Jana Diab, daughter of renowned Egyptian Singer Amr Diab and a former student at Queen’s Gate School, has recently shared an Instagram post detailing her experience at the school. Diab, who has ADHD, talked about how the school was unable to recognise or accommodate her disability, which was undiagnosed for a long time.

Queen’s Gate School is a girl’s day school located in London, England. According to Diab, the school promises to be “committed to achieving academic success for each student, whatever her ability”. Diab goes on to describe how these promises were not kept, but rather that the school pushed her farther from academic success by failing to recognise her ADHD and the effects it had on her studies. Diab explains how she was made to feel helpless by her instructors at the school. She states that she was called “stupid”, “incapable”, “rebellious”, and “lazy” by people who were meant to be her role models at the institution.

Diab discusses having felt labelled and unaided by those who were supposedly only tasked with helping her. Diab describes her experience after seeking help from the school’s learning disabilities teacher, stating that she lacked the patience to aid her properly and was often agitated by her disability. Additionally, Diab said that the teacher used harsh discipline to push her to achieve higher grades, which left Diab lacking confidence and feeling weakened by her disability, which further affected her mental health.

After a 5-year struggle at Queen’s Gate, Diab managed to graduate successfully. Since then, Jana has pursued a degree in vocals at BIMM College, a music college in Brighton, England, gaining a diploma with ease. She is currently in the process of getting a degree in English Literature from Goldsmiths University, a university in London, England. With her ADHD being properly accommodated, Diab has achieved high grades on her assignments, planning on getting a degree in Sociology following her time at Goldsmiths.

With mental health awareness currently being on the rise, such as in the Ramadan series Khaly Balak Men Zizi starring Amina Khalil, Diab’s story only goes to add to said awareness by allowing people to understand the effects of a learning disability such as ADHD and how it can be challenging to manoeuvre without the proper aid and support. Hopefully, Diab’s story will show people how difficult living with ADHD can be, while still showing the importance of coping with it and supporting those who have the disability.