Tunisia's 'Queen Bees' support women-led businesses

Reuters Videos
2 年前

STORY: These are Tunisia's "Queen Bees," ecological beekeepers who are also helping other women break into the field.

Mariem Cherni quit her job in the oil sector to open a small ecological bee farm in 2016.

She then founded the 'Bee Treasures' initiative.

It aims to bring marginalized and disadvantaged women together in the field of beekeeping and help them launch their businesses.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) BEEKEEPER, MARIEM CHERNI, SAYING:

"One of the most prominent problems that I faced when I started my project was financing because I’m a woman farmer, still in my beginnings, and I do not own a land. It was difficult to obtain financing, so I relied on myself. The second thing that was difficult for me was dealing with the fellow men in this field. They did not take me seriously, and many of them laughed, and told me you are a woman, what can you do, how are you going to carry heavy things, how am I going to move the cells at night or go to the mountains, and the same ones who laughed at me then, now they call me asking for advice, and these are among the things that I’m proud of."

Souad Mahmoud is a Tunisian agricultural engineer and activist.

She says just 4 percent of women own agricultural businesses or land in the country.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER AND ACTIVIST, SOUAD MAHMOUD, SAYING: "The small percentage of women who own agricultural projects is due to the fact that women do not own the land, and 4 percent is the biggest evidence of the lack of land in their ownership and the lack of response to the reality that women should own the land because people do not rent their lands to women, and secondly because in our culture is that women’s inheritance is half that of the man, and even if she takes her inheritance, she does not inherit the land, she does not inherit the olive trees, and she does not inherit the agricultural land."

Cherni and her team hope their initiative can help more women gain access to the lands they need to start their own business ventures.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TUNISIAN FARMER, FAIZA HAMDAOUI, SAYING:

"We have established this initiative to help women, in order to encourage them to become decision-makers and be able to start an agricultural project and succeed in it. Just because they are women that doesn't mean they must stay at home, no, they can have successful businesses.