Keeping the art of ‘real’ Persian carpets alive

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 14

Keeping the art of ‘real’ Persian carpets alive

By

PHIL DAVISON

of Reuter (through NZPA) Teheran

Iran’s Muslim leaders are trying to revive the art of carpet-weaving, which was already in decline during the last years of the Shah’s rule.

Persian carpets were for centuries considered the finest in the world, but in the years before the 1979 revolution which ousted the Shah, foreign dealers had been critical of the quality. Iranian officials say the clergy-dominated Government is now giving the carpet industry higher priority. By improving quality the Government hopes to maintain employment in the industry and earn hard currency as a back-up to oil exports.

Government-funded revolutionary bodies have stepped in to fill gaps left by thousands of private dealers who fled the country around the time of the revolution.

Iranian officials say 70 per cent of the carpet industry is still in private hands, but State intervention in the remaining 30 per cent has stopped rural weavers from abandoning the art and moving to urban centres for other work, they say. State bodies provide weavers with loans, grants,

and raw materials such as wool and dyes, the officials said, although they gave no figures. There are an estimated tw T o million weavers, mostly women, in Iran and a further six million working in related fields such as plantgrowing for natural dyes, wool-dyeing, and designing. Muhammad Reza Abed, chairman of the State-run Iranian Carpet Company, told Reuters that the Islamic Government policy is aimed at helping as many people as possible, particularly in depressed rural areas, to earn a living from carpets. “Government policy has broken the monopoly of the wealthy private dealers,” Mr Abed said. “Before the revolution, the dealer paid the labour fees in advance and owned the carpet even before it was started. Now, the weaver owns her own carpet and can sell it to a private dealer or to us (the Iranian Carpet Company). “If we paid for her raw materials, this is deducted from the price we pay her. If she prefers to seil privately, she has to pay back the cost of the materials.”

The quality of the Persian carpet, possibly at its finest during the Safavid Dynasty of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, steadily declined during the twenti-

eth century with the advent of chemical dyes and massproduction aimed at keeping up with increasing competition from such areas as the Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, and China.

Now, in the segment of the industry in which the State is involved, Govern-ment-appointed experts tour weaving centres and make spot checks to improve quality. They try, for example, to keep alive the use of vegetable rather than chemical dyes. The untrained eye can scarcely detect a difference, but chemical colours run when washed and fade quickly while vegetable dyes keep their colour for centuries.

“At present, between 50 and 70 per cent of Iranian carpets are coloured with vegetable dyes. We insist on their use whenever possible since this is what makes Iranian carpets better than their competitors,” Mr Abed said.

The carpet company also runs plants where newcomers are encouraged to learn to mix dyes from older workers whose techniques have sometimes been handed down for generations.

Persian carpet exports have been falling steadily over the last decade, apart from a short-lived rise in the two years after the

revolution. This was caused by wealthy Iranians who, restricted from taking out cash, removed their wealth in the form of expensive carpets. Now, the artificially high exchange rate for the Iranian rial — black market rates are at present 600 per cent higher than the official rates — makes Persian carpets expensive for foreign buyers unless they deal on the black market and resort to smuggling.

In an effort to counteract the black market, the Government now offers a 25 per cent preferential exchange rate to foreign dealers who buy carpets with officially changed cash.

Mr Abed said that in the Iranian year just ended, the value of Iran’s carpet exports was double what it was the previous year, but he did not give figures.

A look round the Iranian Carpet Company’s showroom in Teheran’s central Ferdowsi Street shows how carpet prices have multiplied severalfold over the last two years. A relatively small Kashan, new and measuring 220 cm by 140 cm is listed at 750,000 rials ($12,900). A new Marand, from the Tabriz area of north-west Iran and measuring 306 cm by 194 cm is priced at 1,600,000 rials ($27,300).