Fifty years with the sewing needle
Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Reem Chamoun
“My children grew up and migrated to Europe, but I’m still working on my machine.” With these words, Youssef Abdulahad began his talk about the profession of sewing while trying hard to pass the thread through the hole of the sewing machine’s needle, then said after several attempts: “It takes a sharp eyesight, which I no longer have.” He wished that his career would not be neglected inside the family as he passes away. He keeps trying hard to pass the thread through the sewing machine’s needle hole, repeating: “It takes a strong eyesight, I don’t have it anymore!”
A career for half a century
“My children grew up and migrated to Europe, but I’m still working on my machine.” With these words, Youssef Abdulahad began his talk about the profession of sewing while trying hard to pass the thread through the hole of the sewing machine’s needle, then said after several attempts: “It takes a sharp eyesight, which I no longer have.” He wished that his career would not be neglected inside the family as he passes away. He keeps trying hard to pass the thread through the sewing machine’s needle hole, repeating: “It takes a strong eyesight, I don’t have it anymore!”
A career for half a century
In his small shop in Derik / al-Malikiyah, northeast of Hasakah, the seventy-years-old man Youssef Abdulahad has been exercising sewing for half a century.
Youssef Abdulahad was born in 1945 in Turkey, and was displaced alongside his family about fifty years ago to the city of Derik, the far north-east of Syria. As he was in the prime of his youth, he began training on sewing profession for six years at a tailor shop in the city, until he got his own sewing machine with the help of the employer.
The old man tailor practiced his career for half a century, and still committed to his schedules with his customers, where his profession requires sound eyes, steady hands and high degree of concentration, the tailor Abdulahad bow on his machine in defiance of his age.
Passion for the profession
The old man tailor practiced his career for half a century, and still committed to his schedules with his customers, where his profession requires sound eyes, steady hands and high degree of concentration, the tailor Abdulahad bow on his machine in defiance of his age.
Passion for the profession
Abdulahad attributes the reason for his decline in working to the high cost of sewing supplies of fabrics, buttons and others, which led to the “lack of customers”, but all this did not discourage Abdulahad from his passion for the sewing profession, as if time has been held steady.
Though, Youssef Abdulahad is still on his tiring career, he says: “I’m no longer working for long hours as I used to in the past,” where he used to work until late at night, as he said.
The tailor Youssef Abdulahad is still actively working on his machine and exercising sewing with great passion, trying to highlight his skills in every seam of cloth, defying the circumstances, the age and the migration of his children.