VIDEO: Putting men in stiff competition, all-women-staff market opens in Syrian Kurdistan

DERIK (Kurdistan 24) – A female civil society group in the Kurdish self-administration area of northern Syria (Rojava) has opened a popular market for women to sell their crafts in the northeast city of Derik, Kurdistan 24 broadcasted during a tour there on Monday.

Najme Suleiman, the market director, told Kurdistan 24 the idea for the market stemmed from the fact that several women used to sell their homemade products on sidewalks.

“Some women could not work for social restrictions, as not all women are holding certificates, and some are housewives,” she explained.

Staffed by women, these projects are aimed at introducing them to the labor market where they can compete with men.

The idea was to establish a popular market for women to sell their crafts, but it then evolved into a market with actual brick-and-cement stores, Suleiman added.

The market is not strictly aimed at making financial gain and allowing women into the workforce, but it seeks to restore social ties between women and girls given the gap that emerged between them during the war, she commented.

It allows women to develop their expertise and grow more confident in themselves, she stressed.

Twenty-one stores were set up forming the whole market which now appears more like a small shopping mall.

Interestingly, some women working in the market said it is their first experience to have their own business.

“It’s the first time I work, and I am happy with my business,” Khitam Sileman, a roughly 25-year-old shopkeeper, said cheerfully.

In the past few years, after the breakout of the Syrian civil war and after the Kurds have carved an autonomous region in the country’s north, many projects for women have been opened, including restaurants, bakeries, and seamstress workshops.

Opening an all-female-staff market is a new step that may be repeated in other districts of the region.

The market is financially supported by Star Union of Women, a confederation of women’s organizations in Rojava.

The organization’s work is based on the claim that “without the liberation of women, a truly free society is impossible.”

The organization focuses on organizing women’s communes which focus on economic opportunity and development, consciousness-raising, and self-defense for women.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting in Kurdish by Kurdistan 24 correspondent Ferhad Ehme)