Gender-Based Violence
What we owe the women who survive — and the ones who don't.
Medical Student · University of Duhok · Class of 2027
Noorain
’27 University of Duhok
Noorain M. Assim ✦
Medical Student · 2027
Noorain · in scrubs · '26
Future doctor. Current human.
“I ranked first in my year — and that rank earned me my seat in medicine. I didn't drift to the bedside; I earned my way here. ”
— Noorain, on becoming a doctor
I'm in my fifth year at the University of Duhok College of Medicine — almost-doctor, very human. I began in the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2020 and finished my first year at the top of my class; that rank is what carried me to the bedside. People call it a switch — really, I just earned my way to the right place. The calling for human medicine wasn't loud. It was patient. It waited for me, then it won.
Before medicine, I learned about people. In 2017 I joined DYLEP — the Duhok Young Leaders Exchange Program — running a Lollipop Campaign about kindness and dialogue sessions about everything we usually don't say. In 2018 I was selected for IYLEP, a one-month leadership program in the United States. Since then I've worked with ALIND on refugee and IDP programs, volunteered with the Peace Cell Project telling stories to children with blood diseases and cancer, and trained in business and marketing with Ignite and Five One Labs in Erbil.
Now I'm in IFMSA-Iraq's SCORA committee, where we hold the conversations our communities aren't holding loudly enough — sexual health, HIV, the things that save lives when we name them. I host a podcast where I interview doctors I admire about who they are before the white coat. I speak six languages, take photographs, edit video, and read more than I should at 3 a.m. before exams. I am, by my own description and unashamedly, a nerd.
— with care, Noorain
She speaks Kurdish at home, Arabic with the patients, English with the world, French and Aramaic and Urdu when the conversation finds its way there.
Six languages · one bedside manner
The Path So Far
A prescription for becoming.
One slip per year, signed and stamped.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2017
Patient · Noorain, age 18
Dx · DYLEP — Duhok Young Leaders Exchange Program
Rx · Lollipop Campaign and dialogue sessions.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2018
Patient · Noorain, age 19
Dx · IYLEP — Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program
Rx · One month in America. Selected alumna.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2020
Patient · Noorain, age 21
Dx · College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Duhok
Rx · Finished first in my class — the rank that earned my seat in medicine.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2021
Patient · Noorain, age 22
Dx · Earned my place in the College of Medicine
Rx · Top marks opened the door — I walked through it.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2021
Patient · Noorain, age 22
Dx · Peace Cell Project — Volunteer Storyteller
Rx · Telling stories to children with blood diseases and cancer. Still ongoing.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2022
Patient · Noorain, age 23
Dx · ALIND — Work with IDPs and Refugees
Rx · Programs for the displaced.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2023
Patient · Noorain, age 24
Dx · Ignite + Five One Labs, Erbil
Rx · One-month business and marketing program.
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Dr. Noorain (in training)
U. of Duhok · Class of '27
Date
2024
Patient · Noorain, age 25
Dx · IFMSA-Iraq — SCORA Committee
Rx · Sexual and reproductive health advocacy and education.
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To: future Dr. Noorain
2027
Graduation — (The white coat that's coming.)
— open on graduation day —
On Air
Heart Sounds
Conversations with the doctors I admire.
Assault & Harassment
The conversations we should have been having out loud.
Early Marriage
Childhood is not a wedding gift.
In Frame
Moments
Snapshots from the life behind the white coat — tap any to read the story.
Get in touch
Say hello.
For podcast guests, collaborations, speaking — or just to say hi.
dr@nooorain.com