It is operated by 100 women and produced for foreign export...a factory for women only in Iraq (vide

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[size=52]It is operated by 100 women and produced for foreign export...a factory for women only in Iraq (video)[/size]

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12-22-2023
A date canning factory in the Husseiniya district of Karbala Governorate provided a job opportunity for about 100 women from poor and needy families. Its workers sort tons of dates before packaging them and exporting them to foreign countries that demand the Iraqi product.[/size]
[size=45]The owner of the factory, Hussein Abboud, says, “The work of packing dates dates back to 1998, and the factory was established in 2009 after receiving a loan from the government.”[/size]
[size=45]A lab led by 100 women[/size]
[size=45]Abboud explained in an interview, “The factory includes about 100 workers of different ages ranging from 18 to 70 years, and the work is distributed in a manner consistent with the age of the worker, as among the tasks of younger workers are jobs that require movement and transportation, while older women work in “Sorting.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The female workers are generally from different governorates and are not from Karbala only, as there are those from Dhi Qar who live with their relatives in the governorate. As for those in Babil Governorate, there is a special transportation line that takes them back and forth daily.”[/size]
[size=45]He continues, “Work is 6 days a week and Friday is a holiday. Work begins at 7 a.m. until 4 p.m., and there is an hour for a lunch break from 12 to 1 p.m. As for wages, they are fixed at 20 thousand dinars per worker per day.”[/size]
[size=45]He explains, “The work is for only 7 months a year, starting in September with receiving dates from the farmers, and the work continues until April, and the peak of work is in the months (November, December, and January) of each year, due to the large demand for “Dates.”[/size]
[size=45]He notes that “the production is not for the local market, but rather all of it is exported abroad to several countries, most notably India, followed by Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Yemen, and this year’s export is estimated at one thousand tons per month.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Zahdi dates, according to Abboud, are “the most common type of dates that are canned, due to their abundance locally. Plastic boxes are distributed to farmers from Karbala and Babylon, from Kut and Suwayra in Wasit, and from Tarmiyah in Baghdad, to pack the first-class dates, and then these dates are brought in.” To the factory for canning in preparation for export.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the impact of the dollar crisis on work, he points out that “the movement of the dollar exchange rate up and down affects work, as sales abroad are made in dollars, so there is a loss when the farmer pays in Iraqi dollars.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the reason behind employing women in this factory, he says, “Female workers are better than young men at sorting dates, because they can work for 6 hours without interruption, while young men do not usually have this patience. Rather, they love movement, so the main reliance is on them in the date sorting process.”[/size]
[size=45]A perfect struggle story[/size]
[size=45]Umm Saad (65 years old), from Babil Governorate, did not surrender to the circumstances of life after her husband’s death, but rather faced them with courage to raise her children. She was keen to complete her daughters’ studies and married her four children by working only in the date factory.[/size]
[size=45]Umm Saad, who is responsible for women in the factory, told Shafaq News Agency, “I have been working for more than 20 years in this factory, because after the death of my husband, he did not leave me a salary to spend on my young children at the time, and one of them was only 6 months old at the time.” “.[/size]
[size=45]She confirms, “This work preserved my home, as I was able to provide my children with the expenses they needed, as my daughters completed their studies from it, and never went out to work, and I also married my four children to this work as well.”[/size]
[size=45]She points out that “the workplace provides comfort for all women, and they feel as if they are at home, and I helped employ 20 women from Babylon in this work, who come with me daily via a special transportation line provided by the factory, which takes us to the factory in the morning, and returns us to our homes in the evening.”[/size]
[size=45]A golden opportunity for women[/size]
[size=45]Another worker in the date packing factory, Umm Kholoud (32 years old), from Karbala Governorate, says, “This work has been my only source of livelihood for more than 15 years, and it represents a golden opportunity for women to generate financial income for their families.”[/size]
[size=45]Umm Kholoud continues during her speech, “The work is done by women only, and it takes place in a comfortable atmosphere, as the female colleagues help each other at work, and I am satisfied with my work and satisfied with it.”[/size]
[size=45]The spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, had revealed in a previous statement last October that the poverty rate in Iraq ranges between 20.5 to 21%, in a country with a population of more than 43 million.[/size]
[size=45]Iraq used to produce about three-quarters of the world's production of dates, but wars, climate change, and neglect over decades caused its share of global production to decline to only about 5%.[/size]
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