Palestinian Women Peddlers, Striving to Make out Living

By Ahmed Dabba

Al-Jazeerah, WAFA, December 27, 2004

 

Umm al-Abed carries 30 km of thyme in her hands and other 15 on her head, moving from a neighborhood to another in order to sell them out. The beholder of this scene can simply realize that Um al-Abed carries a heavier anguish at her heart.

Years ago, Um al-Abed, of Tubas town in Nablus City, has never thought of practicing such a job, which only causes more exhaustion and less money for her 7-member family.

She says proudly, "I never accept receiving financial aid from any one; I do my best in order not to be dependent upon people".

Um al-! Abed has become a well-known peddler as her job granted her popularity among Tubas villages. "After my husband fell ill many years ago, I tried many works", she said "first, I started with breeding sheep, then I moved to farming, but the money these works make are very limited and not promising for a better financial situation".

One of Um al-Abed neighbors convinced her to be a peddler. "I first refused such an idea, but then I found that life needs hard work in order to secure a roof over the heads of my children".

She is a woman among other Palestinian women who were forced to put leisure aside, simply because they do not have it, and knock peoples' doors to sell their goods.

Um Ahmed, of Tubas, a peddler of honey cans, is one of those women. "I sell my product myself, I go to the customer wherever he is, because if I don not, the product will go bad. This way proved a great success for product marketing", Um Ahmed said.

She explained how she does sell ! her product. Um Ahmed uses a hired taxi to distribute the honey cans to supermarkets and groceries, "distributing goods by a car is easier than carrying them, I use a taxi, but some other women move from a house to another to sell their goods which costs them more sufferings and less sales" Um Ahmed said while packing honey cans.

Many women had to work as peddlers because of the deteriorating economic situation caused by Israel's tightened siege on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Husbands are jobless, and women do their best to help. They, carry goods, pass through Israeli military checkpoints, subjected to search and sometimes arrest.

It is really humiliating and hard, they knock every door to sell the goods and products they have, refusing their doors to be knocked by well-to-do and philanthropist people to offer aid to them, but let us ask who is behind all this?