AFGHANISTAN-ECONOMY-SILK

In this picture taken on June 25, 2014, coloured threads to be woven into a carpet hang inside a traditional factory in Afghanistan's province of Herat. The Department of Agriculture in Herat, in cooperation with a non-profit organisation, provided some 5,050 silkworm boxes in the beginning of 2014 to several districts to revive silk production in the region. Some 42,500 women and their families are involved in the project which aims to provide a means of subsistence and potentially lead to international market access for silk producers in the country. Western Afghanistan, once a stop along the Silk Road trade route, has a long tradition in the silk production process dating back thousands of years. Carpets are Afghanistan's best-known export, woven mostly by women and children in the north of the country, a trade which once employed, directly or indirectly, six million people, or a fifth of the country's population, but that figure has dropped sharply. The popular wool and silk Afghan carpets made by different tribes sells from between 150 - 1,000 US dollars. AFP PHOTO/Aref Karimi (Photo credit should read Aref Karimi/AFP via Getty Images)