Mother Ewaş is a skilled woman skilled. In her life, she has learned that social culture can be passed down by women. “Producing our crafts that reflect our culture is our duty and a way to protect our culture,” said Mother Ewaş while calling on all women to protect their identity and culture.

SARA ŞÊX HESEN

Aleppo- We don’t know exactly how old our world is but we know very well how it is fertile and productive or how much valuable mineral it contains. We learn from old people our cultural and social values. We find traces of generations before us when we talk to each mother and then we realize that we also pass these traces down. Each woman is actually a memory of humanity. Each woman is like the cultural attaché of her own society. Mother of five, 50-year-old Ewaş Mihemed sees herself as a woman who transmits-carries her cultural values. She was born in the Meqsud neighborhood of Aleppo, she grew up there. In her neighborhood, she resisted the invasion as much as she has resisted poverty, but she has resisted most to carry the cultural heritage she learned from her mother.

In Kurdish society, women have played a great role in protecting cultural values and passing them down. Ewaş Mihemmed is actually a woman trying to pass down what she learned from her mother to protect her cultural heritage.

Mother Ewaş began making crafts when she was 12

Ewaş Mihemed told us that she began making crafts when she was 12 years old and that she has produced them for 38 years. “When I was a child, I used to carefully watch the women making crafts. I wanted to learn when my mother would teach me. When my mother slowly started teaching me, I was surprised. I always made mistakes and began fearing but my mother always encouraged me to keep making crafts,” Ewaş Mihemed said that she felt bad when she lost her mother but then she realized how her mother left a valuable heritage for her. After her marriage, she continued to make crafts to contribute to the economy of her family. “I love making crafts because it is also like my identity and history,” said Mother Ewaş.

Women’s unity to protect culture

Mother Ewaş points out the importance of cultural heritage while saying that nobody should underestimate making handicrafts. “Women have the primary role to protect their culture and they should be organized to preserve culture,” Mother Eawş said, “Before, women making crafts used to tell each other what they knew. They used to work collectively when someone needed crafts.”

Keeping cultural traditions alive is a duty of self-defense

Ewaş Mihemed called on all women to protect their cultural traditions, “We should always remember our mothers’ labor. There is no more sacred duty than protecting and preserving people’s traditions and culture. All kinds of attacks on us today have actually been carried out against our cultural values. All women should join hands and defend their culture together.”