Raising Money, Increasing Comfort

Insignia T-shirts and hoodies are a fashion staple on college campuses across the country—but Tamara Jafar ’09 is taking this trend and turning it into a cause. The Bagdad University T-shirts that have been appearing on campus amidst the ever-present Harvard paraphernalia aren’t just style statements—they’re a step towards improving higher education in Iraq.

Since December 2007, Jafar has been designing and marketing the shirts, creating the Web site www.rallyforiraq.com in addition to using flyers and a Facebook group. While the arch-shaped logo of the shirt may look simple, it was designed to evoke the spirit of open-mindedness and possibility for improvement that is crucial to the cause.

“We’re trying to start an initiative, to raise awareness and keep Iraq in the public mind,” says Jafar. “And we’re doing that while investing in something tangible—Iraqi higher education—in an apolitical movement.”

Although Jafar just started selling the shirts last week, she has joked with her parents, who both graduated from Baghdad University, about putting their alma mater on college apparel for several years. After working with the Iraqi Ministry of Education at the Iraq embassy in Washington, D.C. last summer, Jafar had the idea to use such T-shirts to raise money for Iraqi higher education, aiming to defray as many expenses as possible for Iraqi students studying abroad.

Elizabeth A. Goodman-Bacon ’10, who recently bought a shirt, says, “I think by selling the shirts here they’ll reach younger crowds in the college scene, and students are the perfect audience because the goal is higher education.”

The T-shirts cost $20, and all proceeds will go directly towards establishing scholarships at undergraduate and graduate schools that admit Iraqi students in high numbers. After raising nearly $1,500 in the first five days, Jafar hopes to make the scholarships available next fall.

While supporting higher education in Iraq is certainly an admirable reason to buy the shirts, comfort is another.

“If I bought the shirt, I’d probably be naked all the time underneath it,” says Michaela M. Pewarski ’10.

And Harvard students aren’t the only ones donning Jafar’s creations: the T-shirts have been shipped to destinations as far away as London, and Jafar plans to eventually send them to Iraq—fully aware of the possibility that they won’t go over well.

“If they’re looted, at least somebody somewhere is wearing a Baghdad University T-shirt,” she says.