The Weaver
Faheema Eissar is one of the girls who started weaving carpets at seven years old during the Taliban regime, due to her family's hard economic situation. She was woken up every morning at seven o'clock to sit behind the loom and start weaving, to bring in income for the family. Faheema's family immigrated to Iran and Pakistan, twice, but neither trip stopped her from weaving — she worked the entire time in both countries. She has worked as many as sixteen hours at the loom, which left her paralyzed for a while; she has fought leg pain ever since, but even that didn't spare her from weaving. After 9/11, Faheema's family returned to Afghanistan, and that is when she was able to study, eventually finding her way to the United States to study Economics and International Relations. Now she holds her bachelor's degree and is newly married. But her childhood memories won't leave her in peace — all the bitter memories of a lost childhood behind the carpet loom, which never let her play and be free like any other child. Faheema has decided to try self-therapy: setting up a loom at home and weaving again, hoping she can accept those bitter years and move on as an adult. Alongside weaving, she is writing those memories down, hoping to work through them for herself first, and maybe help others after. This documentary films her life today — the Faheema who does self-therapy to face her memories. Can she overcome all that bitterness? Can weaving heal her?