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In War-scarred Iraqi City, Food Business Gives Women Independence

Abir Jassem is busy preparing stuffed vegetables at a kitchen in Iraq's Mosul, where after years of unrest a women-run catering service has helped single mothers like her achieve financial security.

The 37-year-old, who lost her husband while the city was under the control of the Islamic State (IS) group, said she had to get a job to put food on the table for her and her children.

"If I didn't work, we wouldn't have anything to eat," said Jassem.

She is now one of some 30 employees of "Taste of Mosul", which celebrates local delicacies and was founded in 2017 after the northern Iraqi metropolis was liberated from IS jihadists.

Most of the workers -- cooks as well as two deliverywomen -- are widowed or divorced.

Mosul residents are all reeling from the brutal IS rule and the war to defeat it, but for women in Iraq's largely conservative and patriarchal society, the challenges are often compounded.

For Jassem, whose husband died of hepatitis, the catering business has offered a lifeline.

Her family had refused for her to work in any mixed-gender spaces, "but I wanted to work so I would not have to depend on anybody", she said.

For women in Iraq's largely conservative and patriarchal society, the challenges of rebuilding a life after IS are often compounded Zaid AL-OBEIDI

Now she earns 15,000 dinars ($11) a day cooking meals that are then delivered to clients.

Her speciality is Mosul-style kibbeh, a minced meat dish.

"Neither Syrians nor Lebanese can make" some of the recipes her Iraqi city is known for, Jassem boasted, as other women sat beside her at a large blue table were preparing the day's menu.

One cook rolled vine leaves. Another copiously stuffed hollowed-out peppers with orange-coloured rice, and a third made meat fritters.

Only slightly more than 10 percent of Iraq's 13 million women of working age are in the job market, according to a July 2022 report issued by the International Labour Organization.

When the war in Mosul ended in the summer of 2017, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR estimated the number of "war widows" in the thousands.

"Their husbands were often the families' sole breadwinners," the UN agency said.

"Without an income and often with children to support, Mosul's war widows are among the most vulnerable to have been displaced during months of fighting for the once thriving city."

The vast majority of Iraqi women of working age are not in the job market, according to the International Labour Organization Zaid AL-OBEIDI

Mahiya Youssef, 58, started "Taste of Mosul" to allow women to enter the labour market in the battered city.

"We have to be realistic," she said. "If even people with university degrees are unemployed, I wondered what kind of work" would "let them cover their children's needs and be strong women".

Launched with just two cooks, the initiative has since grown and now also provides employment for young graduates, said Youssef, a married mother of five.

Appetisers and main dishes on the menu go for the equivalent of $1-10, and monthly profits top $3,000, according to Youssef, who plans to expand.

She said she hopes to open a restaurant or create similar projects in other parts of Iraq.

Youssef said her passion was "old recipes that restaurants don't make", like hindiya, a spicy zucchini stew with kibbeh, or ouroug, fried balls of flour, meat and vegetables.

One of her employees, Makarem Abdel Rahman, lost her husband in 2004 when he was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda militants.

The mother of two, now in her 50s, delivers food in her car, which she said has drawn some criticism.

"My children support me, but certain relatives are opposed" to her working, she said.

But Abdel Rahman hasn't let that stop her, and said she has found in "Taste of Mosul" a "second home".

Many clients order again, but some have become particularly loyal.

For more than two years, Taha Ghanem has ordered his lunch from "Taste of Mosul" two or three times a week.

"Because of our work, we are far from home," said the 28-year-old cafe owner.

"Sometimes we miss our home cooking, but we have this service", he said, hailing "the unique flavours" of Mosul's cuisine.

The Raw Meat Dish Australians Are Finally Ready For

The dish

Kibbeh nayyeh, Lebanon

Plate up

Not so long ago, the idea of kibbeh nayyeh probably would have made a lot of people pause and reconsider. Bear in mind, there was a time when steak tartare didn't appear on absolutely every menu in every new Australian restaurant (although, in Melbourne, perhaps we'll go back to those days again due to food safety regulations). Even the idea of carpaccio had to be slowly ushered in. So how about the classic Lebanese dish kibbeh nayyeh, a mix of raw minced lamb with fine bulgur and spices?

Punchy: traditional Lebanese kibbeh nayyeh.Credit: iStock

That's a punchy dish: a big plate of raw lamb (or beef or goat), often garnished with raw onion. And yet we as a nation are probably now at the stage where we can recognise the greatness of kibbeh nayyeh, the clean, unadulterated flavours, the fact it works so well on a varied spread of mezze dishes.

