At 26 and the mother of a 15-month-old baby, Nadine Jalil-Rahat has not experienced any form of abuse, but she has seen and heard enough to take action. She has opened Safe Space, a small space with the tagline ‘a community for women’.
While the concept of the store – renting shelves and racks to women to sell their items – is not new, the hope is that it will eventually be expanded into helping women with small loans to start businesses and give assistance to those who suffer from domestic abuse and other forms of violence.
“The reason I started Safe Space is because usually when I am among a group of women and I see their reaction to grievances people have, other women especially, I tend to ask myself if this was me what would these people do for me? And a lot of the time I don’t like the answer, so I decided to create Safe Space,” Jalil-Rahat said in a recent interview with Stabroek Weekend.
She still does not have it all figured out, but she knew she wanted to be part of the change and if women are helped through her initiative she believes it would help improve the manner in which women are treated.
She recalled speaking out against an incident of abuse while being part of a business organisation and, “they basically told me that I shouldn’t because it would affect their business.” She said she questioned the purpose of the organisation and left shortly after because for her speaking out against abuse is important. She also questioned what they would have done for her if she was being abused.
This is not her first business initiative. Over the past years she has had an online lingerie business, Lady Love, from where part of the funds were provided for her to start Safe Space.
“As much as it is a business initiative, it is a community and I want to focus more on the community aspect of it because I feel it is something that is needed right now for women,” she explained and then quickly clarified it was always needed but “women are more brave to do it now”.
While the name of her business may seem “weird” to some, Jalil-Rahat said she chose the name because she wanted to create a safe space for women and she believes eventually it will catch on, the name might make people curious and they would ask questions.
She explained that it is meant to be uplifting for and to women by women and she plans to raise funds to do different things for women. She spoke about granting interest-free loans to women once a business plan is presented and also exploring the possibility of giving them six months before commencing repayment of the loan as she understands the difficulty experienced when starting up a business.
She hopes to partner with psychologists to host group therapy for women and convene monthly conferences for women, by women who are doing well in different areas and can be inspirational. Pop-up shops and charity dinners are also on the cards as a way of raising funds.
“I remember being in situations where I wished to look up to someone and find inspiration in them and sometimes it was very hard and that is what I am trying to be for women and trying to help other women to be that too,” she explained.
If an abused woman walks into her store, Jalil-Rahat hopes to help to walk her through the process of accessing the help that is available.
Crazy idea
Jalil-Rahat is well aware that some may see her initiative as a “crazy idea” but it just makes her resolve to press on stronger.
“They would say everybody is trying it and there is so much more that we still have to do but I would say to them if you don’t try and if you keep thinking like that, that’s why we would always be stuck in this, in this mindset,” she stated.
She shared that even starting the Lady Love online business was from a perspective of empowering women, moreso Muslim women.
She explained that as a woman who wears a Hijab, when she would visit stores to buy lingerie or hair dye, she was asked questions like, “Why are you buying that? I mean nobody would see it. I usually get that a lot,” she said with a small laugh.
“So what I decided to do is to target Muslim women, but from there it went further and I have consumers from all backgrounds,” she said.
The young mother of one described herself as always being someone who was brave enough to go beyond the obvious and shatter the glass ceiling.
She said while Safe Space is quite common among other collaborative businesses in Guyana, the difference is the community aspect. Women can rent racks or shelves at a small monthly cost and she handles all of their daily transactions and sends out their deliveries. The space is also offered as a pick-up location. The business has only been open a week, but Jalil-Rahat said she has had about 15 women on board and some have reserved spaces.
Even though she wants to make enough “to help me survive”, Jalil-Rahat ultimately wants to help women. She shared that she has been leaving her son (who is a Christmas baby) at home for the first time as she is at the store everyday, even though she gets tremendous support from her older sister who is into business as well. Her mother takes care of her son while she toils at the store.
She hopes to hire a part-time employee in another few months, but for now she prefers to be at the store every day as she is not confident that what she is trying to do would be easily grasped by others.
“It is about the energy and what you are willing to put into it so now it is more like a one-man band,” she noted even though she acknowledged that her sister, who is 12 years her senior, has been a huge help and inspiration throughout her life.
Jalil-Rahat shared that she was seven years old when her dad died from cancer, and her sister played an important role in raising her.
“She has been the one looking after me and sometimes I feel like she is still doing that,” she said.
Jalil-Rahat shared that because of her father’s death she was depressed for some time, but did not know as it was not something people spoke about. She said while her mother is a strong woman, the death of her husband really impacted her as they had been a close family.
Will not be silent
She noted that people are still hesitant to call out abuse and she may have been in that category at one time but no longer does she allow her fingers and voice to be silent.
Pointing out that there is the general idea that Muslim women are oppressed, she wants to show that they are just like other women. In her case, wearing a Hijab was a decision she took independently.
“We are just as liberated as other women. Islam has so much women’s rights and I know you might speak to the normal person and they might say well they are covered, their husbands are forcing them to do that, but for me, my example, I have only been wearing the Hijab for two years and I decided to put it on myself,” she said. While this might be the case for Muslim women in Guyana and some other countries, it is not universal. In places like Afghanistan and Iran, Muslim women are indeed oppressed and their rights have been stripped away.
Nevertheless, Jalil-Rahat said she wants to be an inspiration to Muslim women that they too can do great things and break “away from the stigma that we are oppressed. And women in general; it is just a thing, it is like a disease in society seeing women as less and I just really dislike it.”
A former student of Graham’s Hall Primary School and the Bishops’ High School, Jalil-Rahat had commenced studies in Physics at the University of Guyana but she later realised that it was not her true calling. She tried teaching and found that she was not as passionate as she should be and then COVID-19 came and she was pregnant and not working. Lady Love came into play during that period and the businesswoman and activist was born as well.
She described herself as being awkward and shy while growing up. She did not know how to make friends and she is unsure if it was due to the trauma of losing her dad at a young age.
“But eventually I bloomed into this person who is so confidently speaking to you right now… so I think I have really had a lot of personal growth in the last couple of years,” she said.
She is married to the supportive Shekel Rabat who has been right beside her through her journey as a businesswoman and activist. She hopes to open other branches of Safe Space and for it to be a true beacon for women.
Safe Space is located at 76-77 Robb Street in the Courtyard Complex and Jail-Rabat can be contacted on 649-0275.
