‘When life gets hard, you must be harder’: running a takeaway kitchen in an Iraqi border town

Alhan al-Salmani has lived through conflict and personal trauma, but she’s never given up. Now she has opened a kitchen, giving other women work and making lunches a culinary pleasure in Qaim

The town of Qaim lies on the border of Iraq and Syria, close to the great Euphrates River. Near the central market, in a spacious building of six rooms and a large hall, Alhan al-Salmani, who has six children and a harrowing history, runs her kitchen, Al-Eiz.

The place is full of women. Twelve are sitting on the ground next to a vast tanoor, a traditional clay oven. On the right, pots full of rice and meat simmer on the fire. The sun’s glow lights the scene, while the smell of kubba – an Iraqi dish of minced meat packed in rice – draws you in. It takes time to prepare kubba and around 200 plates a day are made and sent out.

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