labor/economy

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.

09:38

Maryam Rouhani began to work as a hairdresser and then she became a car mechanic. “Despite many challenges such as heavy working conditions and unsuitability of the workplace, I will continue to work even if I have to break gender stereotypes,” Maryam Rouhani said the door of the business life didn’t easily open for women.

13:17

Disabled Samaneh Mohsenpour has become the first wheelchair mechanic in Iran Golestan Province. She applied for a loan to open a repair shop and her application was rejected, but she never gave up and rented a storeroom with her own means to repair wheelchairs.

17:57

Workplace accidents killed at least 249 workers in April in Turkey; 19 of them were women, says the report published by the Workers' Health and Occupational Safety Council (ISIG).

14:02

In the past, most people sent cards to each other to celebrate special days but this culture has been disappeared in many countries but not in Palestine. Still, most Palestinians have sent special day cards to their friends, relatives. Shehid El Hisin has produced colorful special day cards to make a living.

13:15

Women’s employment rate is very low in Egypt. But there is also an invisible side of employment: women participating in production from their homes without any guarantee. The number of these women is quite high.

13:42

We spoke to working women in Southern Kurdistan, where women’s labor force participation rate is very low. The women told us they had faced many difficulties before starting their working life. The rate of women’s participation in the labor force is 11 percent in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

14:26

Trade Union of Employees in Public Health and Social Services (SES) issued a written statement to mark the International Day of the Midwife, celebrated every year on May 5. Midwives demand their roles and responsibilities to be clarified and their professional independence to be reinstated.

15:11

Firik is planted in the fall and grows over winter to be harvested in early summer. Some researchers say that Firik is a type of wheat and grows especially in the Euphrates basin. These days, Firik has been harvested and it will be one of the basic foods such as bulgur and rice. People serve Firik when they have special guests.

09:35

Nevin Kızılöz, Representative of the Ankara Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) Women's Commission, criticized the ban on Labor Day celebrations in Turkey saying, “We will keep hanging our posters and banners on our buildings, workplaces, homes, streets, and squares for Labor Day and we will announce our demands. We will turn our houses, workplaces and streets into space for Labor Day with the slogan ‘We Are Here and We Will Build A New World By Ourselves.'”

16:25

“Although 10 to 15 thousand employees lost their lives due to occupational diseases, which we describe as workplace homicide over the long term, according to official statistics nobody seems to have died since 2013,” said social scientist Aslı Odman.

09:40

Iman Süleyman bought a bag of flour to make bread in Til Temir and now she has her own bakery. “Women can work in every field under all conditions. We can heal the wounds of war with solidarity,” she said.

10:38

Felek Tülay collects flower seeds from Hevsel Gardens and plants them on her balcony. She then sells the colorful flowers to stand on her own feet.