Zeinab Nasrallah, a tobacco farmer and a typical case of a struggling rural woman with a multiform workload

Zeinab Nassrallah is a 39 years old woman, who grows tobacco in an area exceeding 50 thousand square meters, produces bread, and sells it on a daily basis, also runs a small commercial shop near her home, and follows studies in one of the neighboring religious schools ‘Hawzaat’. She says that organization and good management are the two backbones of success. Despite the skepticism of some of her neighboring farmers about her capacity to grow tobacco alone on such a large area, Zeinab indicated that she began at 17 years of age by cultivating 12 dunums, reaching now 50 dunums and aiming for more. She noted that the personal and external difficulties that she has gone through (poverty, war and the premature death of her father) have strengthened her resolve to maintain her dignity and the dignity of her sisters.
Zeinab points out that what bothers her most are not work difficulties but criticisms by others. Some for example do not approve of her driving a pick-up truck to transfer laborer. Nevertheless, Zeinab remains upbeat and ambition now to learn how to fix vehicles to address emergencies. She also has plans to raise cattle and bees, and thus secure less strenuous livelihood opportunities to her sisters.
Source: Al-Akhbar Newspaper 22 July 2013