The local boycott against the Mt. Olive Pickle Company may have recently ended, but the movement against unfair labor practices progresses at One World Market, where customers can purchase Oriental rugs made by adult Pakistani workers who are paid a living wage.
In a remote corner of the world during the 1950s, a Pakistani Baptist pastor with a mind for change devised an ingenious solution to a religious and political problem. Frustrated that it was next to impossible for a Christian to find a fair-paying job in a country with a population that was 93 percent Muslim, Chaman Mafih started a project to secure living wages for Pakistani Christians.
With the help of American missionaries, Mafih began to help local workers from 10 families export hand-woven rugs, first to Asian countries, then to England and finally to the United States. Fifty years later, Mafih’s project has spread from his home village to neighboring villages in the Punjab and the North-West Frontier provinces of northern Pakistan and includes about 700 families.
These crafts have now made their way not to the Streets of Southpoint, but rather to the streets of Durham. One World Market, a quaint, well-lit shop on Ninth Street, is selling the multi-colored, multi-sized Oriental rugs through Saturday.
Every purchase advances the principles of fair trade. Each rug, no matter how large or delicate, is made by adults who are paid a living-wage for their work in Pakistan. The local boycott against the Mt. Olive Pickle Company may have recently ended, but the movement against unfair labor practices progresses at One World Market.
“In a lot of areas in the world, many small children are employed for practically nothing, working in hard conditions to make Oriental rugs because they have little fingers,” store manager Debbie Durham said. “In order to offset this tragic development, we partnered with Jakciss Oriental Rugs and Ten Thousand Villages, an artisan group and a retailer, to offer rugs from Pakistan, made by adults, to ensure that there is no child abuse in the production of these rugs.”
The rugs—in Persian, Tribal and Bokhara designs—are made in the artisans’ homes. Some rugs are small enough to use as doormats and others are large enough to decorate a dining room. The larger rugs can take an artisan, working six hours a day, over a year to make.
One World Market, which grew out of successful Sunday craft sales at the Watts Street Baptist Church in Durham, has held the annual fall rug sale seven times in the past 10 years. This year, the 1,300 rugs on display will stay at One World Market before moving on to 21 other locations in the U.S.
“Many of the rug producers are part of cooperatives abroad,” said junior Linda Arnade, who has shopped at One World Market and coordinated a Mi Gente “Shopping Day” there. “The point of [Shopping Day] was to have us shop for a good cause.”
In addition to rugs, One World Market sells goods produced by farmers and artisans in more than 30 developing countries. The store returns 62 percent of the product proceeds to the artisans. The rest of the profit from merchandise goes toward shipping and marketing costs. To maintain this arrangement, One World Market is run almost entirely by volunteers.
“It’s self-evident that [One World Market] wants to think of all religions, all people, all cultures as one,” said Durham, pointing to the store’s name and goal of promoting the exchange of beautifully hand-crafted goods across different cultures. “The store’s mission has always been to provide low-income artisans from around the world with a living wage that helps them pay for food, education, health care and housing,” she added.
Amir Chaman, the representative from Ten Thousand Villages currently helping Durham to oversee the rug event, is living proof of the benefits of such fair trade practices. He graduated from one of the 10 schools aided by proceeds from One World Market. And when it comes to learning more about the rug-making venture, there is no one better to ask than Chaman. The son of the very pastor who initiated the project, he is truly his father’s son for advancing fair trade in Durham.
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