My Story =)

She was running and running to nowhere in the darkness, she saw her husband going very far away from her and she couldn't go after him, she saw men around her and her children are crying, suddenly she wake up screaming and she said:” Oh my God it was nightmare”. She went out to check her children. After checking on her children she went back to her room with a bad feeling in her heart. It was early morning and the sun was just starting to rise in the east, when a young woman called Maryam know about her husband who die in a fishing trip. She was shocked and she started screaming and crying . She didn’t believe the men when they told her how he died. She went home thinking about what will happen in her life how it gone be after her husband Salem, how she will raise six children by herself and also one of her kids have “Autism”. She felt very bad when her children ask about their father. That night they went to bury Salem and pray. It was not till one week after that Maryam knew what she had to do. She had to most importantly care for her children and that’s when sadness turned to strength, she knew she had to earn some money to take care of her six children and provide their needs, so she went out to look for work.

She had always gone to the same tailor to get her and the children’s clothes and she hoped to find work there. She could sew and repair all her own clothes and knew that this work was something she could do. At first she felt very shy about asking for work, but then thought that the children needed clothes and shoes. She pulled up her head and asked for work.

After a few weeks of work, Maryam became a very good tailor, soon all the people in the village knew her work, her clothes were becoming famous, she couldn’t express her nice feelings about her successful because she had made a bid progress in her life. And after some time people were coming to ask her to make special clothes for their weddings and other events, and also sometimes she receive orders from out Abu Dhabi . She was happy too because her children were growing up too, and also now she could communicate with her sick child by sign language. They had to help with all the work that needed to be done at home. The girls had to help with cooking and cleaning, and some time they exchange with each other. They brought water every day and helped their mother with sewing and making of clothes. After some time three more of Maryam‘s girls were working in the tailor shop and this is when Maryam decided to take the biggest risk of her life. She went to see some people who loaned her some money, and she quit working for the tailor and started her own shop with her daughters.

One day a woman wanted to order many clothes for some one very special, Maryam accept. It was not until sometime that evening that Maryam heard that one of the girls from her village was travelling to marry a very rich man who and that his sister had been to her shop to buy some clothes. Her daughter and her finished the clothes on time and when the woman returned to pay for them she gave Maryam a very good price for her work.

This was a Maryam’s first step at being independent. She was able to pay back all the money she had borrowed and could now save a little money for herself and her family. She continued to work at the shop until her death 35 years later, and you can find that same shop now run by her daughter with 8 more shops like it in several other emirates such as Maryam Shop, The Girls Shop and the Red Island Shop. Maryam was one of the UAE’s first real independent women.

Hope you like it =)