Zuleya is the carpet house of FBMI — the initiative founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to put a loom in the hand of an Afghan artisan and put the carpet, signed, in a room in Dubai.
Founded in 2010 under the patronage of HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, FBMI buys wool from Afghan nomads, employs more than eight thousand women at a single loom city in Mazar-i-Sharif, and sells the finished carpets in Dubai under the name Zuleya.
Every dirham of margin returns to the looms. The carpet you buy from us in d3 was, four months ago, a fleece in Balkh and the wage of a woman in Mazar-i-Sharif.
In 2016, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan gifted His Holiness Pope Francis a hand-knotted carpet from this loom. The drawing is now a small collection — six new sizes, the same hands, the same wool.
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The Fatima Bint Mohamed Bin Zayed Initiative is a joint venture between the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan — founded under the patronage of Umm al Emarat, HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation.
Fourteen years on, the initiative is the largest single employer of Afghan women in the country. More than eight thousand are at our looms in Mazar-i-Sharif. The carpet you see in our showroom in d3 was, six months ago, a fleece in Balkh and the income that sent a child in Mazar-i-Sharif to school.
FBMI is one of very few carpet houses that owns its entire value chain. We buy fleece direct from Afghan herders. We spin it. We dye it with plants. We draw the cartoon. We weave the carpet. We sell it ourselves in Dubai.
That means the herder gets paid the right price for the wool, the spinner is on the payroll, the weaver is a full employee with a wage, healthcare and childcare — and the margin between wool and shelf returns to the same artisans who made it.