Photo: Mahsa Safari

Iranian silkmakers spin a niche to sustain millennia-old industry

Photo collection depicts members of a rustic Iranian family who are breading clusters of silkworms on piles of mulberry leaves in Minudasht county, Iran’s northern Golestan province, on June 28, 2020. It is one scarce family in their village trying to spin a niche around a noticeable supply chain of high-quality material. Each member of the family plays a role in the process. Even youngsters help their parents for instance in the final stage of the silk thread production, where several threads are gathered together to form bundles. The memory of the Silk Road is still alive in the remotest regions of Iran, where the ancient route once passed. Sources say that for some 3,000 years, silk thread produced in Iran has been used to make clothing fabric and for weaving Persian rugs. The Silk Road was a well-connected network of routes which, according to ancient maps, began in China and passed through central Asia before ending in Syria. It served as an important trade route connecting the Mediterranean Sea and China.