SITTING AT HIS loom in a cold, bare room, Javed Mohammed Khan weaves fine, soft fleece into some of the most coveted shawls in the world - shahtoosh. It takes the weaver in Srinagar, capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, more than six months to produce one piece, but his paltry income from the painstaking work has been shrinking. Shahtoosh-weaving is a 600-year-old industry in Kashmir, the centre of world production, but it has been prohibited since 2002. Alarmed by the threat of extinction of the Tibetan antelope, or chiru, whose soft, underbelly fleece provides wool for the shawls, wildlife groups persuaded the Indian government to join a global ban on the trade.
Nevertheless, shahtoosh continues to be woven and sold secretly throughout India and elsewhere. Kashmiri traders refuse to give up such a lucrative business - a shahtoosh shawl sells for up to US$1,500 in India and up to US$20,000 overseas. And weavers such as Khan have few other skills or means of livelihood.
The ban has hit Kashmiris hard.
'If there were other jobs to be had, I'd give this up instantly, but unemployment here is terrible,' says Khan, who lives with his family in Iqdar, a poor neighbourhood in Srinagar. 'I'm 25 and want to get married. How can I do that on the 2,500 rupees [about $430] I make each month? I used to earn more before the ban when many more shawls were being made, but now the work is irregular.'
The income that Khan and his brother, Shabir, get from their weaving must support a large extended family: their mother, who needs costly heart medication; a married sister and her unemployed husband; and a widowed sister and her five children.
Besides, the estimated 30,000 weavers, spinners and dye workers also struggle with depressed earnings. Many spinners are widows who have lost their husbands in the state's 16-year separatist conflict. In a conservative Muslim society, where it's frowned on for women to work outside, spinning and weaving give them a chance to earn money at home.
