It was 12:30 p.m. The Souk Bazaar opened at noon and people were shoulder to shoulder.
The full-length beautiful silk-type dresses with floral and roses, rose-colored vinyl gloves and matching lipstick garnered a crowd of admirers, while the smell of the authentic Middle Eastern food wafted through the room. Further into the bazaar, tangy grape leaves sat ready to be bought by hungry market-goers.
It is no surprise that food vendors were almost sold out. Frederictonians were hungry for beautiful ethnic foods.
Nearly 30 vendors from Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Egypt warmly greeted locals in the Wellness room at the Multicultural Association of Fredericton on Jan. 25 at the first Souk Bazaar organized by Rawia Mokhtar and Ayman Ahmed.
The vendors range from handcrafted embroidery, cuisine, traditional and modern clothing, natural and organic beauty products, face painting and henna, as well as unique accessories and jewelry.
Mokhtar describes herself as ‘a friend of everyone’ who recognized a need in the Arab Community.
According to her, most vendors in the market have an online business, but “they do not have a physical presence in a market.”
Mokhtar and Ahmed created a WhatsApp group to assess interest in the Arab market and 200 people responded.
“Some of them are not happy here. I have some barriers, language barriers. So this inspired me to tell them, this is now our new home and we have to do everything
we can to be happy.”
“We socialized with the community and attended social gatherings. We noticed that
people had this potential; they had a business but lacked some skills and they were
eager to find someone to combine them all together and organize a market for them,” said Mokhtar. “On the other hand, we felt that people were homesick.”
Maya Assar is from Bahrain, a small island in the Middle East and came to Fredericton three years ago. Assar started her business Lemon N’ Vine because she missed her mom’s great food and wanted to recreate her recipes.
“When I came here, I really craved [my mom’s] food and I couldn’t ever miss out on that,” she said.
Assar uses authentic ingredients. She specializes in grape leaves stuffed with Middle Eastern seasoned rice, with extra virgin olive oil cooked in a tangy, flavorful broth.
Rzek and Hannadi Alhaj Ali, owners of Syrian Delights, sold out of most of their food, including baklava, shawarma, kebe, warbot and Palestinian cookies, at the Saturday Souk Bazaar.
Mokhtar and Ahmed’s vision for the market came true, as they hoped attendees would be inspired by the beauty of the culture and community.
“So long as we are here, we have to do everything in our capacity to be happy. I told all the women and even the men vendors here, your kids have to see you as newcomers, strong, educated, skilled, happy and beautiful. When they see you this way, they will feel the same,” said Mokhtar.
