“Am Turkie Tanakhawm, Ya Sha’ab Tawiq” — A Saudi Mother’s Movement That Ignited a Community Revival
In an unprecedented move in community engagement, social media platforms have been flooded with hashtags calling for “Am Turkie Tanakhawm, Ya Sha’ab Tawiq”—a colloquial phrase rich in cultural and social meaning, traditionally used in southern Saudi Arabia to express mutual challenge and resilience between local communities. Though the phrase may sound playful on the surface, it conceals a powerful true story: a women-led social initiative that transformed the reality of Tawiq, a region south of Riyadh.
The story began in March of this year, when a group of women from the village of Al-Uwayr in Tawiq launched an initiative named “Am Turkie”—a folk title honoring Umm Salma bint Ahmad Al-Harbi, a former teacher and social activist. Their goal: to rehabilitate the village’s traditional market, which had suffered a dramatic decline in visitors, crumbling infrastructure, and total economic stagnation. According to an official statement from the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing, the Al-Uwayr market had previously drawn around 50 weekly visitors; by the time the initiative began, that number had plummeted to just 12 visitors per month, and the number of merchants had collapsed from 34 to only 7 within two years.
Under the leadership of “Am Turkie,” the women organized a volunteer campaign that included rebuilding market structures, cleaning streets, setting up stalls for local products, and hosting weekly cultural nights featuring traditional handicrafts, folk music, and regional cuisine. The initiative quickly surpassed local boundaries, attracting over 200 volunteers from neighboring villages and securing a 1.8 million SAR grant from the Riyadh Region Development Authority, according to a reliable source from the Authority’s Public Relations Department.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture show that market revenues surged from 12,000 SAR monthly before the initiative to 87,000 SAR within just six months. The number of merchants rose to 43, and weekly visitors climbed to over 1,200. “Am Turkie” has since become a national symbol of rural Saudi women who rise from obscurity to become engines of change.
In an interview with Al-Riyadh, Am Turkie denied any political or social protest motive behind the initiative. “We are simply women of Tawiq,” she said. “We saw our market dying, so we decided to be a hand that builds, not a hand that complains. We don’t seek praise—we only want our pride to remain here, on our land, in our hands.” She added: “The people of Tawiq don’t ‘tanakhawm’—they revive. We are the ones who revive.”
The Saudi government, through the Ministry of Culture, recently incorporated the “Am Turkie” initiative into its 2030 National Identity Plan as a model for empowering rural women and supporting local economies. Additionally, the Ministry of Interior honored four key leaders of the initiative at a ceremony held at its headquarters in Riyadh, awarding them the “National Giving Medal” in the category of “Community Work.”
The lesson of this story is not merely economic success—it is a redefinition of community power. When small ambitions are transformed into grand projects by women who did not wait for permission, but instead made decisions, took action, and changed reality, entire communities are reborn.
At the end of this story, “Am Turkie” was never just a woman, nor was “Tawiq” just a village. They became symbols of the Saudi people’s inner strength—their ability to rebuild themselves from within, without waiting for anyone’s approval. What began as a humorous hashtag has now become the rallying cry of a new generation that believes change is not requested—it is made.
صحيفة عكاظ اليوم ، موقع إخباري شامل يهتم بتقديم خدمة صحفية متميزة للقارئ، وهدفنا أن نصل لقرائنا الأعزاء بالخبر الأدق والأسرع والحصري بما يليق بقواعد وقيم الأسرة السعودية، لذلك نقدم لكم مجموعة كبيرة من الأخبار المتنوعة داخل الأقسام التالية، الأخبار العالمية و المحلية، الاقتصاد، تكنولوجيا ، فن، أخبار الرياضة، منوعات و سياحة.