Bêrîtan Elyakut/JINHA

AMED – The thousands of Êzidî women who fled Daesh's attacks on the city of Shengal have now set up a space where they can come together and produce their own goods in their refugee camp in the city of Diyarbakır.

Şükran Mızrak, a staff member at the Ekin Ceren Women's Counseling Center in the city of Diyarbakır, works in the tent city for Shengal refugees, where thousands of Êzidîs live. When the refugees first arrived at the city after a long and dangerous journey from Shengal, said Şükran, Ekin Ceren and the women's organization Congress of Free Women (KJA) worked to assess the psychological and social needs of the women.

"When the Shengal residents first got here, they were closer to each other. There weren't so many tents at that time," she said. With the arrival of more refugees, men began taking over public spaces for their own use and women were increasingly stuck in their tents. The volunteers devoted one tent to a women's center, but it caused discomfort among men almost immediately. They began pressuring their wives and children not to go to the center.

"To stop them getting pulled out, we went from tent to tent trying to gain women's trust," she said. "We got to know them better and they got to know us. Thanks to this trust, we began getting together with the women again."

The women eventually managed to dedicate a two-story building to the women's center, which is administered by 10 Shengal women and four KJA volunteers. When Şükran and the other KJA volunteers noticed that women had few clothes and were only wearing all-white garments, they asked if the women were interested in access to sewing machines.

"They said 'yes, because we all know how to sew and at least it will give us something to work on and help us let go,'" Şükran related. This was the beginning of the sewing atelier.

"Now women are making clothes the way they like and wearing what they want," said Şükran. "We've seen that by being able to dress and look the way they want, their mental health has been improving." The women's center also hosts spaces for making jewelry and children's painting and drawing.

(zd/fk/cm)