In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, sending thousands of refugees fleeing into Pakistan. The fleeing Afghanis brought with them a flood of rug designs and rug techniques and Afhgan area rugs. Those rugs have become a staple on the international Oriental rug market.
Afghan rugs are a deceptively simple categorization of a number of very distinct weaving styles that incorporate different colors, weaving techniques and styles. The Afghan rugs that make their way to the United States are often the product of displaced refugees working in Pakistan and Iran, or slowly sifting their way back into Afghanistan. Like any other art, those who create it are influenced by the things that they see and hear around them, including the rug designs being created by other artists in their area.
Traditional Afghan area rugs are created in tribal patterns that have been handed down from generation to generation. While we refer to them as Afghan ‘rugs’, many serve other purposes than carpeting. An ‘engsi’, for instance, is an Afghan rug that’s meant to serve as a cover over the entrance of a tent door. Along with the engsi, a young Afghani girl might also have woven a ‘kapunuk’, a shaped Afghan rug that is designed to fit over and around the door to the tent. Hand-woven bag fronts and decorated woven bands for use in ornamenting walls of tents are also common, and commonly sold here as ‘Afghan rugs’.
For many Afghani women, widowed by the ongoing wars that have ravaged Afghanistan, weaving rugs is one of the few sources of income available. Many labor for up to a year on a single hand-knotted Afghan rug – or create smaller pieces to sell at bazaar or to foreigners who come to markets. Far too often, the price paid for their work is negligible – but the Afghan rugs that they sell are resold for thousands on the open market.
Chicago philanthropist Connie Duckworth traveled to Afghanistan several years ago, and what she saw there ‘touched my heart’, she says. Upon her return, Duckworth founded Arzu, Inc., a Chicago based non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and help Afghani women through the purchase and resale of Afghan rugs. In the process, the organization funds schools and literacy programs and supports female rug weavers with quality materials and a market that pays fair value for their work.
Arzu means ‘hope’ in Dari, the main language in Afghanistan, and that is what Duckworth is spreading among the returning refugees in the war-torn land. Arzu pays Afghan rugs exporters to supply the finest materials available to women who join the program – yarns and dyes as well as traditional Afghan rug patterns. In return for their participation, the women agree to attend a literacy program and to send their children to school – particularly their daughters. When each Afghan rug is completed, Arzu pays one half the expected market price of the rug to the woman up front, then sells the rugs at charity auctions. The rest of the proceeds for the sales of the Afghan rugs funds literacy efforts.
A recent auction sold 13 handmade Afghan rugs and netted $43,000 that will be used to educational and health services for the families who are part of the project. Arzu is an example of grass roots charity at its best, building on the strengths of a people to mend and strengthen its weaknesses. With 120 families enrolled in the program already, Duckworth hopes that their success will spur others to join, and looks forward to the day when her efforts pay off in helping to rebuild Afghanistan, one Afghan rug at a time.
