With her profession, preserved Kurdish dress, heritage’s authenticity

RINAS REMO / QAMIŞLO

Turkia Dawoud is a 62-year-old woman who works in the field of tailoring and sewing the traditional Kurdish dress. She finds in her profession the originality and heritage of the Kurdish people. She depends on her profession in managing her home, and she still keeps the sewing machine which she inherited from her mother 48 years ago.

Turkia has started sewing clothes since she was 14 years old because of the need of her family and the difficult situation of living. She learned sewing from her mother and started to help her mother slowly until she mastered the profession. After getting married, she bought a sewing machine and completed her profession. She sometimes works on her mother’s machine.

With her hard work, Turkia was able to teach her six children until they got university degrees. She finds in her profession the enjoyment and yearning as she is one of the few women at the present time who still maintains this profession. In addition, continuing work has gained her extensive experience.

The phenomenon of wearing the Kurdish traditional and folkloric dress which is worn by women only at Nawroz has renewed after the outbreak of the 19th July Revolution in 2012 in Rojava and North Syria.

Turkia explained that her profession continues to this day and spread more than before in the recent years. Turkia added, "Women in this area began to wear the Kurdish traditional and folkloric uniforms, and they are no longer limited to Nawroz Eid, but they wear the Kurdish uniforms at most occasions, especially in the recent years."

Making one piece of uniforms used to take her half a day of the process of cutting out and sewing on the machine, but after getting old, she has been working per day from two to four hours only.

H/S

ANHA