KASHAN, Iran — The ancient city of Kashan, located in central Iran, is home to a historic bazaar that once thrived on a major caravan route. Known for its exquisite silk carpets, the bazaar was a bustling hub of trade and commerce. However, since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and rising tensions with the West, the world of the weavers selling their rugs under the bazaar’s arches has slowly unraveled.
According to government customs figures, rug exports, which were once valued at over $2 billion two decades ago, have now plummeted to less than $50 million in the last year of the Persian calendar. With a decrease in tourism and difficulties in making international transactions, Iranian rugs are going unsold, and many weavers are struggling to make ends meet, working for as little as $4 a day.
Ali Faez, the owner of a dusty carpet shop in the bazaar, laments the loss of American customers, who were once some of their best clients. He says, “Rugs are a luxury product, and they were eager to buy, making very good purchases. Unfortunately, this has been cut off, and the connection between the two countries for visitors to come and go has disappeared.”
The art of rug weaving in Kashan has been recognized by UNESCO as an “intangible cultural heritage.” Many of the weavers are women who have inherited the skills needed for the Farsi weaving style from their ancestors. They use natural materials like vine leaves, pomegranate skins, and walnuts to dye their threads, and it can take months to create a single rug.
For decades, Western tourists and others would visit Iran and purchase rugs as gifts or souvenirs. However, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran’s government, which included a ban on the import of Iranian caviar, rugs, and pistachios. But in 2000, the ban was lifted by the outgoing administration of former President Bill Clinton, with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stating, “Iran lives in a dangerous neighborhood. We welcome efforts to make it less dangerous.”
But in 2010, with concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. once again banned the import of Persian rugs. This ban was lifted in 2015 when Iran reached a nuclear deal with world powers, which greatly reduced and lowered the purity of their enriched uranium. The rug trade was allowed to resume.
However, in 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal, leading to renewed sanctions and a ban on Iranian-made Persian rugs. This has had a devastating impact on the carpet weavers.
“It all started when Trump signed that paper,” Faez tells The Associated Press, referring to the renewed sanctions. “He ruined everything.”
Abdullah Bahrami, the head of a national syndicate for handwoven rug producers, blames the collapse of the industry on the Trump sanctions. He estimates that the value of exports to the U.S. was as high as $80 million annually before the sanctions were reinstated. He says, “The whole world used to know Iran by its rugs.”
The decline in tourism to Kashan has also added to the struggles of the carpet sellers. The daily Shargh newspaper warned last year that high-value American and European tourism in Iran has largely stopped. Ezzatollah Zarghami, Iran’s Minister of Tourism, insists that 6 million tourists visited the country over the last 12 months, but this likely includes religious pilgrims and visitors from neighboring countries with less spending power.
Even for the tourists who do visit, there is the challenge of Iran’s financial system, where major international credit cards do not work. Faez shares an incident where a Chinese customer struggled to make payment for a rug he loved. “We have to pay a lot of commission to those who can transfer money and have bank accounts abroad. Sometimes, customers cancel their orders because they don’t have enough cash with them.”
The collapse of the Iranian currency, the rial, has also made it difficult for locals to afford handwoven rugs. With low wages in the industry, there has been a rise in the number of Afghan migrants working in workshops around Kashan.
Javad Amorzesh, one of the few remaining old-school rug designers in
