Hand-made weaving plant opens in Thi-Qar

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: The chief of the Thi-Qar local council on Friday opened the al-Gharraf hand-made weaving plant north of the city after a period of rehabilitation. “The plant, which was destroyed and sabotaged, used to employ 400 working women, produce top-quality hand-made carpets and participate in fairs in and outside the country,” Ihsan al-Tai’e told IraqiNews.com. Ahlam Yasser Wali, the plant manager, said the facility was known for its productions of expensive carpets of Tabriz, Bukhara, Asfahan and Kashan. “The plant’s products will be exclusive to small pieces because it would need large quantities of wools in order to return to its earlier activities,” Wali said. The Iraqi cabinet on July 8 had appropriated 80 million Iraqi dinars to rehabilitate the weaving factory in al-Gharraf, a district that lies 20 km north of al-Nassiriya. Nassiriya, the capital city of Thi-Qar province, lies 380 km south of Baghdad. AmR (P) 1