Afghani Spinning
Spinning cotton is done on a drop spindle.[1]Cotton has been grown in Afghanistan since the 3rd millennium BCE.[2]
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Wool is also spun on a drop spindle, and is usually done thick.[3] Afghanistan was known for having a soft cashmere, even if it wasn't produced as much as it could have been (there was no infrastructure to process the fiber, so it was all done small scale by hand)[4]
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The woman in the middle is spinning! And it does look like drop spinning! So weird![5]
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A woman spinning what appears to be cotton on a floor hand cranked wheel[6]
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References
[1] “Spinning a Lucrative Yarn in Afghanistan,” ReliefWeb, October 3, 2012, https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/spinning-lucrative-yarn-afghanistan.
[2] Daniel Balland, “Cotton III. in Afghanistan,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, October 21, 2024, https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cotton-iii/.
[3] “Spinning Wheels in Afghanistan: A Livelihoods Case Study,” studylib.net, accessed June 16, 2025, https://studylib.net/doc/10771146/spinning-wheels-in-afghanistan--case-studies---livelihoods.
[4] “Cashmere in Afghanistan,” From The Mountain, accessed June 16, 2025, https://www.fromthemountain.com/cashmere-in-afghanistan#:~:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20ASAP,of%20this%20globally%20beneficial%20enterprise.
[5] Lillias Hamilton, Views in Afghanistan, October 9, 2014, photograph, Wikimedia Commons, October 9, 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Views_in_Afghanistan;_by_Lillias_Hamilton_Wellcome_L0025448.jpg.
[6] R.B. Holmes, Pathan Woman Spinning, North-West Frontier , January 7, 2022, photograph, Facebook , January 7, 2022.