Iraqis in asylum limbo in Jordan fashion their future

Iraqis in asylum limbo in Jordan fashion their future

AMMAN: In a Jordanian church, Sarah Nael sews a shirt for a project that has provided scores of women who fled violence in neighboring Iraq with skills to earn a living.

Many of the women escaped the extreme violence carried out by the Daesh group’s self-declared “caliphate” that cut across swaths of Iraq and Syria, before they eventually ended up in Jordan — where they found themselves without work.

“Life here is very, very difficult — if we don’t work, we can’t live,” said Nael, a 25-year-old Christian from the northern Iraqi town of Qaraqosh, who joined the “Rafedin” sewing project two years ago.

It is based at St. Joseph Catholic church in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Italian priest Mario Cornioli began the project in 2016, along with Italian designers and tailors.

The products, including dresses, jackets, belts and ties, are sold in Amman and Italy to raise funds.

For refugees, barred from seeking regular work, the project provides them with a way to supplement handouts from the UN.

“It’s a safe place,” said Nael, who has been taught to create clothes from cloth and leather, while her brother helps in the church’s kitchen. “We are Iraqis. We are forbidden to