Kurdish textile traditions have roots in ancient craft practices in the Middle East and represent an integral part of peoples' cultural and artistic heritage. However, the continuation and development of this remarkable Kurdish heritage have been affected by many forces ranging from globalization and commercialization to long-term economic instability resulting from ongoing regional conflicts and ethnic marginalization of the Kurds in the Middle East.
My research has centered on the flatwoven carpet traditions of two distinct Kurdish societies with shared historical, cultural, and linguistic origins separated by Iran and Iraq's national and political borders. These traditions that stem from similar origins that diverged into distinct developmental pathways. In my research, I have examined the state of preservation of these textiles and explored how the social and political changes that the practicing communities have endured over the past several decades affected their development. I adopted an interdisciplinary theoretical framework in the study of carpet production that recognizes textile production as social labor of women weavers. It combined art-historical studies and a qualitative ethnographic research methodology to explore both the formal qualities of textiles and the social variables of production systems as vital factors for understanding the formation, development, and the issues involved in the preservation of any tradition for posterity.