Haneen brought one of the most unique pitches to the Ninewa Investment Forum (NIF) held in Erbil last Wednesday and Thursday, displaying her own artwork as she pitched her idea for a female-owned art studio, bookstore, and café in Mosul.
The forum, funded by USAID, brought together international and diaspora investors with local business owners and entrepreneurs from Nineveh Province and the surrounding region in an effort to showcase the province’s investment potential. Haneen took full advantage of the occasion, articulating her unique vision to potential investors against a backdrop of her own oil paintings and colorful pastel drawings.
“The idea I have for a project is specific to art, specifically the talent of painting,” Haneen told Rudaw. “Since there is nowhere in Mosul serving this field, my goal in opening this studio is to support the talents of those starting out as painters.”
However, Haneen is not only an artist. She is also an entrepreneur, and she wants her studio to be a business that turns a profit while providing a starting point for other aspiring creatives.
“Working with painters, I may also host shows for their paintings and sell their art, and I also would paint and sell my paintings; I also want it to be a source of income for me. At the same time, it would be a bookstore selling books and art supplies... I can maybe find them in Erbil, in Duhok, in other provinces and countries, but in Mosul there are very few people serving this field,” she said.
Haneen may have stood out from the crowd at the NIF and piqued investors’ interest by focusing on a market she feels is overlooked in Mosul. She has a specific group of artists and patrons of the arts in mind: the women of Nineveh.
“There is no specific place for women to meet, or a place for families – everything is for men,” she said. “I want one section [of my business] to be a café exclusive to women and families, and for young men not to enter. That's my whole goal with this project.”
“I want the whole team to be women, because there are few women who work in Mosul, so I want to encourage this... It is rare for there to be a woman as the head of a company or the head of a business. There are very few. It is always the men who are in control, so I want to support women,” she added.
Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh, was an economic powerhouse before being devastated by years of Islamic State (ISIS) occupation and the battle to dislodge the group. It has been more than two years since the city was liberated, but much its economy and infrastructure still lies in ruins.
While agencies like USAID have focused on rebuilding public infrastructure, and many of the businesses attend the NIF sought investment capital to rebuild factories and hotels, Haneen has the city’s spirit in mind, focusing on the revival of its long history as the cultural heart of northern Iraq.
“I need financial support to open a studio, to paint and to sell art, to help those like me in need. Because I myself have been in need and I know what they feel,” she said.
“I feel that there is art in everything in life – in dialogue, in how you treat people, without art these things are dry. Art gives everything a nice character. In the future I want to be a well-known painter from the city of Mosul, that the name Haneen be known in many countries – that’s what I hope for.”
