With talent in mosaics, mother building a home for children, sister and nieces — one piece at a time

AMMAN — At the top of 78 steep, narrow steps, Mufida Ahmad Al Shayed has made her home. 

Now 37, she was married at a young age, to a tailor who struggled to earn enough to support their young family. 

Her diploma, in secretarial studies, was never put to use, and instead she stayed in the home and raised her four children, now aged 6, 7, 8 and 10. 

Despite the poverty Shayed and her family have faced, she says, her husband decided to remarry and start a second family, but refused to divorce her. 

Shayed now shares this home, in Hashemi Shamali on the side of one of Amman’s many steep hills, with her sister, a cancer patient with two daughters: one with diabetes, and the other with kidney problems. 

Her sister is also without a husband, but not by choice, she explains. 

An Iraqi, he returned to Iraq to sell his house, was taken hostage, and never came back.

Yet in this crowded home, where Shayed is the only provider, she has not abandon her dreams of a better life. 

She wants to study at the Madaba Mosaic School, and to hone her hobby of mosaic design, and maybe even make a career out of it. 

If she makes money from her passion for art, she says, she could continue to support her children, her two nieces, and cover the cost of her sister’s cancer treatment. 

Ultimately, Shayed dreams of opening her own shop, where she would sell gift-wrapped chocolate and mosaic art designs.

These dreams became a step closer, Shayed says, when she joined the Sanabel Al Khair Association for Women, where she was first introduced to the Savings and Loan’s Programme (SLP) operated by the Care International in Jordan. 

“The many courses I joined through Care International in Jordan and SLP were a turning point in my life,” she says in a recent interview.

“And in return I gave the same courses at different associations and helped other women” and “was paid”, she says. 

Among the training courses Care International in Jordan provides, Shayed recalls the henna designs, pottery making and cooking courses. 

It was during the mosaic art course, however, that she found a sense of happiness which overwhelmed her, she says. 

Gradually, through attending different programmes, she met people who helped her and gave her much-needed hope.

Shayed now attends bazaars where she displays her chocolate wrapping and mosaic design. 

On one occasion, she recalls, a man approached her and began to inspect her mosaic art design, as if he was an expert. 

“My heart stopped from the way he held and checked my piece. Then he said that I have potential, and that he was willing to help me perfect my hobby, and for free. He was an angel sent from heaven,” she says. 

After several months of training at an Amman art centre, Shayed was eventually creating large mosaic portraits.

 “I can now proudly say that my fingers are able to create art out of ugly floors, with mosaics. I do big pieces now. No more baby work,” she beams.

Through training, and selling her work, Shayed’s financial situation is improving.  With her brother-in-law still missing in Iraq, she is planning to move into a bigger and healthier home with her children, sister and two nieces. 

“I am looking to rent a home for around JD150 a month, which only five months ago seemed like a dream,” she says. 

Shayed says that her strength of will and determination is positively impacting those around her, especially her children, whom she proudly speaks of. 

“They are excelling in school, and their social life is progressing as well. We now speak about the bright days ahead with high hopes,” she says. 

When she gives courses in the different associations, Shayed says she always tries to encourage women to be strong and unafraid to face the difficulties of being single mothers. 

She now gives her own situation as an example of how a woman’s life can improve, through education and empowerment.

“We should get over the culture of shame and fear. Women are capable only if they believe in themselves,” she says. 

“Being reliant on a man who might one day — any day — leave you is a disaster. I don’t want what happened to me to happen to those around me,” she adds.

“I believe the only way is up.”