Azernews.Az

The Medina Gallery in Icherisheher has hosted an event dedicated to the kalagayi, an Azerbaijani women's quadrangular headdress made from silk threads.

The event was organised by the NGO Arts Council of Azerbaijan, which is a member of the World Crafts Council Europe. During the evening, it was brought to the attention that the Azerbaijani kalagayi is included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Azernews reports.

Deputy head of the NGO Arts Council Azerbaijan and representative of the World Crafts Council Europe in Azerbaijan, Sona Guliyeva, said that the main purpose of the event is to popularise and promote the art of kalagayi.

"We want our youth to show even greater interest in kelagai and develop and promote this ancient craft. Also, our task is to promote our traditions, national crafts, decorative and applied arts so that more people learn about them in Europe," said Sona Guliyeva.

According to her, today many women have kalagayi in their wardrobes and skillfully combine an ancient silk scarf with modern clothes.

Designer and writer Sabina Zulalova informed those present about the social project "YAŞADAQ. Ümid qanadları" (For the birth of life). Wings of Hope), of which she is a co-founder. The goal of the project is to show the connection between the birth of girls and the transmission of cultural heritage.

Sabina Zulalova stressed that the national scarf has accompanied a woman's life path from time immemorial.

Felt and silk dyeing specialist Mahbuba Mammadova said that foreign guests visiting Azerbaijan show great interest in silk scarves.

"In my work, I decided to bring innovation to the method of dyeing silk scarves. I use a relatively new technique that has existed for 20 years, and it is called "eco-printing.” I dye our locally produced silks using this technique," she said.

The event dedicated to kalagayi aroused great public interest.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.Az, Trend.Az, Day.Az, Milli.Az.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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