Simple life, skillful hands, silk weaving

Balam Jerk, a 400-year-old village in Minudasht city, the northern province of Golestan, with only 210 families is almost unknown.  The inhabitants mostly pursue farming, livestock breeding, and on top of everything, sericulture, silk weaving, and yarn spinning.     Women of Balam Jerk village are mostly occupied with weaving silk and spinning yarn to make an honest living. They obtain silk from scratch by rearing larvae of silkworms to form cocoons.  The silk cloth and yarns woven and spun skillfully will be exported to other cities or in some cases to other countries. While the village has untapped potentials for growth and becoming a tourist hub in the province, people are experiencing economic deprivation. Tehran Times / Fatemeh Abedi