(4 Sep 2024)
SYRIA ALEPPO SOAP
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 4:25
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aleppo, Syria – 29 August 2024
1. Various of workers arranging bars of soap at plant
2. Worker polishing soap bar
3. Workers putting soap in boxes
4. Soap bars
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hisham Jebeili, soap factory owner:
"The value of the Aleppo bay laurel soap is very high because it is primarily made from olive oil and bay laurel oil. There are no colorants, perfumes or chemicals in its components. This is why there is an increasing demand for it globally."
6. Various of workers sorting and arranging soap bars
7. Various of workers arranging bags of soap
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hisham Jebeili, soap factory owner:
"Our land and the land of three-quarters of the Aleppo soap makers are olive farms in northern Aleppo. And we can’t get access them now, we can’t get olive from there. The olive oil plants are centered there as well, with more than 30 to 40 plants located between Idlib and Afrin. We can’t get the materials (olive oil) from Aleppo’s northern areas because it is out of service."
9. Workers pushing trolley filled with soap bags
10. Jebeili talking to worker
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hisham Jebeili, soap factory owner:
"Before the war, Syria – or Aleppo rather used to export more soap than Saudi Arabia exported oil and more than Germany exported cars. We used to export to the whole world. And bay laurel soap was in the top ranks because olive oil itself is more valuable than palm oil and other oils. The Europeans, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans were clamoring for Aleppo bay laurel soap. So (soap) production was quite high. There were perhaps more than 120 soap factories. Now there are merely 20."
12. Soap bars on production line
13. Worker placing soap bars in box
14. Workers in soap plant
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hisham Jebeili, soap factory owner:
"I might be from the fourth and fifth generation of soap makers. Of course, I will pass it onto my children just like my father did, and just as they (the children) will hand it down to their children. The soap industry in Aleppo or the soap craft in Aleppo is a family craft."
16. Various of workers in soap plant
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Leen Jebeili, director of Jebeli soap factory:
"Bay laurel soap is a traditional aspect of life in the city of Aleppo. This year, the Syrian Secretariat has proposed placing it on UNESCO’s list (United Nations’ cultural agency World Heritage List). This in itself protects bay laurel soap. It is very important and I hope it happens."
18. Women smelling soap at shop
19. Soap bar with engraved writing reading (Arabic): "Hisham Jebeili – Aleppo"
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lubna Rahme, resident:
"It means so much to us. Today we are at a market that reopened recently. It is an ancient historical market that was renovated. Once we stepped in, we smelled the scent of the soap and it feels like this is the smell of Aleppo. It is a very nice feeling to be an ancient area and smell the soap. It means so much to us. It is not just soap that we use at home to wash our hands."
21. Woman smelling soap
STORYLINE:
Syrian soap makers are preserving a centuries-old tradition, producing soap bars that for many, carry the scent of Aleppo.
Soap making ground to a halt when fighting peaked in the city as part of Syria’s ongoing civil war.
The fighting largely stopped in Aleppo in 2016 and in the years since, some of the city’s soap plants revived the tradition that goes back to the 8th century.
AP video shot by Abdulrahman Shaheen
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