With hammer and saw, Nour al-Janabi builds her latest creation, a candy-pink sofa, in the carpentry workshop she runs in male-dominated and conservative Iraq.
“At the start, relatives criticized me,” said the 29-year-old carpenter and furniture-maker, who is also a mother of four. “They would say: ‘But you’re a woman... You’re an amateur... It’s a men’s trade.’”
Covered in velvet or imitation leather, the sofas and armchairs that she designs, makes and mends in her south Baghdad workshop go from rustic style to Louis XV.
Photo: AFP
Her order book is full, with new lounges starting at a cool 700,000 dinars (US$479.29).
Al-Janabi has been making furniture for several years, and launched her business, Nour Carpentry, a few months ago. She recently moved operations from her home to a house turned workshop, where she has four employees — one of whom is her retired husband.
“But it’s not right to say it like that,” she said with an embarrassed smile, her hijab covering her hair.
Photo: AFP
In oil-rich Iraq, women make up just 13.3 percent of the labor force, World Bank data showed, while the World Economic Forum ranked the country 154 out of 156 in its latest Global Gender Gap Report.
A study published last year by two UN agencies said that while most Iraqis consider tertiary education equally important for men and women, “attitudes toward equal rights in employment are discriminatory against women.”
Al-Janabi attributes her success largely to do-it-yourself tutorials that she first posted on Facebook to share her passion for carpentry and furniture-making.
She uploads videos — about everything from how to re-stuff an old sofa to using a sander — to TikTok and Instagram, where she has more than 94,000 followers.
“I am the first Iraqi woman to do this trade and break the barrier in this field,” she said, in a country still largely dominated by conservative attitudes about women’s role in society, and where those perceived as too independent are sometimes even considered immoral.
She said she receives comments from women and men telling her: “You make Iraq proud and you have accomplished something.”
“May God give you strength and health,” one user commented on a video of al-Janabi presenting a sofa decorated with a floral pattern.
One of her clients, Abu Sajjad, dropped by to see how his sofa repairs were going — untroubled by prejudices some others might harbor against dealing with a female carpenter and business owner.
Most working women in Iraq are teachers or nurses, although a small number have entered the police or armed forces.
One of them is Angham al-Tamimi, who this year became the first female army general.
In a video broadcast by the military’s news service, she said she had “faced the nonacceptance of women in the military.”
However, she said she had succeeded thanks to her “persistence” and “passion.”
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS