Dialogue changes again… this is a big overhaul of the 2016 version. Zeynel attempst to wield his sincere sweet-tongued prowess on his beloved, who obviously has the upper hand. It’s all ok though; he’s a wife-guy. :3c

In 2016, I talked about how it was normal, and possible, for a woman like Ayse to gain this career as an entrepreneur, even at that time and place. There are even role models in MENA and Central Asian history and in the Quran (in fact, I kinda based Zeynel and Ayse’s romantic-business-partner dynamic on the Prophet Muhammad and his first wife, Khadijah).

Nowadays I’d speak more cautiously about things; it is not an easy journey for Ayse to develop her career – and I did eventually allude to that uncertainty in the later pages. While I wouldn’t say it is impossible, as after all there is historical evidence, and while Ottoman Turkey was comparatively more progressive than European society in regards to women’s civil rights, there were still complications. (TL;DR it sucks to be a woman in general and there are some places and times where it sucks less)

My conceptualisation for Zeynel and Ayse’s partnership is that while she is indeed the mastermind, he is her representative. They both work as carpet merchants in their gender-segregated domains, maybe with the one focusing more on distribution and the other on production management, but otherwise are more or less equal.

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The women featured in the workshop are weavers. Here they are spinning wool into thread, using these two devices: the Turkish spinning wheel, and the Turkish drop spindle. (here’s a stock photo showing weavers at work)