A shawl that tells story of Christians
Pulling golden thread with her frail fingers, elderly Christian Karjiya Baqtar has embroidered a precious prayer shawl to gift the most cherished visitor to her Iraqi hometown — Pope Francis.
Baqtar, a petite woman with veiny hands and wisps of hair gently brushed back from her face, has worked with other Christians in Qaraqosh for two months on the stole vestment.
The two-metre stole is entirely locally produced — from the checkered red and black fabric to the Syriac prayers hand-stitched along its edges in glimmering gold.
It was designed by Ammar Yaqo, the priest at the Al Tahera Church in Qaraqosh. “Khaya Baqtar wove the fabric, while Karjiya and Miss Adhraa Daaboul embroidered it,” Yaqo said proudly.
The “‘Our Father’” and ‘“Hail Mary’” prayers are carefully stitched on either side in Syriac, a dialect of the language spoken by Jesus Christ and still used in Qaraqosh.
“This is the first time this kind of stole has been produced in Qaraqosh, and it represents the heritage of this town,” said Yaqo.
Also known as Bakhdida and Hamdaniya, Qaraqosh has a long pre-Christian history and is also one of Iraq’s oldest Christian towns.
It was largely destroyed in 2014 when the Daesh group swept through the surrounding province of Nineveh, but its residents have trickled back since 2017 and slowly worked at rebuilding their hometown.
The security situation remains tense, with state-sponsored armed groups deployed in large numbers in nearby plains.
The prayer stole features Christian emblems, including grapes used for wine — which for Catholics represents the blood of Jesus — and wheat for bread, or his body.
There are Iraqi emblems, including date fronds, for which the country is well-known, and even symbols of Qaraqosh.—