labor/economy

09:44

Hot weather begins and the Covid-19 pandemic has been slowed down a little bit. It is time for cold drinks and ice cream. If you have a chance to go to Halabja, you should visit the cold drink shop of Sîdar. All products, including fruit ice cream and cold drinks, she sells in her shop are organic.

10:24

Berivan Yardımcı is a beekeeper in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari province. She takes care of her beehives for four seasons; she makes a living by selling honey she collects from the beehives. She is the only woman doing this job in the city and her aim is to expand her business.

10:24

Ömür Özdemir had a private business with her husband. After getting divorced; she entered a hard life with her daughter İdil. The heavy debt left from the private business caused economic problems for her. She began to sell apricots of her hometown to overcome her economic problems. “Don’t turn back even if an avalanche engulfs your way,” she told women despite her difficult journey.

11:08

Safiya Ereğli has made a living from her grain milling facility she opened 20 years ago in the Suüstü village of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district. Despite her age, she keeps working on graining wheat, chickpeas, and corn and she feels bad when she doesn’t work.

11:47

Female domestic workers are called slaves of this century. They are among those who have been forced to work for peanut and cope with their poverty alone. June 16th is International Domestic Workers Day and we try to explain the working conditions of female domestic workers in this article.

15:47

When someone talks about Libya, we first remember how its oil reserves and rich territory, and surely Libya’s civil war broke out in 2011. Do Libya’s rich oil reserves affect women’s daily life? Of course no! Women have been deeply affected by poverty in Libya. According to the statistics regarding poverty in Libya, about 33 percent of Libyans live at or below the poverty line. Female micro-entrepreneurs have been organizing under the umbrella of the “Uniqueness Empowerment Organization” against poverty in the country. Women working from home, women having a profession but unable to find a job come together under the same umbrella to have their economic freedom. We spoke to Hind Albshari, the Program and Projects Director for Al Mezan Development Organization, and the Founder and Chairwoman of the Uniqueness Empowerment Organization, about their projects.

09:12

Hüsna Dolan, who was forcibly displaced from the Daralan village of Amed’s Lice district to Mersin province years ago, worked in Mersin as a seasonal farmworker and decided to return to her village a year ago. She built a greenhouse in her village and now she grows green peppers, tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers. She sells these products to sellers of vegetable markets to earn a livelihood.

10:01

The wood painting was a hobby for Selahat Bayram but she managed to turn her hobby into a business. Now, she has a workshop and provides inspiration for many women. “Having my economic freedom is a great feeling,” she said.

15:41

When we go to flea markets, we hear men shouting, “Dirt cheap” but the situation in Tunisia is different because women sell used goods at flea markets. 20,000 women make a living by selling used goods at flea markets.

11:47

49-year-old İlham Yûsif is a mother of four and much known for being a hardworking woman, she struggles to make a living. She lives in the Hemra village of Hasekê’s Til Temir district and raises her children alone and holds on to life by working.

09:00

Zuzax is an herb growing on the mountain highlands of Amed’s Kulp district. The women of Kulp beat Zuzax in a mortar after collecting them. Hayriye Tekin is one of these women, “People can use this herb to heal themselves and make money by selling them,” she said.

12:52

Zahra Marwa has worked as a taxi driver in Lebanon for 17 years. She also raises her three children. She was forced into child marriage when she was 14 years old and she is now a member of an association working to stop child marriage.

11:37

Berivan (Milkmaid) women living in Andaç located close to the Turkish and Iraqi border cross the border every day to milk their goats. After milking the goats, they return to their village. The women say that being Berivan has become their job and they enjoy doing it.

10:02

Aysel Arslan lives in Diyarbakır’s Kulp district and makes a living by working as a shepherd. Even if her job is hard she forgets the hardship of her job because of her love for mountains and animals.

09:48

“A woman’s place is not in the home. The most beautiful thing in this life is to earn your own money without depending on anyone… For this reason, women should work without thinking about what people will tell,” said Şadiye Akboz, who is the only woman working in the historic Eğil district of Amed despite social pressure.

11:05

The journey of Koçer (Nomad) women begins in spring. In Amed, Koçer women move to plateaus on Month Karacadağ for several months with their livestock. Koçer women look after domesticated animals; milk the sheep, make yogurt and cheese, cook for their families, and look after their children. “Even if it is a hard job, we like life on plateaus,” the women say.

09:42

Iranian Kowsar Sadeghi becomes the youngest and first female sailor working at the Caspian Sea.

10:48

Samira Rayesse is a woman working for a union for years in Morocco. They founded a women’s autonomous organization called OFSAF to empower women in the agriculture and forestry sector. She gave information about the OFSAF, a different women's organizing experience.

13:57

Despite the drought, it is the harvest season in Shengal. People living in Shengal have made a living from agriculture and animal husbandry. The women of Shengal keep cultivating their lands despite the low crop yields due to a reduction in rainfall and drought. As an Êzidi proverb says, “On our lands, first Êzidi women wake up, and then the sun rises; because women create the sun.” The women of Shengal wake up early to work in their fields.

15:37

Women living in the Eskiocak village of Amed’s Silvan district have begun to collect grape leaves to make stuffed grape leaves. Women pick grapes up in late summer.