世界的に有名なタイベビール 支えるのはパレスチナ初の女性醸造家

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】中東で初の、そしておそらく唯一の女性ビール醸造家だと自負するマディース・クーリー氏は、パレスチナ自治区ヨルダン川西岸にある小さなキリスト教の村タイベを世界的に有名にしたビールブランドを率いている。（写真はクーリー氏。タイベで行われた恒例のオクトーバーフェストで）
　タイベ醸造所は１９９４年に父親と叔父が立ち上げた。クーリー氏は当時９歳。そこから大きなビアだるに囲まれての生活が始まった。
　２００７年に米マサチューセッツ州ボストンの大学を卒業した後は、タイベに戻って家業を学んだ。今では醸造所の責任者となり、この村で２００５年から続いているビールの祭典「オクトーバーフェスト」の顔となっている。
　２日間にわたって開催されるタイベのオクトーバーフェストは、民族舞踊「ダブケ」なども披露され、パレスチナ人のアイデンティティーを表現する場でもある。
　ヨルダン川西岸でのビール造りは、並大抵のことではない。「（イスラエルの）占領下にあり移動や輸送は非常に困難。水も足りません」とクーリー氏。
　その上、ビール業界は全般的に「女性というだけでとても大変」だが、「男性優位の土地でアラブの土地、しかも占領下なので、他の国より４倍も５倍も大変なのです」とＡＦＰに自身の苦労を語った。
　ヨルダン川西岸には飲酒が許されているキリスト教の町や村が九つしかないため、タイベ醸造所は常に外国への輸出に活路を見いだしてきた。今では年間約１８０万本を生産。日本から米国まで世界各地で販売されている。
　タイベビールは静かなこの村が地図に載るきっかけとなった。村民の一人は「このビールのおかげで、私たちの村は世界中に知られるようになりました」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】?
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/09/12-14:46）

The annual Oktoberfest this weekend at Taybeh brewery in the occupied West Bank is a beer festival like no other.
Ever since 1994 it has operated under challenging circumstances. Now the Palestinian brewery is run by a woman, Madees Khoury, adding an extra layer of complication.
Khoury says she is the first, and perhaps the only female brewer in the Middle East, and heads a beer dynasty which has turned the small Christian village of Taybeh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank into a global beer brand.
It was not a normal childhood for Khoury, who spent her early years around the huge vats in Taybeh brewery.
I grew up in the brewery since I was nine years old, I was running around making trouble, she told AFP.
I just watched my father and uncle build a business and I grew to love it, she said.
After graduating in 2007 from university in Boston in the United States, she moved back to Taybeh to learn the family business.
Now she has risen to operations manager and is the face of the company's lauded Oktoberfest, launched in 2005.
Run as a two-day event over Friday and Saturday, Oktoberfest at Taybeh is as much about Palestinian identity as it is about drinking beer.
It is a combination of dabke, a traditional dance, pale ales and serious politics.
In order to build a state of Palestine, we have to invest our own money, education and hard work into the country by opening businesses ourselves, not relying on foreign aid that might be cut off at any minute, said Khoury.
- Brewing beer under occupation -
Brewing beer as a viable business is no mean feat in the West Bank.
Other than being under occupation... there are water shortages, no borders, and moving around and transportation is very difficult, she said.
On top of that, Khoury is a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Women in the beer industry in general have it very difficult, she said.
But I think I have it extra difficult being in a male-dominated country, an Arab country and under occupation - so it's four or five times harder than for anywhere else.
With only nine Christian towns and villages in the West Bank, the Khourys were always going to be forced to sell overseas.
Today the brand is sold around the world, from Japan to the United States, with the brewery producing around 1.8 million bottles a year.
Organisers said as many as 16,000 people were expected to attend this weekend's Oktoberfest.
For Bassam Baseem, a Taybeh resident, the beer has put what was a sleepy village on the map.
This beer has made our village known across the world, he said.