Koohi means Mountain people

The woman we see to the right is Koohi in her Summer camp near the town of Eqlid/Eghlid north of Shiraz in Fars province. This image is typical of the traditional life of a Qashqai woman in a migratory existence. We see traditional garb, heavy iron pot in the background, traditional butter churn on a rough hewn tripod with a hand woven Qashqai band holding the churn together. What we cannot see is the tremendous pressure on this woman's way of life.

Take for instance the woven bands holding the churn together. These bands have long been a staple of daily life for the Qashqai but now they are becoming scarcer. The bands serve a wide range of purposes but daily needs are changing. They were necessary to load a camel, but now camels are being replaced by pickup trucks. There are used for making butter but fewer and fewer woman are milking and churning with the low prices of dairy products in Iran.

While in many respects the life stays the same it is rapidly changing. The Qashqai traditionally had mixed herds of sheep, goats, camels, burros and horses. Now the herds are shifting as camels, burros and horses are replaced by trucks so the herds now are overwhelmingly sheep and oats. This means that while Gabbeh production is up dramatically women are shying away from weaving straps, bands, bags and items related to camels, burros and horses.

I do not want to make the Gabbeh Rugs look like they are problem. It is not as if Gabbeh weaving stopped then the women would go back to milking churning and band weaving. The grim reality is that income is up but expenses are up even more. Woman can make money by weaving or by traveling into town for service work. It was impractical previously for women to travel into town but now with the availability of pickup trucks more women take this option. In my opinion weaving which allows women to work at home with their children is a much better alternative then competing in small towns for jobs as unskilled labor in an economy that is staggered by unemployment. If it were not for Gabbeh weaving many more Qashqai would leave the life.

Pay special attention to the role of Qashqai Kilims in the Qashqai wedding ceremony. A woman makes items to be a part of her wedding ceremony that are then passed down and used by other family members. We can see in this image a couple in a transitory state. They have the traditional bridal tent while western style suitcases sit on the ground next to the bride.

The Koohi Sub-tribe (tireh) is one of about 20 sub-tribes of the “Shish Bayli” tayefeh

The Qashqai Confederation comprises six tribes (tayefeh) including the “Shish Bayli” tribe. The Koohi Sub-tribe (tireh) is one of about 20 sub-tribes of the “Shish Bayli”. The Koohi sub-tribe is divided into 14 clans (bonkooh), and each clan is divided into several households, or more accurately, tentholds (obaa). These organizations will be referred to in the general term, “pastoral organization” in this paper. Each tenthold is composed of related families and is the smallest unit of the Qashqai social structure. Generally, families making up tentholds will migrate together, and both in the summering and wintering grounds tend to camp and work near each other as a unit.

The head of the confederation (khan) and the heads of the tribes were essentially responsible for political and strategic decision-making, coordination of all the tribes and mobilization. The heads of each of the sub-tribes (kalaantar), clans (kadkhodaa) and tentholds (reesh sefid) were more involved with decision-making about natural resource management. The role of Qashqai nomadic communities

The Drought of 1999-2001

Drought is one of the most important determinants of the quality of life for nomads. As with all droughts the drought of 1999-2001 essentially served to intensify the pressures that pastoralists face even in non-drought years. Currently, the most important pressures they face are: coping with less land and living with greater costs. It is clear that their main problem is access to grazing land and this is not exclusive to drought years.

The entire Sub-tribe now has only 35,000 heads of livestock and we are under continuing pressure to sell them. My father had 1,500 sheep and I only have 300 left. The land that we have is not even enough to sustain this reduced number because farmers are continuously taking our land. We don’t have enough land and so are forced to sell our animals.

Drought leads to a downward spiral of debt and poverty culminating in the most extreme cases in the sale of a family’s entire herd (the source of pastoralists’ wealth) at low prices and their permanent settlement in villages and towns. According to their own rough estimates, on average about 10% of the Koohi settle in villages, towns and cities each year, however they stress that in some years there is no sedentarization.

In drought years the supply of animals goes up and demand goes down so we are forced to sell a sheep for a fifth or sixth of the price that we know it is worth.

From The role of Qashqai nomadic communities

See also my Guide to Qashqai Kilim