Discover Xinjiang: From housewives to making handicrafts

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Local authorities in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has strived to create jobs for local women, an official told CGTN on Monday.

“We set up a base to produce handicrafts and over 90 percent of employees are female from local communities,” Zhang Yi, deputy director of the town’s publicity department, said the government has encouraged women to work outside home by setting up the Kazanqi Folk Handicrafts Base in 2013.

Aynur, a 44-year-old Uygur woman, has been working at the base for over two years. Her major work is sewing pillow in Makaen company. “I come here every week. Many of my colleagues are my neighbors,” she said.

Aynur works at the Kazanqi Folk Handicrafts Base./CGTN Photo

Like most of the female employees at the base, Aynur was a housewife before finding a job in the clothing company. “They have no income in the past,” Zhang said. “But they have salaries now so their status at home have changed as well.”

The Uygur worker said she is paid by the piece. “For one pillow, I earn 1.2 yuan and I can make about 50 per day.” The products are sold at the souvenir stores and folk craftsman shops across Xinjiang.

When asked about how her families think about her job, she said her husband supports her career in the factory. “It’s fine for me to balance the chores and the work here. I prepare the ingredients for meal every morning before I come here and then make dinner after I finish my job,” she said.

So far, there are 83 firms registered at the base featuring the production of food, clothing, lavender products and Uygur folk handicrafts. Over 1,000 women have found jobs there over the past four years.

2917km