- Title: JORDAN: TRADITIONAL RUG AND CARPET WEAVING REMAINS THRIVING BUSINESS.
- Date: 15th March 2000
- Summary: MADABA, JORDAN (MARCH 7, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. LV/GV: HERD OF SHEEP STROLLING IN THE WILDERNESS (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. GV: JORDANIAN BEDOUIN SHEPHERD CUTTING WOOL FROM SHEEP (2 SHOTS) 0.38 MAKAWARE, JORDAN (MARCH 9, 2000) (REUTERS) 3. GV/MV/CU: JORDANIAN BEDOUIN WOMEN FROM BANI HAMIDA TRIBE CLEANING THE WOOL AND TURNING IT INTO KNOTS OF STRIN
- Embargoed: 30th March 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MAKAWARE, MADABA, AND AMMAN, JORDAN
- Country: Jordan
- Reuters ID: LVAEF3KUD8WP145HR58YTH56D1IJ
- Story Text: Jordan has countless carpet plants that use the latest
weaving methods but alongside this industry there is a
thriving business in traditional rugs and carpet weaving by
more than a thousand Bedouin women from the Bani Hamida tribe.
On the Bani Hamida mountain, 75 km.(40 mile) south of
Amman, rug makers have settled over the centuries.
As the older generation of Bani Hamida tribe's women died,
so did their art.In a few short years, as the younger
generation spent their time learning to read and write, this
vital part of their heritage began to slip into oblivion.
But in 1985 the Jordan River Foundation, a non-profit
organization funded by foreign donors, establised the Bani
Hamida Women's Weaving Project at Jabal Makawar in the
southern village of Amman to provide jobs and welfare for
local women and to revive the rug and carpets weaving craft.
The first essential step for Bani Hamida women is to get
the wool that is being brought to them after the shepherds at
the wilderness shear the sheep.
After they handle the wool the women of Bani Hamida clean
it and turn the wool into strings.They spend an hour boiling
the wool strings to prepare them for washing and colouring.
Acid-based dyes of high quality are used to insure a broad
range of colours.Under the heavy sun, the wool stays until it
dries completely.
Twenty-four-year-old Alia Shakanba has worked on the
project for five years.She is proud to be associated with
the project because it carrries her tribe's name.
Alia who gets 70 JD.(100 $) monthly, says she helps her
family with the salary she gets through her job.She said: "I
am now an employee, and I help my family with my salary.In
the past it was too difficult for women to work outside the
home, but nowadays they can work exactly like men".
After the wool is ready the women of Bani Hamida start
weaving the rugs and carpets at their homes, spending two days
working to finish a single rug or carpet.
Many girls of Bani Hamida do not like to weave the rugs
and carpets at their home, but prefer to do it at the
workshop centre of the Jordan River Foundation at Jabal
Makaware.
Produced from 100% wool in the Bedouin tradition, the
unique wrap-faced flat weave of the carpet surface gives a
distinct reflection of Bedouin life.The colours range from
the bold traditional palette to the natural earth tones.
The Jordan River Foundation workshop is the place where the
rugs and carpets are collected before they go to the
fashionable Bani Hamida showroom in Amman.
In the showroom in Amman, tourists and foreigners living
in Jordan are regular customers to Bani Hamida rugs and
carpets.
Reem Churafa, marketing manager of the Jordan River
Foundation, said the firm had launched the Bani Hamida Women's
Weaving Project to help the women to better themselves both
financially and socially, while boosting their self-esteem.
Making the handcrafts, rugs and carpets is seen as passing
an old custom and heritage from mother to daughter in addition
to becoming the main source of income for the Bani Hamida
tribal women.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None