00:00Women Carpet Weavers from Afghanistan showcased their talent at the Souk Atrium and Dubai
00:16Mall.
00:17The women are part of a project undertaken by the UAE's Fatima bint Mohamed Initiative
00:22and Afghanistan's Tanweer Investments, which aims to empower women and promote sustainable
00:27development.
00:28The initiative provides women with employment in carpet production and offers their families
00:33health care, education and other basic social services.
00:36Under the initiative, the UAE Carpet Center for Afghanistan was established to produce
00:42traditional Afghan carpets.
00:44The initiative was set up in 2009 to help alleviate poverty amongst the women of Afghanistan
00:48and to help reintegrate them back into society with the vision to promote Afghan carpets
00:54again on the international scale through legal means and manufacturing and sticking
01:01to the business ethics and a strong social corporate responsibility.
01:04We have the flagship factory in Afghanistan in Kabul, which is about 10 hectares of land
01:09which covers from the spinning of the wool to the dyeing process, the collection of wool,
01:13dyeing, spinning and the actual weaving, finishing and the exportation of the goods are directly
01:18done from Afghanistan.
01:20The idea came about, it makes sense from both sides, both economically and as a social project
01:26or social enterprise if you want to see it in that way.
01:28It helps the people of Afghanistan, it helps to reintegrate the women of Afghanistan who
01:32were secluded for the past 15-20 years in Afghanistan from society.
01:36We've chosen the handmade carpet industry as it's the largest industry in Afghanistan
01:40and it's the largest earner for the Afghan government, which is another key issue as
01:43the government will be less dependent on foreign aid or foreign donors to be providing.
01:48So hopefully this will make Afghanistan become a more self-sufficient nation and prosper again.
01:54We've chosen the handmade carpet industry again because it's the culture, it's the heritage
01:57of Afghanistan, it's been kept alive through all these decades and decades of war.
02:02We also directly export to major customers, we cover North America, South America, we're
02:09in Australasia, Europe is a key base.
02:11We have branches in Abu Dhabi in the Yas Mall, we're set up in Dubai as well on the Jumeirah
02:16Beach Road.
02:17At the moment we're having, I think, the most unique, maybe the first ever handmade carpet
02:22road show, if you will, from sheaf to shop, to show the customer and to show the client
02:26or whomever may be interested in such an initiative or project that how difficult it is, how painstaking
02:32the process is to manufacture a single handmade carpet.
02:35There is no single machine involved in the whole procedure, so it's really a truly authentic
02:42Afghan handmade, completely handmade carpet.
02:46The women share the basic techniques of carpet weaving with the mall visitors.
02:51Irish Eden Belieza for Gulf News.
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