ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Zrebari Hawrami, a 23-year-old Kurdish woman, has started the first female-run factory which produces military outfits in the Kurdistan Region as her first business.

Zrebari Hawrami is originally from Iranian Kurdistan but was born in the Kurdistan Region. She was a TV anchor but left her job and now is focused on her business.

With the help of her family, Hawrami set up the clothes factory in the basement of a building in the city of Sulaimani and on Saturday of last week the factory began its work.

Hawrami told Rudaw that after she left her job in the media she wanted to launch her own business and “As of now, only six workers work at the factory, but I have to increase the number to 20 from both genders.”

Hawrami said that since her childhood she “loved military affairs” and that is why she chose to start this business.

For several years now women have been actively shoulder-to-shoulder with men doing business, but the establishment of a factory which produces military outfits is very rare for a Kurdish businesswoman.

“It is true that this career is different and rare for women, but I want to prove that women are there and they can do this job,” she said.

She believes that “we have to do these kinds of jobs ourselves, why should foreigners come and do it here? I chose this job to provide job opportunity for our youth also.”

Asked to reveal her new jobs assets she refused, saying, “I sold my car to pay for half of my project’s expenses. I come to work by taxi. My father and brother have helped me.”

The businesswoman dismissed claims that somebody or party outside her family circle helped her launch the business.

Hawrami’s father, Mukhtar Abdulla, visited the factory with his daughter and told Rudaw that, “Zrebari wants to do outside work like men, we believed in her and when she explained the idea we supported her.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) imports uniforms and military outfits of Kurdish defense forces, including the Peshmerga, security forces and police. Hawrami hopes domestic production of military outfits will replace the current need to import them.

“Indeed, our Peshmerga brothers need these outfits, even if the war is over, these outfits could still be sold, because our security agencies will always need them.”

Concerning the demand for her products she said that, “we will begin selling our products from this month. To sell these products we will talk to the security agencies, businessmen and other military outfit sellers.”

Overall, she emphasized, “We intend to compete against foreign products.”

Military uniform markets in Sulaimani have yet to hear about Hawrami’s factory.

“We buy our outfits in China, according to the Asayish [Kurdish security forces] regulations, or Chinese clothes are being exported to Sulaimani and tailors sew them here,” Sdiq Saeed, 23, an owner of a military uniforms shop, told Rudaw, adding that he did not know about the factory in Sulaimani.

According to Saeed, the sale of military uniforms in the Kudish market has declined due to the economic crisis.

“Before we used to sell our clothes for 120,000 IQD [around $100], but it is now sharply declined to 18,000 to 20,000 IQD [around $16].”

Saeed believes that the success of Hawrami’s factory could compete with outsiders “if the quality of her products is good and the price is cheap.”