From One Crisis to the Next: How Duha Rebuilt Her Business Again and Again
From One Crisis to the Next: How Duha Rebuilt Her Business Again and Again
June 18, 2025 | Nawar Maarri
Starting over isn’t just a one-time act — for many refugee entrepreneurs, it’s a continuous process.
On this World Refugee Day, we share the story of Duha Musa, a Syrian woman who faced loss, displacement, and disaster — but continued to find ways to support her family and rebuild her livelihood.
Duha arrived in Türkiye from Latakia, Syria in 2012 with her family. At the time, she was finishing high school. Like many Syrian families, they had no connections in Türkiye and spent their first four years in a refugee camp. During that period, Duha completed her high school education, learned Turkish, and began attending hairdressing courses — a field she had loved since her teenage years in Syria.
She was accepted into university, but it was far from where her family lived., and her family discouraged the idea. At the time, they still believed they would return to Syria soon — a month, maybe two. That temporary feeling has now lasted over a decade.
What began as a personal interest grew into a way to earn a living. After marrying and starting a family in Hatay, Duha realized she needed to contribute financially. With no capital, she saved from daily expenses and slowly bought equipment to offer beauty services at home. Eventually, she partnered with someone to open a salon, but after that arrangement fell apart, she spent four years paying him off to make the business truly hers — just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic to shut it down.
Duha continued working from home, adapting again. She later moved to a larger space where she could set up a home salon. Just as business picked up, she returned to a formal salon space — only for the 2023 earthquake to hit.
That day, nothing else mattered except trying to save her relatives buried under the rubble. Duha and her family spent days outside, sleeping in the street with no shelter, no belongings — just waiting, searching, surviving. When she finally returned to check the salon, it had been completely looted.
With no choice but to leave Antakya, she tried relocating to Istanbul — but couldn’t stay long due to restrictions tied to her temporary protection status. She returned to Reyhanlı, started over again, and within four months repaid all her debts.
Today, Duha is back in Antakya, where she has been running her salon for the past year. It still doesn’t feel stable — but she keeps going, motivated by her two children and her parents.
“I didn’t choose the war, the losses, or the earthquake. But I chose to keep building something — because the people I love needed me to stay strong, even when I didn’t feel strong myself.”
To strengthen her business, Duha recently participated in mentorship sessions provided under Building Markets’ project to empower women-owned businesses in earthquake-affected regions. There, she learned how to track expenses, automate her inventory, and better understand her finances.
“I discovered mistakes in my accounting that were costing me more than I realized,” she says.
“Small businesses like mine really need this kind of support. Sometimes one piece of advice can save you months of effort.”
Duha’s story reminds us: failure happens — but so does try again. And for many refugee women like her, every step forward is hard-won.
