Arts-based narrative inquiry: A rural carpet -weaving family in Ira

The purpose of this study was to gather oral and visual narratives to provide a voice to rural carpet-weaving women and their children in Iran. Through narrative and photography the study provides insight into the daily lives of women and children in a small, home-based family-run carpet making operation in rural Iran. The dynamics of everyday life were explored in a rural carpet-making family with particular focus on the role of the female weaver, who not only engages in the household chores, but also is the primary producer of carpets. Women carpet weavers are preservers of culture and history by creating an artifact that is embedded with their narrative and identity. The weavers' stories and participation are valuable as repositories for heritage and artistry.;The research objectives were to explore: (1) the nature of an Iranian family-run carpet-weaving operation within a rural setting; (2) the role of women and their children in making the carpets; (3) the role of the women as the primary weavers and as agents of preserving carpets as cultural and historical artifacts and as keepers of stories told and retold through generations of family circles; and (4) the role of the women as contributors to the household economy.;Conducted as an arts-based narrative inquiry, the study reveals the past experiences, present adaptations and future aspirations of three generations of Iranian women in a rural carpet cottage industry. The visual and narrative field texts composed through interviews, journaling, photography and videography and by photo-elicitation [from the co-participants and by the researcher who is a Canadian immigrant originally from Iran], sheds a multi-dimensional light on the lives of women and children carpet weavers in one family in rural Iran. The study also attends to the social relations among family members and their surrounding community, and the role of rural carpet-weaving in preserving traditional carpet-production techniques within an aesthetic, cultural and historical context. The visual and oral stories of the women confirm the continuing existence of an economic system that subordinates women's roles, the continuation of traditional Iranian patriarchal gender relations and the existence of an informal matriarchy.