The sewing factory

Loud western music is playing from the radio. Ventilators spin, windows are open, air is still hot and includes a lot of steam produced by ironing. Around 30 women are sitting by the sewing machines, standing by the tables cutting the extra yarns from the clothes, putting the ready costumes to hangers and then to plastic bags. All the work is done step by step and the clothes pass by every woman with a different task allocation; seam for the sleeve, seam for the trouser leg, turn, give for the next person, iron, new peace of fabric. 

Some girls are working only for the summer, some women have already many years' career behind them. The summer employees are in general happy with the experience they can get through this factory. However, working days are long, from 8 am to 5 pm and the word dream job means something else than this. One wants to become a professional handball player, for their daughters the older women wish the possibility and the strong will to continue their studies.

Among all the women there is one man working for repairing the machines. In his opinion it's easier to work with women, there are not so many problems then. At first sight one could have thought that the man was working on a different level, but this time it isn't about the hierarchy. The job description of a man is different, but the highest responsible in the room is a woman.

The clothes will be sold in France. Most likely at a much higher price than which is shown in the salaries. In the conversations many women mentioned the wish to travel to, for example, Paris. In reality, we are the first foreign people they meet. The music keeps playing and for that while different worlds come together.

To meet and to ask

Today we walked around the Medina with our surveys and were positively surprised about how many people were willing to give time for discussion. Thank you for all those who participated! Also the trust we had in those conversations was something which made us feel good. In the beginning when we started with the surveys it was hard to know how taboos may affect to the answers we got. Now we are starting to have something on which to base our overview, without local knowledge it would still be hard. 

The opinions of the society live deep in the Tunisian culture. While doing the surveys face-to-face, yes/no questions are not the ones which matter at that moment. The most interesting answers come after those ones; the glimpses to their opinions after sharing the general situation, they made me listen carefully even when the talk is happening in Arabic. In those moments you just want to follow all the face expressions, and little signs which could give some information. The translation rarely reaches those but it’s about the power of meeting.

For me a stopping moment was when the discussion led us to a point when the other party was surprised that having children outside of marriage is legal somewhere. Also meeting people who personally know a victim of violence and hearing about the challenges women can face when remarrying because they will be the ones judged for the divorce, negative colored feelings about the future after the revolution, they make you think. And they make you want to continue every day. For sure we are here for a reason.

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Tozeur - weekend in the south

Those tourist shops in the middle of nowhere selling 'sea flowers'.

The road crossing the salt sea.

Waves of a different kind of ocean.

Paradise called Résidence Loued Hotel in the middle of my personal heat record, +42°C.

I have never seen this many palm trees at the same time. Welcome to the jungle for real.

Every tourist who appreciates herself goes to see the Star Wars scene when visiting Tozeur.

Sahara is only one type of a desert, but really a breathtaking one.

The mirage exists (even though you wouldn't believe it by looking this picture).

Appreciation towards water just got new definition during this trip. Even the wind coming from the window while driving a car was just burning hot, like being in a dry sauna, continuously. Many of the locals still had jeans or black dresses on. No idea how they survive. My feet were burning in sandals. The clothes which were wet of sweating could have been considered for a while as refreshing, but for that you need some good imagination. Challenging environment, new experiences, this was definetely one example of it.

P.S. Palm trees produce dates instead of coconuts here. Water bottle of half litre is useless. But cold water, it's heavenly.

Kerkenah islands

These beautiful landscapes taught me that there are still places where women's and men's jobs exist in career planning as well as the mindset of children. However, in those places as well there are strong women who believe in their abilities of being the role model for the next generations and taking the needed initiatives for change.