Excitement filled the air in Manitoba Saturday night with the opening of the first Community Winter Bazaar since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bazaar, held by the Manitoba Islamic Association, allowed members of the community to come together to buy and sell items and see each other for the first time in more than two years.
“It’s really good business today, and everyone’s so happy to see each other and meet each other, and we’re having food and dresses, jewelry. It’s a really good day today,” said Sajida Ghalib, owner of 7K Collection, CBC reported.
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Ghalib was among more than two dozen businesses who set up tables at the Waverley Grand Mosque. She believes events like the bazaar are important to businesses like hers.
“Especially me because I’m not working. I have a very small customer, client service. So this kind of a bazaar is really good for us home business women,” she said.
Sahar Aljundi, owner of L’Art de Damas, sells items for Ramadan, such as Qur’ans and lights, as well as hijabs, which she says can be hard to find in local stores.
“It’s so exciting,” Aljundi said.
“It feels like Ramadan is actually coming and it’s so nice to see everybody’s faces after so long because usually everything’s online. It’s very nice, it’s very welcoming.”
Excitement
Opening the doors, customers packed the space as COVID-19 health restrictions eased earlier this week.
“Lots of them were suffering during COVID, some of them actually stopped working or they closed,” said Raed Hamdam, managing director of the Manitoba Islamic Association.
“Some of them are back into business again, so we hope for the best for them.”
The Islamic association plans to host another bazaar before the start of Ramadan in April.
“We’re supporting the small businesses in the community, most of them either work from home or they have their own small shops,” said Raed Hamdam, managing director of the Manitoba Islamic Association.
“We’re trying to support them more and more. So such events are really good for them, just to get together, to get to know each other’s products and they can sell as well.”
The history of the Muslim community in Manitoba goes back to the early 1900s.
This was long before the fast-growing Muslim community hovered below 1,000 people in the 1970s and reached the roughly 20,000 today.