Yasmine Youssef guards one of northeastern Syria’s expansive wheatfields, a major source of revenue in the nation’s breadbasket, while holding a firearm in one hand and adjusting her scarf with the other.
The 42-year-old is one of several women volunteers who are assisting the Kurdish-led region, which is semi-autonomous, in defending the fields close to Qahtaniyah from arsonists and fires.
“Our mission is to serve farmers and protect their crops,” Youssef said, adding that the work lasts one or two months.
“If fires break out we are notified directly and we call the fire trucks,” she told AFP.
Following years of drought, farmers in northeastern Syria are anticipating an extraordinary harvest this year thanks to significant rains.
However, locals also worry that their priceless harvests might be destroyed by the annual summer wildfires.
“Agricultural production rebounded in 2023 amid improved weather conditions” after near-historical lows the year before, according to a recent World Bank report.
“Official statistics indicate a doubled wheat harvest for 2023, yielding two million metric tons,” it said.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, at least ten individuals lost their lives battling wildfires that ravaged the region’s wheatfields in June 2019.
“People didn’t trust our efforts at first,” Youssef recalled, “They were asking, ‘What are those women doing?'”
“Now everyone agrees on the need to unite to protect” the land, she said.
“The people depend entirely on this harvest… If we lose it, our conditions will deteriorate.”
