In Iraq, a country barely recovering from four decades of conflict, women entrepreneurs are still very rare.

The "customs and traditions that confine them to domestic and educational roles" are hampering their momentum, explained the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a report from October 2022.

Photo of Al-Rachid street in the center of Baghdad, October 24, 2007 © SABAH ARAR / AFP

Alaa Adel, 33, has experienced this.

A graduate of the University of Baghdad with a specialization in fashion and design, she had the idea of ​​creating her own house.

But his journey has been strewn with pitfalls.

“I approached patrons and organizations that support art and culture. But my idea was systematically rejected because I had no experience in designing projects,” she says in her studio located in the Kerrada district in Baghdad.

Additional pitfall: in an Iraq where the public sector reigns supreme, the private sector is still only embryonic, making all the more tedious and lengthy the steps to create a business.

Iraqi fashion designer Alaa Adel in her "Iraqcouture" workshop in Baghdad, January 11, 2023. © Sabah ARAR / AFP

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the public sector employs 37.9% of the Iraqi labor force, one of the highest rates in the world.

-"Confidence"-

But thanks to the Iraqi foundation The Station and its "Ra'idat" (Entrepreneurs) program, funded by the French Embassy in Baghdad, Alaa Adel acquired training that gave her "confidence" to start her project.

Iraqi fashion designer Alaa Adel in her "Iraqcouture" workshop in Baghdad, January 11, 2023. © Sabah ARAR / AFP

Her dream came true last summer with the creation of her brand "Alaa Adel", which she financed with a loan.

However, his greatest fears had little to do with the corporate world.

When she started out, she had to face the sexist prejudices of certain suppliers at the Baghdad fabric market, who were very reluctant to do business with a woman.

On a personal level, the lack of public crèches has also slowed her down.

A deficiency attributable to the tradition that wants Iraqi women to keep their children until they go to school.

Alaa overcame the challenge thanks to her family caring for her two sons when she works.

But Alaa is an exception in Iraq.

Iraqi fashion designer Alaa Adel in her "Iraqcouture" workshop in Baghdad, January 11, 2023. © Sabah ARAR / AFP

"There are around 13 million women of working age" in Iraq, "but only one million work", argued the ILO in a July 2022 report. The ILO highlighted the "low" participation rate of Iraqi women in the labor market with "10.6% against 68% for men".

In the world of work, active Iraqi women are generally teachers or nurses.

Some -- rare -- are also in the police or the armed forces.

- "Supporting women" -

Shumoos Ghanem is the owner of a health food business and the originator of the "Iraqi Women in Business" initiative.

And for her, the root of the problem is the "discrimination" of women in contemporary Iraq.

Men "dominate in many sectors, while women are relegated to the margins" of the professional world.

Iraqi entrepreneur and founder of the "Iraqi Women in Business" initiative Shumoos Ghanem addresses participants during a workshop in the capital Baghdad on January 10, 2023. © Sabah ARAR / AFP

Mother of a son, Shumoos, 34, provides career advice to women via the internet.

Most of her interlocutors "are mothers who have been away from the world of work for a long time and do not know how to return to it", she explains.

"They wonder if society will accept them after such a long absence."

Shumoos herself has had the bitter experience of gender bias.

"When I went to see the suppliers for the first time, I could see that it was complicated. There were a lot of men around me," she recalls, citing her "concerns" about the risks of to be "harassed".

A man leaves a fruit juice bar on Al-Rachid Street, Baghdad's oldest shopping street, on October 24, 2007 © SABAH ARAR / AFP

Today, Shumoos runs her brand from home.

His dream?

"Having my own slimming restaurant. I want to make it a place to support women who want to work in this sector," she says.

© 2023 AFP