The Anou Cooperative and the women’s cooperative ultimately have the same goal – to help women gain more independence and control of their work. Both give women a way to transfer their skills into potential financial freedom through selling them, and actually being a part of the business rather than standing on the sidelines. They also each give women a support system and a community of like-minded female entrepreneurs, creating a space where they can learn and work together to be apart of something bigger than themselves.

The biggest difference between the souks and the women’s cooperative is the way the business system is set up. While not obvious at first, the sellers are merchants that buy the products from the artisans and then sell them to the customer, marketing the products as if they made them themselves. This creates a disparity pay wise to the person who actually made the item compared to the souk vendor. The women’s cooperative feels different because it is more directly connected to the women who actually make the products. Both the souls and the cooperative care about the value of their handmade products, and involve pricing in some way or another, but the cooperative is feels much less like a sale off a random guy on the street and more like a direct connection between the creator and the customer, which is what most tourists value the most.

As a customer, I would rather buy from the women’s cooperative because the entire experience as a whole feels more personal and real. A souk seller might be familiar with their products in general, but do not know the full story behind who made it and how much work it took. At the cooperative, we got to hear directly from the people involved, making the product more meaningful. Personally, I initially held off on buying a rug, and I am glad I did. I now will be buying one off of Anou.