Basira Sadiqi (Portland) practices traditional Afghani embroidery and carpet weaving. Sadiqi learned to embroider from her mother; her husband’s female relatives taught her carpet weaving, which she in turn taught her own children during their time in a Pakistani refugee camp.
Bio
Basira Sadiqi is a traditional Afghani embroiderer and carpet weaver. In her native Afghanistan, Sadiqi learned traditional embroidery from her mother and other female family members. In Afghanistan, Sadiqi worked in a factory that made clothes decorated with embroidery. In Oregon, she personally creates women’s tops similar to those she made in her homeland as well as traditional Afghani children’s clothing. She hand-embroiders each with beautiful designs, ranging from fruit and flowers to abstracted vegetal and geometric patterning. She uses different stiches for different designs; in some cases, the stiches correlate to ethnic identity. After she married, Sadiqi lived with her husband’s family, whose traditional occupation was carpet weaving. She learned this art by working on vertical floor looms in their homes. While she and her family were living in a Pakistani refugee camp, Sadiqi taught her children to weave carpets. This activity enabled them to earn some money and also imbued a profound aesthetic sense. Her oldest son, who attends high school in Portland, said that he can still look at a picture and weave the image into a carpet. Sadiqi came to Portland with her four children through the services of Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) in 2016. Although she does not yet speak English, Sadiqi hopes that she will be able to partially provide for her children by selling her fine embroidered items at craft fairs and markets.
