The harvesting goes on until the last olives are left on the branches. Kobani (Kobanê) is one of the regions where the olive harvest is not yet finished. The women of Kobani work hard to finish the last olive harvest of the year. Olives are divided into two classes when collecting; those for the table and those to be made into oil…
Agriculture is collective, disciplined and collaborative work and a long-term and labour-intensive endeavour.
Edle Mehmud, a 42-year-old woman from Bubane village in Kobani, talks about the last harvest of the season, Jinha Agency reports.
“Olives take a lot of work. You give your life, it’s hard,” she says, adding that she likes it anyway.
“It did not rain enough this year. If it had rained, we would have started the harvest earlier. We begin by collecting the ones that are turned to purple, we do not touch to the green ones,” she states.
Another woman farmer, Leyla Hemade from Ziravikê village says that they usually work collectively during the harvest.
“The villagers come to help when we harvest; People who don’t have work come to help. Sometimes they bring tea or coffee. We’re happy together. Friendship and solidarity are good.”
She continues:
“These are our olives, we work according to our needs, and harvest accordingly. On big farms they hire people to help, but this is our land and we work for ourselves, we have enough time. Sometimes we listen to saz music while we work. We brew and drink our tea and have breakfast. We work for ourselves, as I said, we have time.”
