Dar Shaqilat for Cultural Products

Dar Shaqilat for Cultural Products is concerned with cultural products, sold as souvenirs and gifts, which derive their codes from Jordanian materialistic and immaterialistic heritage. It is marked with obviously productive features, relevant to the concepts of the productivity of the society, sustainable development, fair trade, and the concept of cultural communication with the other lore. Therefore, it is fundamental that the societal needs, represented in improving the quality of the local communities, should be integrated with cultural privacy along with the need to be open to the other.

The project includes the establishment of a complex of cultural products: Dar Shaqilat for embroidery and fashion, Dar Shaqilat for Souvenirs and gifts, and Dar Shaqilat for documentation and the making of movies. These cultural products derive their themes, designs, colours, and codes from the human heritage. In particular, the artistic heritage of the Nabataeans whose has outstanding features and cultural privacy, open to other human cultures.

This project in many ways targets productivity for women, who need more care. It will offer them appropriate work opportunities, training, suitable rehabilitation in line with the areas of production. Women, inhabiting the areas surrounding touristic sites in Jordan especially Petra, suffer from unemployment because of the incapacity of the touristic sector to integrate them in the available career opportunities.

The General Objective of the Project:

We generally attempt to combine the need of cultural products, expressive of cultural identity with the real need of working in order to improve the quality of life. The point here is to integrate all elements of touristic market available in Petra, and its neighbouring and surrounding local communities.

The Special Objectives:

In particular, we intend to achieve the following:

1- Offering cultural products, souvenirs, and gifts, revealing the cultural features of Jordan and presenting them to tourists, visitors of Jordan and to Jordanians in general.  In so doing, we aim at bridging the gap in Jordanian market.

2- Employing and qualifying women in areas suitable for their capacities. They will be trained on all processes of production of this project.

3- Finding a productive project, characterized by the continuity and capacity of expanding in the future in a way that guarantees the continuity of accumulating the conditions of improving the quality of the life of the local communities (not to disregard special groups such as women and children).