Bold, colourful carpets and handbags, many decorated with simple, traditional Berber motifs, are woven in Ain Draham by a small women’s cooperative called Les Tapis de Kroumirie. It aims both to provide employment for poor women and to preserve local carpet-making traditions, and at their workshop, you can see women working the looms and buy the result.
A tapis de Kroumirie has 40,000 knots per sq metre, while a tapis berbère (Berber carpet), made with thicker yarn, has 10,000 knots per sq metre. Kilims (woven rugs) made of wool or cotton are also on offer. All the wool is spun by hand and coloured using vegetable dyes. Prices are fixed, but they’re not high – a woven handbag costs 10DT to 20DT, while carpets start at round 100DT per sq metre.
The most straightforward way to get to Les Tapis de Kroumirie (involving a bit of up-and-down) is to walk down the flight of stairs next to the post office on Ave Habib Bourguiba and then, at the bottom, turn left and walk for 50m. The workshop is above the office of the Ministère des Affaires Sociales.