Mat weaving and marine industries for heating Bushehr villages

Available and quality raw materials, historical experience of rural women and, of course, up-to-date training in production and sales, have for some time caused the warmth of the marine handicrafts and mat weaving market in Bushehr province, so that this small and low-cost industry Rural women carry this province.

According to IRNA, handicrafts with a background arising from the historical memory and geography of each region are a great option to solve the problem of unemployment in rural areas, especially for women. Creativity requires adding an element of creativity, updating and development.

Efforts to increase skills and develop handicrafts in accordance with the needs of the market day, in Bushehr province has passed its test well and is now going to play a major role in the employment of rural women and solving the problem of unemployment of this group.

“More than 70% of handicraft producers are women, so we can hope that the revival of indigenous handicrafts and the development of these handicrafts in rural areas will play an important role in meeting this need,” said the deputy director of handicrafts at the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism in Bushehr Province. Have a population of 50% of the population.

Marine and capo handicrafts (a basket that is woven by wrapping young palm leaves around the brain and with colorful decorative yarns) and mat weaving are two industrial arts that are now popular in Bushehr villages as the first or part-time job of women. According to Leila Rahimi, this year alone, 195 cases of identification cards and production licenses in the field of mats and 24 cases in the field of marine handicrafts have been registered in this province.

Economic prosperity of villages is one of the important advantages of handicraft development; It can be said that the villages of Bushehr province where the revival and education projects of these industries have been implemented are successful examples to confirm this statement and the rural women of Bushehr have relied on skills, efforts and raw materials from their geography to achieve self-reliance.

Neighborhood with the sea and the diversity of farmed and natural oysters and the existence of 6 million palms in 34,500 hectares of groves, has put Bushehr in a significant position for the development of the arts of mat, cap weaving and marine handicrafts.

Employment with long palm leaves

The holding of marine handicrafts, mat and capo weaving training courses has revived the economy of this sector in recent years, as the Deputy Handicrafts of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism of Bushehr Province says: A large number of women have been employed in this sector. In 1400, about 200 weavers with ID cards have been added to the population of weavers in this province, and nearly one thousand active craftsmen are cooperating with Abpakhsh Mat House (National Mat City of Iran), and this year more than 2,000 mats and capo products The center is exported to Iraq and the UAE.

Leila Rahimi, referring to the holding of introductory, advanced courses and virtual sales of handicrafts in several villages of Bushehr province, says: “Due to the availability of quality local materials in the field of mats, there is a large capacity for employment and production of high quality products.” The market needs these products.

According to him, mat and capo have entered the market more among the trained and revived disciplines, have received a lot of attention, and most of the students have joined the market.

Fawzia Moghtadarfard, a designer of mats and capos and a teacher of training courses for the deputy of handicrafts of Bushehr province, also believes that the mat market of Bushehr is now “at its peak”. According to him, mat weaving in Bushehr used to be forgotten until the middle of the 90’s and only limited products such as bread and baskets were woven, but today it has become an employment-generating profession.

She, who is also the career leader of Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, sells women’s products in about 80 villages of the province in the form of a handicrafts cooperative, and 15 weavers cooperate with this cooperative in each village.

Moghtadar Fard says: Bushehr mat and capo have a very good market and trainings are provided on the condition of creating employment, which has been accompanied by a very good demand from rural girls and women.

Dorudgah village of Dashtestan is one of the villages that this summer hosted a basic, advanced and special training course for employees (virtual marketing) of capo and mat weaving. A group of 20 women held.

Now Ameneh Saeedifard, one of the active women of this village, says: All the participants in these training courses have succeeded in connecting to the bazaar and have had a successful presence in the national date exhibition in Bushehr and have been welcomed.

He considers the production and sales training in cyberspace to be very good and effective and says: selling women in cyberspace has been good.

According to Saeedifard, the young generation of women from the 3,200-person village of Dorodgah have been attracted to this job and have now set up a handicraft workshop, and are scheduled to present their products at an exhibition in February.

This Dashtestani lady says: We expect that with the development of rural women in this profession, we will bring the village of Dorodgah to the national register.

Marine handicrafts; A capacity among oysters

In addition to mats and huts, the proximity to the Persian Gulf and the coast and the existence of oyster breeding centers in Bushehr province have provided favorable conditions for the development of marine handicrafts, and wherever training has taken place, young women have been welcomed and rural employment has been sought. had.

The creation of art paintings, ornaments and functional items from oyster shells has always been the focus of travelers to the Persian Gulf, and as the Deputy Handicrafts of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism of Bushehr Province states, this rise from the heart of the sea attracts the attention of tourists. Has set.

Leila Rahimi says: Marine handicrafts are one of the native disciplines of Bushehr province and the education, revival and development of this native discipline is especially important in the coastal villages of this province.

Activists and producers of marine handicrafts say: The market of this art industry has more employment capacity.

Zahra Abuzari, one of the masters of marine handicrafts in the province, believes that this profession has an employment capacity of “two hundred times more” if we move towards its application and updating, and in these conditions, it has a good export capability.

He adds: When buying, everyone first prepares their consumer needs and then only decorative goods; Therefore, it is necessary to give marine handicraft products a consumer aspect in addition to the beauty dimension, which we are working on today.

In addition to beautiful art paintings, goods such as solidity, tablecloths, keyboards have found their place among the productions of Ms. Abuzari and her students and have also attracted the attention of the market.

According to this marine handicrafts activist, in order to protect the ecosystem, most of the farmed oysters are used for food and medicine, and their shells are used to create handicraft products.

Abuzari, who has trained more than 2,000 Bushehr women since 1993, believes she has a very good market and job-creating capacity for provincial villagers like Bushehr.

The village of Genaveh North Island is one of the villages where holding handicraft training courses with a capacity of 40 people has had a clear impact on the employment of women, so that according to Naeema Mallah, these classes provide employment for many housewives, single women and even girls with university education. has done.

“The advanced training course was very practical and useful, and most of the participants now sell well both to travelers and in cyberspace,” says the handicraft maker.

The cause of this job creation is the motivation for all women in the village to work, and 54 people want to hold a training course, which will be held for them in cooperation with the relief committee.

According to activists and the new atmosphere created in these villages, efforts to develop handicrafts through education are bearing fruit very quickly, and the resulting job creation is experiencing exponential growth.

Leila Rahimi says: The Bushehr Deputy Minister of Handicrafts is trying to cover the limited budget allocated to these trainings in the villages throughout the province, depending on their capabilities.

In a situation where we are witnessing increasing migration to cities due to drought and declining rural incomes, increasing the credibility of handicraft development projects is not a cost, but a valuable investment that results in early and largely sustainable employment.