Persevering Women in Syria Share Their Stories
As Syria marks 13 years of conflict, women across the country inspire us with their continued determination, resilience, motivation, and compassion. Below, read stories of two such women: Zainab, a business owner, and Hurriyah, a farmer.
Zainab, 53, lost her parents at a young age. Still, she managed to earn a high school diploma. Today, she lives on her own and takes care of her siblings’ children. In a society where men are expected to be breadwinners and women are supposed to take care of the children and cook, Zainab defies convention and embraces new ideas to live her own life.
Women in Zainab’s community describe her as someone whose “boldness and enthusiasm helped us overcome the fear we lived with and ignore society’s view of us.”
“I lived through suffering and poverty with my siblings after the death of my parents, but that was a motivation to work hard,” says Zainab.
For much of her life, Zainab worked as a seasonal daily wage worker in agriculture. Then, she took one of Action Against Hunger’s livelihood courses on food processing and preservation. Open-minded and determined to find new sources of income, she would discuss business ideas with the other women in the course.
In this project, Action Against Hunger offers women skills training and financial grants. The funds were distributed in two installments, each accompanied by visits to provide guidance and support to recipients to foster their entrepreneurial success.
“The generous financial grant granted to me by the organization served as both a tangible and intangible catalyst, empowering me to procure the necessary tools and raw materials to breathe life into my new business and propel its growth,” says Zainab.
With support from the grants, Zainab started her business. Today, she manufactures and preserves food products such as tomato paste, jams, and pepper molasses, and has also expanded into making clothing, which will help her increase her income and improve her chances of making a profit.
“My products became famous in the weekly bazaar, and because of their high quality, marketing was not a problem,” explains Zainab. “I was able to sell my products quickly. On the days when I did not go to the bazaar, buyers would ask about me, and some customers would even ask about my village so that they could…come and buy my products.”
Zainab is a well-respected, trusted, and admired woman in her community, and she used her good reputation to inspire other women in her community to start businesses and to persuade their husbands to go against cultural norms about traditional gender norms. Both men and women consider her a role model for her patience and perseverance through all the difficulties she experienced in her life.
“Zainab’s boldness and enthusiasm helped us overcome the fear we lived with and ignore society’s view of us as working women.” – Zainab’s neighbor
“Her conversations also had a great impact on our husbands’ way of thinking,” says one of her neighbors. “When they began to see the success of Zainab’s project and that she started to make money, they were encouraged and convinced that we together can start our own projects.”
Many women turn to Zainab for business advice. She is always happy to share the knowledge she has gained from applying the techniques she learned in Action Against Hunger’s vocational training and adds tips from her own experience of the markets. As a collective, Zainab and other women find ways to work together to reduce costs of transportation for supplies.
“My life has completely changed for the better,” says Zainab.
“Previously, I was able to secure money seasonally, and sometimes people might tend to employ younger daily wager regardless of their experience to complete the work quickly,” continues Zainab. “Today, with my project, I will be able to secure my own income and cover my needs throughout the year.”
In Syria, our teams help to restore resilience; provide reproductive health services and primary, maternal and child healthcare; supply water and sanitation in emergencies; support farmers and families through training and income-generating initiatives; and improve access to safe drinking water by strengthening systems.
When Action Against Hunger launched our conservation agriculture project in Hurriyah’s village, she stood out in the crowd of about 135 men and women. Her extensive knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm for agriculture make her a clear leader: when Hurriyah speaks, everyone listens.
Hurriyah, a mother of six children, lives in a rural, tribal community where most families are engaged in agriculture and livestock rearing—a tradition passed down from their families and primary source of income before the conflict in Syria began. Life is slowly returning to normal as the violence has decreased, but economic hardship prevented families from resuming the same agricultural activities. Supply costs have increased, and villagers questioned if it was worth it to risk planting and harvesting crops that could fail to produce profits.
Hurriyah’s father, a farmer and headmaster of the local school, shares a strong bond with her – she is daughter who has accompanied him to the fields since childhood and the most active one among her siblings. Every morning when she was young – and still today, in her forties – she wakes up and heads to the fields, passionately and lovingly working the land.
“Over the years, I noticed that the land began yielding less,” says Hurriyah. “Temperatures have been rising and rainfall has been getting scarcer. I observe the soil every day, it’s no longer the same. The land that used to yield over [445 pounds per acre] now yields less than [178 pounds].”
Climate challenges have directly impacted Hurriyah and her family’s income. She is not the only one to have noticed this phenomenon – most farmers in the area have experienced the same decrease, prompting them to seek solutions.
Starting last year, Action Against Hunger has held several meetings and training sessions with families in the village to discuss conservation agriculture, its methods, and its benefits compared to traditional farming practices. Our approach aims to improve crop yields, conserve natural resources, and improve soil quality using techniques to preserve water and encourage biodiversity, while avoiding the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Persuading the community to adopt these proposed practices meant replacing traditions that have been passed down for centuries. Despite the trust Action Against Hunger has established in the area through our previous projects and practical examples, farmers were not convinced. If a farmer wanted to try conservation agriculture, they feared it might expose them to ridicule or failure they could not afford.
Hurriyah has played a pivotal role in shifting the community’s mindset. Extremely enthusiastic about trying out the new practices, she used her gentle and popular leadership qualities, as well as her extensive farming experience, to convince other farmers.
“I am convinced of this approach and trust the ideas Action Against Hunger is passing on to us,” she explains. “Through this, we have been able to save the costs of plowing the land, as well as fuel, effort, and time, by merging agricultural steps using the seed drill provided by the organization for each conservation agriculture unit.”
Hurriyah has helped to convince more than 50 female farmers out of a total of 400 targeted farmers through daily face-to-face meetings.
“After the first session, discussions began among us – the women farmers – about the conservation agriculture approach,” says Hurriyah.
“I spoke and explained to the village women the importance of this approach and its benefits during all family gatherings and events, to the point where most of our conversations were about conservation agriculture.”
Hurriyah has supported the adoption of conservation agriculture practices by both male and female farmers but has been particularly instrumental in reaching and helping illiterate women.
“Hurriyah helped me during the exams we took in the training; I dictate my answers to her, and she writes… I trust her,” says another neighbor. Hurriyah also simplified examples presented by the trainers or rephrased their words in a simple manner using the local dialect, making the training more accessible.
Hurriyah led women farmers in organizing planting of lentil seeds provided by Action Against Hunger, and many women in the community see her as their role model. As one says: “I wasn’t convinced of this approach at all, but when I saw Hurriyah efficiently working on the new seed drill machine, I asked if I could use it next year.”
As the lentil seeds begin to sprout and grow, Hurriyah, speaking in her cherished local dialect, says: “The fruits of conservation agriculture will increasingly reveal themselves over the years, guaranteeing better yields. I’m proud to be a part of this transformative approach within my community. We also extend our gratitude to Action Against Hunger, hoping for prosperity upon our people and our land.”
