Jordan Labor Watch – Ahmed Al-Malkawi
For years, the Pomegranate Festival has been held in Irbid, at the end of October, to mark the end of the pomegranate season. The event brings together families and women from rural areas, the Ministry of Agriculture, and several developmental and agricultural associations in the governorate.
The festival represents a chance for Irbid’s residents to buy and sell goods such as pomegranates, pomegranate jam, juice, bread, and pastries. It is a particularly momentous once-in-a-year opportunity for the women of Irbid’s rural areas to showcase staples of the local cuisine, with Fridays and Saturdays being especially busy and profitable.
However, the festival, which kicked off its fourteenth edition Wednesday morning, now sees its venue for Friday and Saturday under threat, following the decision to move the football match between Al-Wehdat and Al-Faisal to the Al-Hassan Sports City—where the festival was being held—due to security concerns.
Despite public authorities’ condemnation of the decision, the Jordan Football Association means to go through with its decision, with no regard for the festival, the thousands who flock to it each year, or the potential loss of revenue the latter now face.
Participants in the annual festival who engage in the production of typical foods, such as Makmoura, flatbread, and local dumplings and pastries, were disheartened by the news that Friday and Saturday—perceived to be the culmination of the festival—would be cancelled.
One trader told Jordan Labor Watch that Friday and Saturday are the days the festival revolves around and depends on; for years, its planning has contemplated the inclusion of a weekend, due to the added number of visitors and shoppers.
The trader went on to stress how Friday and Saturday are the festivalgoers’ main source of profit from the event, as one may net as much as 1,000 dinars in a day.
According to her, Friday alone may have yielded more revenue than all the other days of the festival added together; this year, she will be deprived of that.
Several associations have called for a reversal of the decision or the postponement of the match until the end of the festival, seeing as rural families will be the first of those most negatively—and deeply—impacted by the cancellation of the festival.
Eng. Ahed Obeidat, president of the Kufrsoum Agricultural Cooperative Association for Pomegranate Producers, said that having the match coincide with the festival would effectively prevent people from visiting Al-Hassan Sports City, due to the large affluence of fans such matches generate.