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First serve

You can choose between two differing stories of kibbeh nayyeh's origin. There's the likely one. And there's the more colourful one. Let's begin with the likely version: kibbeh nayyeh evolved in the city of Aleppo, in Syria, where inhabitants would slaughter animals on Sundays and feast days and eat the fresh meat raw (explaining the dish's continued association with holidays). The colourful version involves a 13th-century siege in northern Lebanon, in which a group of Christian Maronites were forced to bunker down in a grotto, under attack from Mamluk soldiers. Unwilling to display their position by lighting cooking fires, the Maronites ate their meat raw. The group was eventually captured and killed, though the popularity of their dish of uncooked meat survived.

Order there

Haverhill Woman Seeks A Living Kidney Donor

HAVERHILL — Alexis "Lexi" Bader finds herself in a difficult situation as her kidneys begin to fail.

She was recently accepted as a transplant patient at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was told the wait for a deceased donor is anywhere from six to eight years.

But her need for a kidney is more pressing so she is reaching out to her community and beyond in hopes of finding a living donor.

"They told me I don't have that much time," she said. "A living donor doesn't even have to match by blood type as the transplantation department has a swap program where if someone steps forward to donate in my name, they will find a matching recipient and put me at the top of the list for a donor who is match."

Bader, 70, lives at AHEPA 39 on Buttonwoods Avenue where she spends her days baking and cooking and surprising other residents with her culinary creations.

Lucinda Nolet, service coordinator for AHEPA, said this is the first time in her nearly 10 years at AHEPA that she's heard of a resident who is facing this kind of a health crisis.

"She posted a flyer on our bulletin board and she also posted her situation on Facebook," Nolet said. "Lexi is really an incredible person who sees things very clearly and when conversing with her I find her to be a very real, very lively person who is also very much aware of what she is facing."

A Lawrence native, Bader grew up on Myrtle Street and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1971.

"I left the area in 1978 to work in a Casino in Atlantic City and was there until Foxwoods opened in 1992 and I went to work there as a casino manager until my retirement in 2006," she said. "I eventually moved from Connecticut to Michigan to live near friends then to Mississippi. Since I needed hip surgery at the time, I moved back to Massachusetts to have that done."

She was living in Lowell before moving to Haverhill four years ago, which is around the time when she was diagnosed with kidney disease.

"I have been able to manage it with medication and diet but it's been a difficult balancing act," she said and which she noted on flyers she distributes in hopes of finding a living donor. "While, you may think that I shouldn't be worried if dialysis is available to keep me alive, I must tell you dialysis is not a long-term solution."

In her flyer she said some people are afraid of surgery and what living with one kidney will mean for them. So she provides some basic information about kidney donation, noting that a person needs only one kidney to live a healthy long life, that most donor surgery is done laparoscopically, meaning through tiny incisions, the recuperation period is usually fairly quick, generally two weeks, and that the cost of a potential donor's evaluation and surgery would be covered by insurance.

Bader said she was approved on Aug. 24 to be on Mass General's transplant list. Essentially, a multi-disciplinary hospital selection committee deemed Bader to be eligible for a kidney transplant, however, the hospital advised her that even if a donor is found she would have to undergo additional testing and evaluation to establish that the procedure and immunosuppressive medications to prevent rejection will be safe.

"They are watching my kidney function very closely and I'm being tested every week," she said.

In her efforts to find a living donor, Bader reached out to friends, who have shared her story with others, and she's dropped off flyers at various locations noting she is seeking a living donor.

"A few people applied to be donors but they were rejected," she said, adding that she refuses to be discouraged. "I'm going to continue my search as there are a lot of good people out there and I have to believe that someone will come along. You never know how strong you are until you have to be. I have no family so I have to be my own advocate. I have too much life left in me to give up."

While biding her time in hopes of finding a donor, she spends her days cooking and baking cakes, cookies and other pastries, often to treat other residents.

"She prepares chef-quality and individually-wrapped baked goods which she sets out on a tray in the lobby," Nolet said. "Everything she sets out is usually gone within a few hours. Our residents love her and her food is absolutely delicious."

Bader said her apartment looks like a little factory outlet and is filled with many of her cooking gadgets.

"I think I have every gadget that exists including panini makers, air fryers, and even a Sous Vide cooker," she said. "Cooking is therapy for me and I create recipes and dishes that I share with residents. I love to introduce them to Arabic food such as stuffed grape leaves, stuffed kousa and baked kibbeh and I'll invite a few residents to enjoy it in our community room."

Her personal challenge is to create meals that are kidney friendly. She must limit her intake of potassium by avoiding food staples such as tomatoes and potatoes.

Bader is also a member of several Facebook food groups where she trades recipes and posts photos of her culinary creations.

"It's fun and it's like working for a food magazine," she said.

An avid sewer, Bader once operated an Internet mall shop for artisans.

"I made and sold things I made such as aprons, handbags, and other novelty items," she said. "I'm also a self-taught artist and recently retrieved my painting equipment from storage."

To learn more about becoming a living kidney donor, visit online at mghlivingdonors.Org.

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