Dedication and a little sacrifice is necessary in order to make a living, this is his story…
In one of the dimly lit corridors of Doha’s Souq Waqif, the tiny echoes of the sound of sewing machines can be heard. Inside a small shop, a Bangladesh tailor was immersed in his work with the sewing machine laid out on the table in front of him.
Zaul Haq came to Qatar from Bangladesh in 1984. “Business is better,” he stated as his reason for leaving his hometown behind, “it was a big opportunity to be here.”
Haq and a sewing machine, an object that has been a part of more than half of his lifetime.
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Haq left his two daughters, his wife and his mother back in Bangladesh in order to find better working opportunity to provide for his family. “Housing is expensive,” he answered when the question of why he did not bring his family along with him was asked. The tailor’s attention did not break away once from cutting the material in front of him as he replied. Although not being able to see his family as often saddened him, Haq was grateful that he was able to return to his country every year for three months and visit them.
Tailoring has always been Haq’s profession. Haq started to work as a tailor as soon as he finished his fourth grade of elementary school. He has not been able to obtain further education for himself since then.
In Doha, Haq works everyday and sends most of his profit back home to his family. This time of the year is an even busier time for Haq as schools in Doha recently commenced their new academic year and demands for tailored uniforms for students are at its peak.
Similar to many occupations, tailoring has its challenges. Getting the model of the finished work to the way the customer desires is the challenge for tailors. “It’s a difficult work. Something wrong with the model, it’ll be hard,” Haq explained in the broken English he had acquired since he first started living in Doha.
The tailor working in the same shop as Haq has been in Doha for more than twenty years, similar to Haq.
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Haq did not work alone. Along with him, another Bangladesh tailor worked in silence, the hammering sound of the sewing machine in front of him spoke enough of his daily life. A few meters across Haq’s workplace stood a material store owned by an Iranian merchant. The son of the owner named Yaqub Muhammad had known Haq for six years and the two had helped each other out with business. His store that was filled with colorful clothing materials contrasted greatly from Haq’s workplace that was dominated by shelves of blue plastic bags containing many tailored clothes, the results of his daily hard work. “Sometimes when customers come here, I tell them to go across for a tailor,” Muhammad explained how he establishes his business relation with Haq. “The workers are very close with one another,” said the 25-years.
As he had been in Doha for a long period of time, Haq noticed some changes in the region over the years. Haq remembered that during the first few years he had been in Doha, the Souq would close at sunset, as people would tend to sleep earlier. Now, thanks to a busier lifestyle due to technology development, people would stay up later and his working hours are extended to fit the needs of an increasingly busy and awake society. The tailor was not bothered by this change as longer hours filled his time and helped him earn more profit.
“I didn’t even feel like time passes by,” said Haq, recalling the 27 years he had spent in Doha.
Haq is very dedicated to his work, he barely looked up from what he was working on during the interview.
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Sewing had been Haq’s daily routine for many, many years.
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