Fatima Muhammad Saudi GazetteJEDDAH – Some 150 Saudi women have displayed there handmade materials at the Jeddah Hilton Saturday on the first day of the three-day annual exhibition dubbed "Nobility of the Past and the Brightness of the Present." The exhibition has changed it's name this year to be "the First Craftsmen Forum" and is sponsored by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. The event is organized under the patronage of princess Aita bint Migrin ibn Abdul Aziz. At the entrance there are traditional designs for buildings of Makkah, Najd and Asir. Each village has a number of craftswomen putting on the traditional dresses of their regions. The forum will also have number of workshops for women and competitions among craftswomen. Haifa Naji, a member of the events committee at JCCI and a collaborating member of the tourism commission, said that the event attracted the attention of tourists from the Kingdom and GCC. She said they hope, through this forum, to pay more attention to craft and handmade materials. "We hope to pass on the knowledge of grandfather's crafts to the new generation, and we hope to create a platform where craftsmen can meet," she added. Naji further said that they are stressing on the role that the private sector can play in boosting and developing tradition crafts. It is expected that this is the largest gathering for craftsmen, with 150 women, 40 productive families, 10 charity organizations, and 20 national industrial companies. There are 20,000 nationals working in 45 different traditional crafts. This industry is worth SR1.5 billion.
