NewrozDijwar-SinemAkgül/JINHA

SULAYMANIYAH – The women who supply bread across the Federal Kurdistan Region say that they need a union of women workersthat can deal with employment problems in the region.

In the small town of Erbat, near the city of Sulaymaniyah, the local bread production center is the only place in Erbat where women work in significant numbers. Nevin, who has been working in the bread shop for two years and has three children, explains that most women in the region don't work because their husbands and fathers prevent it. She saidthat while women at the bread factory have work, there need to be more employment projects for women.

Nevin says she enjoys working with other women—"every place is more beautiful with women's solidarity," as she said—but women need the right to unionize just like male workers.

Women in the Erbat bread production center work eight-hour days. According to Ruxeş, another bread worker, local women's organizations have not taken an interest in working women's problems. She explained that a union would provide a space where women could fight for their needs.

"Women need to trust themselves," said Ruxeş. "They need to leave their homes and see their own homes. They need to say, 'I can work, too.'"

(mg/cm)