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Embroidery: A feminine art struggling to survive in Afghanistan
Farshid Aram* authored this report for the Zan Times in Persian, and it was translated into English by Rustam Seerat.
Holding a delicate needle threaded with embroidery silk, Marjan slowly and gracefully inserts it into a piece of fabric designed to become a traditional man’s shirt.
“Embroidery is part of the training that a girl should learn during childhood; mothers usually provide this training so that when their daughters get engaged, they sew a shirt for their fiancé,” explains Marjan*, a 33-year-old embroiderer in Kandahar province. A widow since her husband died in a bombing six years ago, she uses her skills with a needle and thread to cover the living expenses of her and her five children.
The art that Marjan learned during her childhood is now being passed down to the next generation. Her eldest daughter, 14-year-old Najma, collaborates on creating the embroidery.
Embroidered clothing is commonly worn in the region. For men, the most common designs are rectangular, triangular, royal, and round collars, while women’s clothing is often embroidered around the neck, sleeves, and trouser hems of clothes. Because the amount of embroidery can vary greatly, the price of such designs…
