For many Syrian women, the dried fig season represents an opportunity to ease the living burdens that have burdened their families after long years of war and its economic repercussions. Behind every dried fig is a story of struggle of a woman trying to secure a source of income that will help her family meet the demands of life.
Between Safaa Alwan, who seeks to support her injured husband and provide for her six children, and Alia Al-Dairy, who assumed responsibility for raising her four children after the loss of her husband, the suffering of women is repeated and its details vary. But what unites them is the insistence on turning this seasonal work into a source of livelihood that supports the family and gives it greater resilience under difficult circumstances.
After her husband was injured, Safaa searches for livelihood among the fig trees
Since her husband was injured by a shell fragment during the war, Safaa Alwan, 39 years old from the city of Kafranbel, found herself facing double family responsibilities, in light of her husband’s declining ability to work, and her need to secure the daily life requirements of her six children.
Safaa works in drying and packaging figs. For her, this work is not just a seasonal job opportunity, but rather a way to contribute to supporting her family and facing difficult economic conditions. Through the stages of preparing and preparing the fruits, she tries to take advantage of the season to provide income that helps her meet the needs of her children.
Safaa says: “I work in drying figs and selling them to earn a living. During the summer, I begin by buying figs or picking them from the vines, then processing, preparing and packaging them, in stages that require time, effort and careful follow-up.”
She explains that the drying process begins with leaving the fruits on their branches until they wither and fall to the ground, before collecting them and spreading them in designated places until they dry completely, then moving to the processing and packaging stages.
Between work and childcare
Between long working hours and the demands of childcare and housekeeping, Safaa tries to balance her family responsibilities with her quest to provide a source of income. Her children’s needs do not stop at the limits of the season, which makes it necessary for her to continue working in agricultural workshops to cope with the daily burdens.
Between fig trees and drying and packing workshops in the Idlib countryside, Syrian women continue to work to secure their families’ needs, benefiting from an agricultural season that provides them with a limited opportunity for income amid difficult economic conditions.
While this opportunity represents an important support for women who bear the responsibility of supporting their children, their ability to meet family needs remains dependent on the amount of income, the continuity of work, and the availability of marketing opportunities.
After widowhood, dried figs are a source of livelihood for Aliya and her children
If Safaa's husband's injury prompted her to search for an additional source of income, Alia Al-Dairy (41 years old) faced a different challenge after the loss of her husband, so she also found in the dried fig season an opportunity to secure her family's needs. Since the loss of her husband about ten years ago, she has been alone in facing the responsibility of raising her four children and providing for their living needs.
With increasing burdens and difficult economic conditions, Alia resorted to searching for job opportunities that would provide her with income that would help her support her family. The fig drying workshop in the village of Nahlia in the Idlib countryside was one of the stations that I relied on to earn a living and meet the requirements of daily life.
Alia participates in the various stages of preparing dried figs, starting with sorting and preparing the fruits, all the way to packing and wrapping them. This work requires patience, precision, and continuous effort, as female workers spend long hours to complete the required tasks, hoping to secure an income that will help meet their families’ needs.
Alia points out that women constitute the largest percentage of workers in fig drying workshops in the region, as this agricultural activity provides an opportunity to earn income, especially for women who bear the responsibility of supporting their families.
For Aliya, work represents a way to provide what she can for the needs of her four children, in light of difficult living conditions that force her to constantly search for sources of income that help her continue to shoulder her responsibilities.
Declining production increases pressure on farmers
The journey of dried figs is not without economic challenges, starting with the costs of purchasing and processing the crop, and extending to packaging and transportation requirements, all the way to the difficulty of marketing it in markets that allow achieving an appropriate return.
Waheed Shanbo, head of the Statistics Department of the Idlib Agriculture Directorate, explained to DW that fig production in Idlib Governorate for the current season amounts to about 10,934 tons, compared to about 13,274 tons last season, a decrease estimated at about 2,340 tons, or a rate of approximately 17.6%. This decline is mainly due to the impact of weather factors and climatic conditions on production for this season.
Shanbo points out that the most prominent difficulties facing fig farmers in Idlib Governorate are weather fluctuations and their impact on the growth, setting, and ripening of fruits, in addition to disruption of the pollination process in some orchards, and the accompanying fall of fruits and decreased productivity. Farmers also face high agricultural service costs, as well as marketing difficulties, and the need to improve sorting, drying and packaging processes, to ensure maintaining the quality of the crop and increasing the economic return for the farmer.
Shanbo added: “Fig trees are exposed to a number of pests and diseases that affect tree growth, fruit quality, and production quantities, the most prominent of which is the fig fly, some insects that infect ripe fruits, and stem borers.”
Marketing challenges and efforts to improve production
The most prominent challenges of marketing figs are the rapid spoilage of fresh fruits, the need to market the crop within a short period of time, in addition to the limited storage, packaging and manufacturing capabilities of some producers, and the variation in prices depending on the quality, supply size and demand in the markets.
Shanbo points out that the Agriculture Directorate is working to enhance interest in the fig crop as one of the important agricultural crops in Idlib Governorate, by focusing on agricultural awareness and guidance, improving practices used in serving orchards, reducing pests and diseases, and encouraging farmers to follow sound agricultural methods that contribute to raising productivity and improving the quality of the fruits.
Fig drying workshops... from preparing the fruits to the markets
Areas in the Idlib countryside are famous for growing figs, especially the areas of Jabal al-Zawiya, where there are workshops specialized in drying the fruits, pressing them, and preparing them for marketing, which provides job opportunities in the various stages of production.
Kamal Al-Alawi, 50 years old, a merchant and owner of a fig-drying workshop, says, “This activity represents a job opportunity for women in the Idlib countryside, especially those who bear the responsibility of supporting their families.”
Al-Alawi explains that the workshop in which he works includes ten women, and the tasks are distributed among them according to the stages of preparing dried figs, starting with sorting the fruits according to size and quality, then washing them to remove impurities, all the way to drying and sterilizing them.
He adds that the figs are placed in special rooms for 24 hours during the processing stages, before the process of putting the fruits into necklaces or pressing them into molds of different shapes and weights begins, so that the process ends with wrapping and packaging in designated boxes, in preparation for putting the product on the market or exporting it abroad.
Behind every stage of preparing figs, from collecting the fruits to packing them in boxes, stand women trying to transform hours of work and effort into a resource that helps them cope with the burdens of life.
As living and economic challenges continue, there remains a need for more stable job opportunities and markets capable of absorbing local production, allowing female workers to exceed the limits of the agricultural season and access a more regular income that helps them secure their families’ needs throughout the year.
