safety of the community members, as well as the expansion of the problem radios and the possibility of continuation on long term on both time and geographical aspects in case they are addressed ,and that is why this matter requires the intervention of our organization with methodologies that carry root solutions with close term impact and have sustainability and long term impact. .and adopting these methodologies as a priority due to the aforementioned reasons.

NIHR finds itself obligated to contribute to a community free of violent extremism through the development of a sense of belonging and dignity among youth through designing systematic programs to contribute to the increase the resilience of vulnerable community members who are subject to the risk of being affected by the call and mobilization of violent extremism groups.