Afghan women weave magic into carpets

Zeba and Sabeera create wonders with their deft fingers. - Photos by Juidin Bernarrd

Visitors to The Dubai Mall during Ramadan can now watch the intricate weaving process that goes into the production of Afghan carpets. The move is part of an initiative to employ and empower women in the war-torn country.

Founded in 2010, the Fatema bint Mohammed bin Zayed Initiative (FBMI) — in partnership with Afghanistan’s Tanweer Investments — employs about 4,000 Afghans drawn from both rural and urban areas of the country, offering them skills and an opportunity for meaningful employment and income. Of the employees, 70 per cent are women and 35 per cent are widows.

“It’s a business model,” said FBMI managing director Maywand Jabarkhyl. “That way it is sustainable. It’s not a charity. It’s not a handout.

“All the profits go back into the project, into expansion, into development, into researching new designs for example. What we do is we give them jobs, we give them access to healthcare and education for the children and we pay them fair market wages, which is very important.”

Handmade carpets — currently Afghanistan’s biggest export — are vitally important to a country where 42 per cent of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Jabarkhyl noted that carpet weaving provides the Afghan women with a job and an opportunity for advancement that might otherwise be difficult in Afghanistan’s patriarchal society.

“It’s a cottage-based industry. The ladies don’t have to go outside their homes. They don’t have to be accompanied by a male to leave their homes, and they can work in the comfort of their own homes. We can set a loom up anywhere,” he said. “But we also give them capacity development. Some start off as wool spinners or wool cleaners, but go on to weaving and designing. Our success is measured most on the employment side. We want to employ as many people as possible and keep them employed.”

Since the initiative’s inception, over 10,000 carpets have been produced, 60 per cent of which are sold in the UAE, but also as far afield as the US, UK, Australia and South Africa. Additionally, an FBMI-produced carpet now adorns the interior of the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

‘Sheep to shop’

FBMI’s carpets are produced “from the sheep to the shop” entirely in Afghanistan using locally procured materials. To begin, wool is purchased from Afghanistan’s nomadic tribes, which is then made into thin, clean yarn and coloured using natural dyes. The designs are entirely hand-drawn. Once the dyed wool is ready, weavers using a loom carefully make the carpet, which is then washed, sheared, tidied and sun-dried. On average, each weaver is able to produce about one-square metre of carpet a month.

Basira and Hakima, Afghan refugees from The Fatima bint Muhammad bin Zayed initiative, weaving the loom at Dubai Mall. 

“There is a big story behind every carpet. The village it was woven in, who wove it, the story behind the design, the colour, the patterns, everything,” Jabarkhyl said.

In the future, FBMI hopes to set up weaving centres in each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, benefitting local economies as the country shifts away from an economy revolving around the presence of American and other coalition troops.

“From 2001 to 2014, it was a war-related economy. The troops have left now, so all the jobs have gone as well,” Jabarkhyl explained. “There weren’t any manufacturing jobs, or weaving jobs, or anything like that. The international community did not pay much attention, nor did the Afghan government, so there is huge unemployment in Afghanistan at the moment.”

In the meantime, Jabarkhyl hopes that UAE residents will go to The Dubai Mall and see the process in action. “Our aim being here is so people get to know more about the initiative.” -bernd@khaleejtimes.com