{In a bustling neighbourhood outside of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, a group of Syrian refugee women are learning to translate knowledge of their regional dishes into a marketable skill.}<\/p>\n
They hail from different provinces across the war-torn country, united by their exile in Lebanon, and are hoping their famed cuisine can provide both an income and empowerment.<\/p>\n
For about two months they have been participating in a food skills workship dreamed up by a Lebanese restaurant and financed by the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR with help from the Lebanese branch of the Caritas charity.<\/p>\n
In a modest basement belonging to Caritas in the Dekwaneh suburb of Beirut, Ibtissam Masto proudly shows off her “monk kibbeh” — balls of bulghur wheat seasoned with pomegranate molasses that is a speciality of Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province.<\/p>\n
The petite young woman, wearing a black headscarf, fled several months ago from her home town, which is now better known for violence between rebels and regime troops than its culinary specialities.<\/p>\n
“I had a great life in Jisr al-Shughur before the war. I used to sing anasheed (religious songs) during marriages and funerals,” says Masto.<\/p>\n
“I gave lessons at a religious school and I worked in a pharmacy,” she adds, in a voice full of energy.<\/p>\n
“Here, not only am I unemployed, but my husband, who is a plumber, is diabetic and can’t work every day,” she says as she prepares the pomegranate molasses, a key ingredient in Syrian cuisine.<\/p>\n
“The idea of this workshop excited me. I hope I’ll be able to make some money.”<\/p>\n
Though their primary motivation is financial, the workshop has also given the refugees — most of whom are housewives — a way to feel useful, to forget their exile and the war, and also to get to know Syrians from across their country.<\/p>\n
Participants come from diverse regions including Idlib, northwestern Hasakeh and northern Aleppo provinces.<\/p>\n
For Marlene Yukhanna, an Assyrian Christian from Hasakeh, the experience has been a chance to learn Syrian specialities that were new to her.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old mother-of-three can now whip up the Idlib dish of mahshi bulghur — eggplants stuffed with bulghur and chickpeas — and kibbeh semmayeh, which uses the spice sumac and hails from Aleppo.<\/p>\n
In exchange, she and her friend Nahrain, who both fled Hasakeh three months ago as fighting between Kurds and jihadists there intensified, have been teaching their colleagues their specialties.<\/p>\n
Among them is Assyrian kofta, pounded meat mixed with rice, parsley and tomato sauce, and kotal Mosul, a dish of cracked wheat with meat that comes from Iraq, which the Assyrian community was forced to flee in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
Because many dishes are common to cuisines throughout the Levant, the participants have been encouraged to produce only unique regional specialities little seen elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“We did the same project previously with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and it worked very well,” said Jihan Shahla of Tawlet Souk al-Tayeb, the Lebanese restaurant behind the project.<\/p>\n
“We’re helping them have the ability to do something, to have an income, to build a brand image that will allow them to be sought out to cater a wedding, for example,” she added.<\/p>\n
Every participant carries with them a tale of grief.<\/p>\n
“Hasakeh became unbearable in the last few months,” said Yukhanna, who has short hair and who sports a white T-shirt.<\/p>\n
“The (jihadist) Nusra Front harassed me, demanding that I put on the veil and they destroyed my husband’s car. Then there were kidnappings.”<\/p>\n
Lubana, a 30-year-old mother of eight, cries as she describes the endless bombing that forced her from the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib.<\/p>\n
“My house is destroyed, my husband has heart problems and my children cry because they aren’t going to school in Lebanon,” she said.<\/p>\n
Like her colleagues, she says the workshop has allowed her “to do something in life”.<\/p>\n
Reem Azouri, a culinary consultant, oversees the women as they work, instructing them in the standards necessary for a professional cook.<\/p>\n
“We have to constantly remind them that they are not cooking for their husband or their children,” she smiles.<\/p>\n
“They must learn how to store food, how to avoid contamination, how to set the table,” she adds.<\/p>\n
For Mariam, who fled Aleppo 14 months ago, the real joy of the workshop is the “mini-Syria” it has created.<\/p>\n
“It’s very beautiful. I feel that I’m at home, in my Syria.”<\/p>\n
{{AFP}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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