In the southern Lebanese villages, few kilometers from the Blue line, which is a border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000, many women work in the tobacco farming industry. A profession that starts at an early age for most of these women.
This woman is from a village called Ayta. She started farming tobacco since she was a child as her father and mother were tobacco farmers as well. She later married a tobacco farmer and continued to work in this industry along her husband and children.
The age range varies among the tobacco farmers. Many of the women spend their entire life working as a tobacco farmer. Mostly it is a family business that is inherited.
The tobacco farming season starts in February of every year. The women start planting the seeds and make sure that grass (See the above image) does not grow in close proximity with the tobacco seedlings since grass absorbs a lot of water and nutrients from the soil. Harvest starts in 45 days, then the tobacco is dried and sold to Regie (Regie Libanaise Des Tabacs Et Tombacs), the only buyer in the Lebanese tobacco market.
Though Lebanon is rich in water, irrigation is very difficult for the farmers. Most farmers resort to collecting rain water and later use for irrigation. There are no technologies used in tobacco farming in this villages and the process of farming tobacco continues to be highly manual.
All the farmers in the images lived through the war between Lebanon and Israel. The two farmers farmed tobacco both under the Israeli rule, the Lebanese one, and the war in between.
This farmer is 65 years old. She grew up and lived all of her life in Ayta village. She learned farming tobacco from her family and continued to farm after getting married. Though many of her children did not grow to become tobacco farmers given that this job is extremely tiring and provides low income.
