First woman working at the barbers of Babylon shrugs off abuse

An Iraqi hairdresser wearing a protective face mask cuts the hair of a customer at a men's barber shop amid the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), in the city of Hilla, Iraq September 7, 2020. REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani

HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - Um Zeinab says she suffered insults and verbal abuse when she started walking to work at the men's barber shop and tattoo parlour in the bustling capital of Iraq's Babylon province.

But she persevered, ignored the cat-calls and started building up her own group of regular customers - an unprecedented achievement in a very masculine world.