PROUDLY exhibiting and selling her handmade wooden dolls and other intricate trinkets at the annual Riyadh-based Janadriya Cultural Festival is Amina Amin, 20, a Saudi female carpenter.
Finding a female carpenter is something unique in the Kingdom. However, Amina, who is from the Eastern Province, is proud to be a woman working in a trade dominated mostly by men.
“I started working with wood in a small room at the back of my house, which I turned into a small workshop. I was copying what my father used to do,” said Amina, whose father is also a carpenter.
For Amina, working with wood has been a hobby since she was a little girl. She was introduced to the nail and the hammer from her father who taught her everything she knows about carpentry. The 20-year-old said she would help her father and watch him at work and used to pass him tools. Slowly she learned about wood and was able to distinguish between trees and different types of wood at an extremely young age.
“In the past three years I’ve been making dolls from wood and designing their clothes. What I enjoyed as a hobby has now become my full time job,” she said, adding that she enjoys dealing with different types of wood and building small models.
She says her biggest supporters have been her family who have been extremely encouraging and do not see anything wrong in her working in a field dominated by men. Saudi society has never heard of a woman working as a carpenter, a trade considered tough and unsuitable for women.
Amina, however, is confident and is using her skills to make old-fashioned wooden dolls. After graduating from high school, Amina said she could not find a job and did not want to join university. It was then that she decided to become a professional carpenter and make a living out of her hobby.
She applied new techniques to her work and began to carve as well. Subsequently, she became her father’s trusted assistant and visits her father’s workshop to help him.
“I participated in Janadriya for the third time,” she said, adding, “I don’t only participate in Janadriya but I also participate in other festivals concerning wood, art and sculpturing.”
Amina’s ultimate dream is to open a doll shop and have branches across the Kingdom. She added that she wishes to see more women in the carpentry business. She says it is her desire to make her work look more beautiful and this has therefore pushed her to read fashion magazines. She added that she also finds it a great joy to make wooden sculptures of world famous sites such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
“I started to make business by selling the dolls I make. I hate it when people say my dolls are expensive, they cost between SR20 and SR100 each. At least they are cheaper than Barbie and Fulla dolls. I design my dolls for Saudi girls because I want them to see Saudi tradition, not like dolls made in China.”