The Media Line recently reported on the continued issuance of fake degrees in Iraq. This was a process that started during the 1990s and continues into the present time. It means there are thousands of unqualified professionals and politicians in Iraq.
The Media Line talked to Dr. Mahdi Mohammed a former member of the Iraqi Medical Association. He estimated that 30% of doctors have fake degrees. Nurses also have a similar problem.
A worker at the Planning Ministry said that up to half of Iraq’s ministers, directors and politicians have fake college diplomas as well.
Diplomas are easily purchasable in Iraq and in other countries. For example Baghdad found that 27,000 fake degrees were issued by Lebanese schools to Iraqis. In 2023 a master’s degree could be bought for $5,000-$15,000 and a PhD for $10,000-$20,000.
This all started in the last years of Saddam Hussein’s rule. Top officials wanted the prestige of a college degree and by hook or by crook acquired them. Sometimes they went to class but pressured their professors to pass them or else. Other times they simply bought them. This was part of the growing corruption that occurred during the sanctions era of the 1990s.
After 2003 graft and theft exploded as the new elite seized control of the state and looted it for their own gain. They continued many of the practices from the Baath era such as the use of fake diplomas. The economy and politics suffer as a result of so many unqualified people being employed and elected to office.
SOURCES
Bashir, Ala, The Insider, Trapped In Saddam’s Brutal Regime, Abacus, 2005
Ebrahim, Hudhaifa, “‘It’s Different in Medicine’: Iraq’s Fake Degree Crisis Puts Patients in Peril,” The Media Line, 10/6/25
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