Two female electrical workers fix a high-voltage electricity line in Homs province, central Syria on May 30, 2019. As the war in Syria rumbled on, Syrian women started to engage in more jobs than regular office work and raising children, as large numbers of men had joined the army or left the country to seek refuge. The jobs that women in the country are increasingly doing include repairing cars, driving buses or taxis, and more interestingly, using a crane to reach the high-voltage power lines and fix them, despite all challenges such as family's opposition and fear of heights.
by Hummam Sheikh Ali
HOMS, Syria, June 4 (Xinhua) -- As the war in Syria rumbled on, Syrian women started to engage in more jobs than regular office work and raising children, as large numbers of men had joined the army or left the country to seek refuge.
The jobs that women in the country are increasingly doing include repairing cars, driving buses or taxis, and more interestingly, using a crane to reach the high-voltage power lines and fix them, despite all challenges such as family's opposition and fear of heights.
In the central province of Homs, a handful of women working for the government-run electricity company are now wearing their helmets and fixing power lines in the countryside of the province, rather than just sitting at their desks for the routine work.
Nairuz Youssef, an electrical engineer whose husband is serving in the reserve force of the Syrian army, has felt compelled to do more to serve her country in a new way.
For the last four years, Youssef has been doing routine checks on generators and power transformers, in which she drags open big metal doors and pulls electrical devices out to see if something is damaged before fixing it.
"During the war, most of the young men joined the army and the reserve force and many died in the battles, so there has been a lack in the male cadres and we, as women, have stepped in," she told Xinhua.
"We are proving that we can do the same work as men have been doing in serving our country in addition to our duties as wives and mothers," Youssef noted.
The 33-year-old who had received education in university said her family support her in doing such work which demands extreme caution.
Mais Saloum, another electricity worker, said she had never thought of taking up the job she does now as she was afraid of heights.
"This type of job was confined to men only and in this region, there was no precedent for women doing such work as climbing electricity towers. The war has pushed us to do it," the 29-year-old mother of two told Xinhua.
In fact, Saloum's husband did not like the idea that his wife has to climb high to fix dangerous power lines. The first time she was lifted on a crane, she took a selfie and sent it to him, which made him upset.
She said he later came to accept her new challenge and decided to support her.
"The reaction was expected as this was new and the community wasn't encouraging ... So I told him that he needs to trust and support me instead of listening to what people have to say," Saloum noted.
For Nisreen Shahin, her husband and parents all encourage her to do electricity maintenance work. However, she said her first time on a crane was the scariest moment.
"The first time I climbed the electricity tower, I got extremely scared as the crane was shaking from the air and I was afraid of falling down," Shahin told Xinhua.
All capable women should face their fears and get out of their comfort zones because they can do more and the result will be satisfying in a way that their self-confidence will be stronger than ever, the 34-year-old mother of four said.
Musleh al-Hasan, the general director of the Homs electricity directorate, praised the Syrian women for joining in the rebuilding of the war-torn country.
"The Syrian women have had a great role in this. They work hand in hand with their fellow men to rehabilitate and rebuild the damaged electricity infrastructure in Syria," the official told Xinhua.
