Medine Mamedoğlu

 

MARDİN – The fertile Ömeryan lands become more colorful with the production of women. Nure Aktuğ, who cultivated various kinds of fruit in her garden, angry due to not being given enough value that she deserves for the products she has cultivated with a great effort.

 

In the village of Talete (Doğanlı), located in Ömeryan, where fascinates people with its nature and mountains, women take an active role in every part of life. The bond that women forge with nature reminds us the things that we heard about Neolithic age. The women who make the cultivation, care and harvest of gardens with their own hands, at the same time, they create a small budget for themselves by selling the products they have acquired.

 

‘The trees feed me now’

 

On one hand, Nure Aktuğ picks up the vegetables in the garden, on the other hand talks about efforts for this garden. Stating that the village is surrounded by gardens and fruit trees from beginning to end, Nure, said, "This garden has existed for many years. I water the garden every day. I have planted many fruit trees. They have grown up just like my children. These trees, which I have tended garden with great effort in those days, feeds me now. In this garden, there are various kinds of fruits even including Chinese plum, pear etc. The season of one of my fruit ends, the other one starts. This makes me so happy.”

 

‘Women make a great effort for this’

 

Nure, who states that they are very tired as village women and they don’t even stop for a moment, says “Not only we cultivate fruits, vegetables, but also we cultivate potato and cucumber fields. Every morning at 5 o’clock, we wake up and go to work. We even cannot understand how much time passes because we just care house, garden, barn, and field all day. Everything in this village is made by women's effort. The vineyards and orchards here are all the products and labor of the women. We can’t get repayment of our efforts.”

 

Nure expresses that she has a strong bond with nature, she is angry because she can’t get her repayment. Nure, states this situation as follows: “The repayment of our efforts are not given us. The half of the money goes to the commission. Sometimes it's not even enough for the gasoline that we spend to get to the district. Women are working hard, but their efforts are being exploited like this. We are still trying to make our own money.”