Saturday, April 30, 2022

Carpet repair booms in Aleppo as Syria looks to rebuild

Omar Rawas, a carpet weaver, is seen fixing carpets at his workshop in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on March 8, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua)
The business of repairing carpets has started to boom in Syria's Aleppo as the country tries to rebuild itself on the ashes of a destructive foreign-backed war. 

The business, which had been mainly about fixing ancient and expensive handmade carpets before the war erupted in Syria in 2011, has changed dramatically in recent years.

Ancient handmade carpets are highly treasured in Syria as they have been passed from one generation to another. Syrian carpet weavers used to fix only high-value carpets in the past, but now they are fixing any carpets.

"Repairing handmade carpets is like fixing paintings," Omar Rawas, a 44-year-old man who inherited this business from his family, told China's Xinhua news agency.

He is well-versed on all kinds of carpets from around the world, most importantly famous Iranian carpets like Mashhad, Tabriz, Arak, Isfahan, Kashan, and Kerman.

The man worried about the possible extinction of the profession as the young generation in the country is not interested in such an intricate handmade art that demands patience and skill.

"Our young generation is no longer interested in old traditional handcrafts because it needs to master the skills first and then comes the money," he said. 

He is working on passing his skills and passion down to his sons.

"I am trying to put the love of this profession in the hearts of my sons. When he loves it, he will know its real value," Rawas said.

"I have big hopes that if tourism returned, my business would boom because people love to see the handmade stuff in Syria's Aleppo."

The US and Europe have imposed tough sanctions on Syria, after failing to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad through a proxy war, waged by such groups as Daesh. 

The Syrian government puts the country's reconstruction bill as high as $400 billion.

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