Iran's Persian carpet industry is creaking under the weight of U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. But its craftsmen may have found a way to innovate their way out of trouble — weaving miniaturized versions of their traditional rugs as substitutes for Japan's ubiquitous zabuton floor cushions.
Iranian carpet weavers have seen their sales roughly halve in the last few years as rivals in India and Turkey look to grab market share.
"We sell 60% of our products to Japan because economic sanctions ban us from exporting them to the United States, which used to be our biggest market," explained Mohammad Jafari, a 43-year-old weaver at Zollanvari, a long-established carpet company in Tehran.