Tourist & Resident Guide to Iran

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Giveh: Iranian summer footwear

Giveh: Iranian summer footwear

Giveh
Just in time for summer, I've bought myself a pair of giveh, the ideal shoes for the long, hard Tehran summer. Giveh have been made for centuries in many parts of Iran but are most famously from Western Iran, particularly a town called Paveh in Kermanshah Province.

The upper is made of strong tightly woven cotton sewn tight to (on my pair) a leather sole. The soles of traditional are made of tightly compacted layers of cotton material stacked from toe to heel. These are less practical since they can lose their shape if wet.

Giveh are, however, very much dry weather footwear. Made almost entirely from cotton, there's no need to wear socks and feet breath easily. In fact, in the town where my giveh were made they are referred to as jurab (socks) rather than kafsh (shoes).

Guide to Tehran

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1 comment:

ericat said...

Those shoes are neat. We can certainly use them in our dry hot summers in the Western Cape South Africa. I am interested to see something from Iran as I had a friend from Iran many years ago in Windhoek Namibia. Here is my Namibia blog.