Story by: Yakin Ouederni
Video by: Emily Wakeman
Graphics by: Callie Riek
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — As Zekiye Bilal stirred a boiling pot of bandoora, she caught the sharp smell of cumin mixed with garlic and let it take her back to Afrin, Syria, where she grew up learning to cook from her mother.
Today, she is thousands of miles away from the now rubble-ridden Afrin, bringing her mother’s Syrian and Kurdish recipes to life at the Orange County Localfest.
“My mom’s food is still tastier than mine,” Bilal joked as she tasted a spoonful of the boiled tomatoes and garlic dish. “I think it’s ready.”
Bilal works with Traditional Kitchens, a local food business operating under the Refugee Community Partnership that aims to economically support refugees by employing them as “food artisans,” or cooks who make their own cultural dishes for sale.
“They’re the chefs, they take the lead,” said Anum Imran, a co-founder of Traditional Kitchens. “It’s their recipes, it’s their cooking and hard work, and we just facilitate the events that we run alongside them.”
The business launched the summer of 2018 and employs Bilal and two women from Myanmar. The three chefs cook once or twice a month at different events around the area. They’re paid hourly and that rate is decided based off of the profits from the event. Traditional Kitchens itself takes whatever is left.
The experience with Traditional Kitchens has helped Bilal stay connected to Syria while building a new life in Chapel Hill.
“I want people to experience Syrian food and know that we have a great cuisine,” she said.
Growing up in a home surrounded by olive trees and filled with family, Bilal spent her days in Afrin learning her mother and aunts’ techniques and secrets to cooking. She prides herself in perfecting stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh, and molokhia, Syria’s most popular dishes.
“It’s all just experience,” she said.
But Bilal has had far more than culinary experience in her life. She, her husband Ammar Bilal, and their three children are five of 6 million Syrians who fled the country because of the ongoing civil war, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 400,000 people so far. The Bilals left five years ago, when it became clear that the conflict was far from over.
The onset of the war disrupted the medical treatment of the Bilals’ youngest son, Rashid, 12, who has cerebral palsy.
“Because of the war, all of the doctors specialized in cerebral palsy in our region had either left or were killed,” Ammar Bilal said.
After spending almost three years in Turkey, where they couldn’t get proper healthcare, the family was granted refugee status in North Carolina, where Rashid has been undergoing consistent medical treatment for the past two years.
The Bilals live in low-rent government housing in Chapel Hill. Ammar Bilal works as an Uber driver while Zekiye stays home to care for Rashid, who cannot walk and has trouble hearing. With that as their only income, Zekiye worries about how expensive Chapel Hill is.
“To work and help my husband would be nice, but I can’t because I have a sick child,” she said.
Refugee families often face straining financial issues as they settle into new countries.
“[This] is not surprising at all because of the circumstances in which they find themselves trying to start over in a new place,” said Bud Kauffman, who teaches the class “How to Speak to Refugees” at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Upon arriving in the U.S., refugees are often provided with financial assistance for typically between three to eight months, depending on which organization is sponsoring them. After that period, they are expected to become financially independent and capable of paying for expenses like rent and bills.
Kauffman also said that language is usually the greatest barrier that keeps refugees out of jobs that might fit their experience or education.
“You might have someone who was a professional in some context in their home country and now… might work in a restaurant or some entry level position simply because they aren’t linguistically prepared to take the job that they previously had,” he said.
Ammar Bilal managed a textiles business in Syria, but his lack of proficiency in English makes it difficult for him to take a managerial position here.
Traditional Kitchens has done more than economically support Zekiye Bilal and the other artisans. It has also been a platform for social engagement with the communities around them.
Kauffman said that he has seen many refugees struggle with isolation as they find it difficult to go out and assimilate into their new communities.
Refugee women might often face even more barriers to integration due to the increased need for them to play a larger role in the domestic sphere, especially during the settlement period.
“I don’t go out much,” Zekiye Bilal said. “Once a month I will go out with (Traditional Kitchens), but all of my time is spent here at home.”
At the Orange County Localfest, Bilal and the other artisans were excited to share their recipes and their stories as they cooked and served food. The afternoon was filled with energy as people ran around clanging pots, looking for ingredients and sharing laughs.
“When we have these events we can go out and have fun and talk to other people,” said Khai Tow, one of the refugee artisans from Myanmar. “The people in the community are so nice.”
In the future, Traditional Kitchens aims to have dishes available as packaged meals in local grocery stores and through catering and subscription services, which would provide the refugee women with a consistent income.
“We’ve grown really quickly and our goal is to expand throughout the Triangle,” Imran said.
As for Bilal, being able to share her food with others makes her happy. Being around others also helps her feel mentally rested after being home for a long period of time.
“One time we cooked…and I made a simple dish,” she said. “A lot of students came to eat and I was so happy that day. I wish I could do this every day.”
And while the Bilals have started to find their place here, they did not hold back on expressing their love for Syria and their hopes for everything to return to normal. They had a great life back home, living among acres of olive trees, surrounded by family and friends, and living in a house they owned.
Zekiye Bilal said she wants people to experience Syrian culture and food and know that there once stood a beautiful and vibrant country before the war. But above all, she wants people to be sympathetic.
“I want people to hurt with Syria,” she said.
She hopes to move back if the war ends and the country stabilizes soon. But for now, bringing her mother’s recipes to life in Chapel Hill keeps her connected to Syria, or what she calls it, “heaven on earth.”
