She is part of a team restoring a dilapidated old spice house which will be reborn as a tourist hotel. "When I started out it was difficult - you need to develop a technique, you need to be consistent and if you make a mistake, you need to admit to that mistake and start again," she says. "Women are perfectionists, we like to get things right and that's why we're better at this job than men." Women's work? Asma has been doing this job for 18 months but she talks with the confidence of a master. All the women have been taught by Vuai Mtumwa, who says that they all like the work because of their desire to renovate Stone Town. "They work hard, they come every day," Mr Mtumwa says. "They are working like men. Some work they can't do - they don't climb the scaffold." Indeed, it is a physically tough place to work - with heavy lifting, precarious wooden scaffolding and the danger of falling rubble from work above. And there are some who say women should not be working there at all.
Alisema mfumo uliokuwa ukitumika miaka ya mwanzo ya Muungano ulikuwa mzuri kwa vile ulimwezesha Rais wa Zanzibar kuwa na hadhi ya kimataifa anapokuwa nje ya nchi kama kiongozi wa Tanzania. Marekebisho ya katiba yaliyofuta Rais wa Zanzibar kuwa Makamu wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano yalifanyika mwaka 1995 na kuweka utaratibu wa kuwa na mgombea mwenza. Alieleza kuwa mfumo wa uongozi katika serikali hivi sasa Waziri Mkuu anaonekana msaidizi wa Rais kuliko Makamu wa Rais. Aidha, alisema kitendo cha Rais wa Zanzibar kuingia katika Baraza la Mawaziri wa Muungano kama Waziri asiyekuwa na Wizara Maalum hakileti tafsiri inayokubalika katika kuimarisha Muungano. Mwanachuo Yahya Alawi kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Afya Mbweni alishauri kero za Muungano zitatuliwe haraka kwani zinachangia kuzorotesha maendeleo ya Zanzibar. Alisema utatuzi ukiendelea kuchelewesha utaleta athari kwa vizazi vijavyo kwa vile wananchi hawatakubali kuendelea na Muungano usio na faida kiuchumi.