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Terms of Use

The rules for using auibsal.org, the Diwan, and Hudhud: who may use them, conduct, submissions and copyright, advertising and sponsorship, reports and removals, and security.

SAL-GOV-05 · Effective Sunday, November 8 · Version 1, proposed · العربية

These terms cover auibsal.org, the Diwan (auibsal.org/diwan), Hudhud (the Society’s Telegram bot), and the Society’s emails. They are run by the AUIB Society of Arts and Letters (“the Society”), a student organization registered with the Office of Student Life of the American University of Iraq – Baghdad (AUIB). The Society is not AUIB, and these platforms are not AUIB systems. How the Society handles personal data is set out in the Privacy Notice (SAL-GOV-04).

Who may use the platforms

  • Anyone may read auibsal.org, play Qirtas’s daily games, and subscribe to the Sunday Paper.
  • Members are AUIB students who join on auibsal.org/membership. Associate Members (AUIB faculty, staff, and alumni) hold accounts too. Guests may create a guest account to RSVP to events.
  • Sign-up uses an AUIB email address; other addresses are verified before they reach member features.
  • One person, one account. Do not share your account or sign in as someone else.
  • High school students taking part in Qalam do not hold accounts.

The rules you agree to

  • These terms.
  • For members: the Society’s Constitution, Bylaws, and Policy Manual, including its Code of Conduct.
  • For AUIB students: AUIB’s Student Conduct and Community Standards Policy and its Student Rights and Responsibilities Charter, which apply to conduct in online settings related to university activities.
  • The laws of Iraq.

Conduct on the platforms

These rules apply to everything you post, send, or upload, and to messages sent in the Society’s name.

  • Be respectful. No harassment, bullying, threats, or intimidation; no discrimination based on race, religion, gender, nationality, disability, or any other protected characteristic; no sexual harassment.
  • Be honest. Do not pretend to be someone else, forge documents, or give false information.
  • Respect privacy. Do not share other people’s personal information, private messages, or images without their consent. Member data seen in the Diwan is for Society business only; do not copy it, export it, or put it into AI tools.
  • Keep the platforms safe. No hacking, probing for weaknesses without permission, unauthorized access, or attempts to get around access rules; no malware, spam, scraping of member data, or automated sign-ups.
  • Content that is not allowed: content that breaks the laws of Iraq or AUIB policy; content that incites violence or hatred or targets a group; sexually explicit content; promotion of political parties, religious or sectarian bodies, tobacco, alcohol, or gambling; and other people’s copyrighted work used without permission.

Creative writing and art may explore difficult subjects. These rules are about conduct, not the themes of the work; what Qirtas publishes is decided by its editors.

Submissions

  • Members send work to Qirtas through Write for Qirtas (auibsal.org/qirtas/write), in every section except Games. Everything is read blind.
  • Work must be your own. Work drafted, written, translated, or generated by AI is not eligible; spellcheck and basic grammar tools are fine. Each submission asks you to confirm human authorship.
  • Plays, music, and images used in your work must have the rights holder’s permission or be in the public domain. Translations name the source text and its author.
  • Plagiarism leads to the withdrawal of the work and may lead to action under the complaints procedure in the Policy Manual. For AUIB students, it is also academic dishonesty under AUIB’s policies.
  • You may withdraw a submission at any time before a decision.
  • Authors keep the copyright in their work.
  • When a piece is accepted, its author grants the Society a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, display, perform, and archive it on auibsal.org, in the printed Edition, in the Sunday Paper, and on the Society’s channels, and to use it with credit to promote Qirtas. Because the license is non-exclusive, the author may publish the work anywhere else.
  • The Publication Agreement, signed in your account when a piece is accepted, sets out the details.
  • Everyone who works on a Society piece or project is credited by name unless they ask not to be.
  • The Society’s name, its logo (the Bookmark and the wordmarks), and its templates belong to the Society. Do not use them to suggest the Society endorses something it has not. AUIB’s name and marks belong to AUIB.

Advertising and sponsorship

  • The platforms carry only the Society’s own notices: its events, open roles, and invitations to join. There is no paid advertising and there are no ad networks anywhere: not on Qirtas, in the Diwan, in emails, or on any other page.
  • Sponsors give in kind, never money: books, printing, a venue, or refreshments, for example. Each gift is recorded on the Needs list, and the sponsor is thanked by name on the event or piece it supported.
  • Sponsors receive acknowledgment, never editorial influence, and an acknowledgment is always labeled as one.
  • The Society accepts no sponsorship from political parties, religious or sectarian bodies, or tobacco, alcohol, or gambling businesses, or from any sponsor that would compromise its independence.
  • An offer of money is declined or referred to the Office of Student Life. The only money handled at a Society event is a collection for a charity, which belongs to the charity, never to the Society.

No payments

The platforms take no payments of any kind. Nobody from the Society will ask you to pay or to give card or bank details online. Report any such request to [email protected].

Reports, removals, and complaints

  • Photos and video of you. Anyone may ask for a photo or video of themselves to be removed; it is taken down within 24 hours, with no reason needed. Email [email protected].
  • Copyright. If you believe content on the platforms uses your work without permission, email [email protected] with the page’s address, the work you own, and how to reach you. The content is taken down while the Society looks into it.
  • Harmful content and conduct. Report it to [email protected] or to any officer. Content that causes harm is taken down first and discussed after. Conduct is handled under the complaints procedure in the Policy Manual (SAL-GOV-03), and serious cases involving AUIB students are referred to AUIB’s Office of Student Affairs. The Society does not replace AUIB’s procedures.
  • Decisions. You may ask the Council to review a Society decision that affects you, such as an editorial decision on your work, a conduct outcome, or the closure of an account, by writing to the General Secretary at [email protected]. AUIB students also keep their right to appeal under AUIB’s procedures.
  • Reports are seen only by the officers who need to act on them, and nobody is penalized for a report made in good faith. Other reports are acknowledged within a week.

Security

  • If you find a security problem, email [email protected] with “Security” in the subject line, saying what you found, how to reproduce it, and what it could affect. auibsal.org/.well-known/security.txt gives the same contact.
  • Please give the Society reasonable time to fix the problem before telling anyone else; do not access, change, or delete other people’s data beyond the minimum needed to show the problem; do not disrupt the service; and do not use social engineering against members or officers.
  • The Society acknowledges reports within a week, keeps you informed, and credits you if you wish. It takes no action against good-faith research that follows these rules. This does not authorize anything that AUIB’s policies or the law forbid on AUIB’s own systems.
  • If your account is at risk, change your password in your account, turn on two-step sign-in, and tell [email protected].

Availability

The platforms are run by student volunteers on free services. They are provided as they are, without a promise that they will always be available or free of errors. The Society may change, pause, or end a feature, and says so on auibsal.org when a change affects members.

Suspension

The Society may limit or close an account that breaks these terms, following the complaints procedure in the Policy Manual (SAL-GOV-03) and, for AUIB students, AUIB’s Student Conduct and Community Standards Policy. An account is not closed without telling the person why, except where a delay would cause harm.

Changes

The Council approves any change to these terms, and members are told of material changes by email.

Contact

[email protected]