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Mahiya revives homemade Moslawi cuisine
Mahia Adham, Umm Emad, generated tens of job opportunities to Mosulawi women.

The project started with only two lady assistants and now exceeded 25 working women

By KirkukNow

Mahiya revives homemade Moslawi cuisine

  • 2022-02-06

Mahia Adham, nicknamed Umm (Mother of) Emad, has turned her kitchen at home to ready-made food and later her project “Mosul Flavor” has generated tens of job opportunities to derelict Mosulawi women who lost their partners in the war-torn city of Mosul, center of Nineveh province.

Umm Emad has turned the reality of many women in Mosul into a successful reality thanks to her small restaurant, which started with only two lady assistants and now exceeded 25 working women.

 

The project

Umm Imad has lost two of her sons in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria "ISIS" in Mosul, and her husband died after that. By losing the family breadwinner, her life has turned into a "dark, miserable reality."

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A group of women being trained at Umm Imad restaurant receive certificates of attendance. Photo shared by Umm Imad with KirkukNow

The 56-year-old mother thought about a small business and at the request of several women who lost their husbands also to find a job opportunity for them, she thought of converting her home into a small kitchen to sell ready-made foods.

She liked the idea and appointed other widows and to work with her. The project has developed and turned into a restaurant specialized in the Mosul heritage of the distinctive foods. Um Emad and her team serve several dishes, including kibbeh (minced rice and meat patty), Orouk, Hindi, Zabibiah and many other dishes.

makarim
Makarim Hisham works delivers Umm Imad’s dishes in Mosul. Photo shared by Umm Imad with KirkukNow

 

The delivery woman

The restaurant is open up to ten pm in two shifts with a full female staff starting from the youngest worker to the delivery, whose story is not much different from Umm Imad. Makarim Hisham, 47 years, lost her husband at the hands of unidentified gunmen about 17 years ago thus she was forced to work in order to support her two sons.

Makarim works more than 8 hours a day in the for three years. She held the title of the first "lady delivery" driver in Nineveh, and she is trying to break the stereotype in Mosul that the role of women is limited to house and kitchen work only, and encourages women to work in all fields.

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