MÎHRÎBAN SELAM KAKAYÎ

Halabja- Having been forcibly displaced to Saidsadiq district in North and East Syria, the women struggle to survive under harsh conditions. As the harvest season for potatoes starts in the Sharazoor area of Syria, they have been harvesting potatoes in the fields. They wake up early in the morning to work for hours. They told us that they have to work despite the boiling hot weather.

She works with her four daughters

Werde Abdulah is one of the hundreds of displaced women, who have to work to make a living. She has lived in the Barike camp, a IDPs camp near Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region. The mother of eight, Werde Abdulah has worked in one of fields with her four daughters. “We start working at 4 am until noon and we are paid 15,000 Iraqi dinar per day,” she told us.

They are paid less than last year

Pointing out that they have to work in order to make a living, Werde Abdulah said, “In the previous years, food and water were provided by employers and we were paid 25,000 Iraqi dinar per day. However, we are paid 15,000 Iraqi dinar this year. I have children and have to take care of them. Due to the economic crisis, everything is very expensive and we face difficulties in buying even our most basic needs. But somehow we have to keep living.”