Demsal Hasakah

Kongra Star Economy Committee [Aboriya Jin] opened a Demsal Cooperative in the city of Hasakah in 2018, following the model of Demsal Cooperative in Derbesiye. The cooperative, whose aim is to promote women’s economic empowerment, creates employment for 10 Kurdish and Arab women. ‘Demsal’ means season in Kurdish. Nisrîn Şêxo, one of the managers of the cooperative, said “We named the cooperative ‘Demsal’ because we offer food and productions for four seasons.” In October 2024, women of the cooperative were working to prepare canned food such as apples, courgette, grapes, aubergine, marmalade and jams, and make cheese and tomato paste. In November, they make fruit paste and walnuts on a string dipped in starch grape molasses to be consumed by people celebrating New Year. The Demsal Cooperative has many projects and one of them is the Inanna Restaurant, which offers large thin flatbread, seasonal food and products. The Inanna Restaurant plays an important role in the development of the Demsal Cooperative. Since Hasakah suffers from water outages, the cooperative also provides a space for people to wash their carpets.