Women in Hebron: Cooperation under Occupation

Nawal is mother to 3 children: Yafa (21), Ghassan (20) and Haifa (14). He husband died 5 years ago.
They live in a village called Idna which has about 25,000 residents
Idna is about 8 miles west of Hebron in the West Bank. There is a settlement to the north and the wall is about one mile to the west of the village.
Nawal founded the Women in Hebron cooperative in 2005 … It has grown from her selling in the old market in Hebron to now include 150 women working part-time. Women work at home and bring their work to our centre in Hebron for finishing into products.
In the beginning they sold to the tourists in Hebron, but as the violence got worse, the tourists stopped coming. As a result she has had to travel abroad to find a market for the products.
Women in Hebron is a cooperative. They do not make profits. All monies made from sales goes to the women who make the embroidered goods.
Their work is based on the idea that developing Palestinian handicrafts is more than just an income-generating project. It is in of itself an act of community-strengthening, of honouring the role of women in our society, and a means to show sumud – steadfastness – in the face of the occupation of Palestine and the harm it has done to the people of Hebron.