Introducing a female entrepreneur in the field of handicrafts

“Khadijeh Saeedpour” is a female entrepreneur in the field of handicrafts who has been able to overcome difficulties and start a Kilims production workshop.

This lady was born in 1981 and has two sons. Khadijeh says about herself:
Unlike all the villagers who migrate to the city for success and business, after my marriage, I started my work in the village with a small capital that was the first subsidy.

It was our family, I started by embroidering curtains. At that time, the village of “Gol Suleiman Abad” had the most construction in the Hadi project of rural housing.

I was also the first woman who did social and cultural activities in the village. At first, my work was very difficult, because some activities were not compatible with the local culture, but over time, I settled in the village.

Attention to the needs of the village

After sewing curtains, I paid more attention to the needs of the village, sewing clothes, sewing dowry, weaving clothes for persons , sewing flags for international exhibitions to other activities, my business prospered well, women and I trained village girls to help me, and some of them separately set up a small workshop for themselves.

My husbend also gave up working in a private company and accompanied me in my work and reaching my goal. Considering that the urban waste had covered a significant area of the village land, I always had this concern to pay attention to the recycling of my work waste.

Until I met the Agricultural Jihad organization at the first rural women’s empowerment festival which was held in the presence of the honorable vice president in 2015, and I formed a small fund for nomadic and rural and nomadic women in the village.

Acquaintance with the Agricultural Jihad Organization was the starting point of Mrs. Saeedpour’s facilitation activities in the village.

Participating in training courses and imparting training to rural women is one of the continuous and fruitful activities of this lady.

Entrepreneurship courses

Khadijeh entered a new phase of her personal and professional growth after participating in the “My Business Path” courses of the Entrepreneurship Development Foundation.

Through the promotion management of the West Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization, she participated in training courses for rural and nomadic women trainers. And he was able to organize courses for women in the village in an efficient manner. Mrs. Saeedpour says about these courses:

In these courses, I learned that I should pay attention to the capacities and potentials, so I revived the carpet weaving industry in the village and after participating in the carpet weaving training courses at the Cultural Heritage and Handicrafts Department of the province and acquiring skills I taught this industry for free to rural women in the village and even in order to increase the interest of women in this industry, I used to pay wages for every rug that was woven without problems during the training course.

Then, in LNSIE courses, I got acquainted with the plan of a village, a product of the Omid Entrepreneurship Fund, and by referring to the provincial fund, I presented my plan and implemented it in the village with 65 women from the village.

According to the LNSIE courses, I was looking for innovation for carpets so that I could make room for my products in the market, so in the exhibitions that I participated in, I paid full attention to the needs and demands of the customer, hence, for the first time in Iran, I designed  Car seat sweat catcher  for car seats and office chairs from Kilims.

Therefore, with the quality and innovation we used in this industry, we were able to produce one thousand carpet boards one by one for export to European countries, and I think this is a very good start for our work.

The diversity of doll productions in different models and sizes has made us open a good market for ourselves and we have plans for dolls that hopefully you will hear good news in the future.

In addition to all these activities, I considered it necessary to create interest and motivation for rural women to enter into agriculture, and therefore, with the support of the agricultural jihad, we have started the cultivation of  Damask rose in about one hectare of dry land, which I hope will be fruitful.

Be that as it may, one of our future goals is to build a rural ecotourism residence that is complemented by handicrafts, and I am in the process of obtaining permits.

Of course, I did not neglect my studies in all these years, and after 18 years of studying to facilitate the work of the fund, I continued my studies in the field of industrial accounting and now I am a Professional business expert.

Khadijeh Saeedpour has found a special position as an exemplary female entrepreneur, she was not a villager, but as a village bride, she tries her best to minimize any problems that arise for the employment of rural and nomadic women and even for herself.