Video: Why are Iraqi women afraid to enter the business world?

Iraqi Zylan Cerwood welcomes a smile and pride to her customers who gathered around her fast food truck in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, but her project, launched recently, requires a green light, not from the financier but from her family.

Cerwood, 22, started its Zee Burger fast food business last month in Erbil. Its yellow-and-purple truck stands opposite a downtown public park, where customers are mostly young.

In a conservative Muslim-majority society, Sirwood considers convincing relatives to be the first obstacle. She says she heard some people say, "What forces her to open a restaurant, she has a father and a brother?" You should not listen to criticism if you have an idea or want to develop yourself.

The Serwood family agreed to the move and received funding from the German Development Agency for the purchase of mobile kitchen equipment. Her father helped her buy equipment, and took turns with her brother at work too.

“I am very happy now, because I have my own business, I feel free and I show everyone that this is what I can do,” she said.

Emerging Projects
Women make up 15 percent of the workforce in Iraq, one of the lowest in the world, according to a demographic survey conducted by the KRG last year.

Around 75% of female employees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq work in the government sector, making women's projects rare and private.

Workers face many obstacles, including defamation by traditionally conservative conservatives, who view economically independent women as too liberal and too liberal to a level that they call decay.

"What destroys women in our society is the word of shame," says Diman Fatih, 59, the region's first female agricultural worker. "Women are afraid to innovate or develop themselves because of what others might say about them," said Fateh, who runs a nursery with the help of her husband in Erbil.

Recently, there have been some comments on social media describing women-run businesses as "ridiculous" and that "women work at home." But through solidarity and perseverance of women there is a marked gradual shift.

Fateh also chaired a club of plant and plant lovers with 450 members, including 25 women. Along with supporting startups, the club is helping women to give them "a sense of trust, not to give up or to give up their rights," Fateh said.

In her view, women's private work not only brings money, but raises awareness of equality and paves the way for other women to enter the market and ensure their freedom.

A 2013 UN survey found that 66% of Iraqi youth support women's rights at work, compared with only 42% of the elderly, a notable improvement among generations.

Women are flexible
Some laws in Iraq prohibit women from working in areas that require physical effort or overnight work. But labor activist Avan Jaff posted online testimonies of businesswomen who said she was seeing a shift. "This didn't happen because society suddenly became open," she said.

"Some have become more lenient, but others have realized that women are resilient and do not give in to what they aspire to. They are convinced that their comments are no longer effective, so they don't interfere." However, a host of other challenges remain for women.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, for example, women who leave for maternity leave cannot guarantee their jobs on return, and many face pressure to relinquish under the influence of their male relatives.

"Who decides how to spend revenue or where to invest is the family, not the women," she said.

Shunim Hussein, who is proud to own the Sky Fitness Sports Center in Rania, east of Erbil, points to similar stories. "These women come not just for training, but to chat with others and talk about their problems," says Hussein, whose club trains more than 150 women.

A trainee at the club says the success she sees at Sky Fitness drives her to dream of opening a restaurant in the city where she was born.

But she adds that her husband shattered her hopes when he told her that if she opened a restaurant, it would be the last day she entered the house.