Terms of Service

The terms below govern the relationship between Soznikar (the seller) and the buyer who uses soznikar.com or who places an order with the Dubai studio. They are written in plain English so that the buyer can read them quickly and understand what is being agreed to. The shorter version: the studio sells hand-loomed Kashmiri Pashmina Ghutras to adults in the United Arab Emirates, processes payment securely, ships through Aramex, and stands behind every piece. The longer version is below.

Who Soznikar is

Soznikar is the operating name of Kashmiri Soznikar FZ-LLC, a Free Zone Limited Liability Company licensed by the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone Authority (RAKEZ), United Arab Emirates. The company operates under E-Commerce Licence No. 45002397 ("Garments, Textiles & Gifts E-Trading") and General Trading Licence No. 7005716. Registered address: MBAM0405, Compass Building, Al Shohada Road, Al Hamra Industrial Zone-FZ, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Full company details are set out in the Company Information section at the foot of this page.

Who the buyer is

By placing an order on soznikar.com, the buyer confirms that:

They are at least eighteen years of age.
They are placing the order on their own behalf, or on behalf of a person or entity who has authorised them to do so.
The information they provide (name, address, payment, contact) is accurate and complete.
They have read and accepted these Terms, the Refund Policy, the Shipping Policy, and the Privacy Policy.

What is being sold

Soznikar sells hand-loomed Kashmiri Pashmina Ghutras. Every piece is one of one - woven by a single named artisan in Srinagar, signed and numbered, accompanied by an artisan's certificate. The product page for each piece describes the cloth, the fibre, the dimensions, the weight, the embroidery, and the artisan-time invested.

Because every piece is hand-made, there are small variations in the cloth from the photographs on the product page. These variations include: the exact placement of embroidery, micro-differences in colour between dye lots, and the natural irregularities of a hand-loomed weave. These variations are intrinsic to the cloth and are not defects. The studio inspects every piece before dispatch and lists any meaningful variation on the product page.

Where a piece is described as "made-to-order," the loom is dressed specifically for the buyer's order after purchase. Made-to-order pieces are clearly marked at the point of sale and have a different cancellation window than standard catalogue pieces (see Refund Policy).

Pricing and tax

All prices on soznikar.com are quoted in United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) and are inclusive of UAE VAT at 5%. The VAT line is shown on the invoice issued at the time of order.

The studio reserves the right to change prices at any time. The price applied to any order is the price displayed at the time the order is placed and confirmed by Soznikar.

In the rare event that a piece is listed at an obviously incorrect price (a typographical or system error), the studio reserves the right to cancel the order, issue a full refund, and notify the buyer with a corrected listing. The studio will not enforce an order placed at a clearly erroneous price.

Order placement and acceptance

An order placed on soznikar.com is an offer by the buyer to purchase the piece at the displayed price. The order is accepted by the studio when the payment is captured and the order confirmation email is sent. The contract between the buyer and Soznikar is formed at that moment.

Between order placement and order acceptance, the studio reserves the right to decline the order for any of the following reasons:

The piece is unavailable (for example, because the inventory of one-of-one items is now zero).
The price is incorrect (see above).
The payment fails or is reversed.
The studio has reasonable grounds to suspect fraudulent activity.
The shipping address is outside the markets the studio currently serves (see Shipping Policy).

If an order is declined after payment is captured, a full refund is issued to the original payment method within five business days.

Payment

Payment is taken at the time of order placement, via the payment methods enabled at checkout (currently Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Tabby, and Tamara). Payment is processed by third-party providers regulated by the UAE Central Bank. The studio does not store full payment card details at any point.

If a payment is reversed by the buyer's bank or payment provider after the order has been fulfilled, the studio reserves the right to recover the value of the piece through legal channels available in the United Arab Emirates.

Shipping

Shipping terms are described in full in the Shipping Policy. In summary: orders ship from the Dubai studio via Aramex Premium, free across the UAE on orders above AED 500 (which includes every piece in the current catalogue), with delivery in one to two business days within the seven emirates. International shipping is not available at this time.

Title and risk pass to the buyer at the moment the piece is delivered to the buyer's address. Until delivery, the piece remains the property of Soznikar.

Returns and refunds

Return terms are described in full in the Refund Policy. In summary: the standard return window is fourteen days from delivery, on unworn pieces in original packaging. Pieces that arrive damaged, defective, or not as described are covered without a time limit. Made-to-order pieces are final sale after a forty-eight-hour cancellation window.

Intellectual property

All content on soznikar.com - text, photographs, the Soznikar wordmark and identity, the visual design of the site, the writing on the journal - is the intellectual property of Soznikar or its licensors. None of it may be reproduced, redistributed, or used commercially without written permission from the studio.

The buyer may share photographs of pieces they have purchased on personal social media accounts and personal communications without specific permission. The studio reposts buyer photographs on its own channels only with the buyer's express consent.

The sozni embroidery motifs on each piece are designed freehand by the master naqqash in Srinagar. The motifs themselves are part of a centuries-old Kashmiri tradition and are not the exclusive intellectual property of Soznikar. The combination of any specific motif with the Soznikar mark and the named artisan's certificate is, however, proprietary.

Liability

Soznikar's liability to the buyer for any single order is limited to the value of that order. The studio is not liable for indirect, consequential, or special losses (for example, lost profit, lost opportunity, or emotional distress) arising from any defect, delay, or other issue with an order.

Nothing in these Terms limits the buyer's statutory rights under UAE consumer protection law, which override any limitation in these Terms where the two conflict.

Force majeure

Neither party is responsible for failure or delay in performance caused by events outside their reasonable control, including but not limited to: weather affecting shipping, disruption to international supply chains (which can affect the atelier in Srinagar and the movement of fibre from Ladakh), public health restrictions, civil unrest, or government action. In a force majeure event, the studio communicates with the buyer promptly and offers a refund or rescheduled delivery as appropriate.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates. Any dispute arising from these Terms or any order placed with Soznikar is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Emirate of Dubai.

Before any formal dispute is filed, the buyer agrees to write to care@soznikar.com setting out the issue, and the studio commits to responding in good faith within five business days with an attempt at resolution. The vast majority of issues that arise with a one-of-one luxury textile can be resolved by a direct conversation; the formal channel exists for the rare case where it cannot.

Changes to these Terms

Soznikar may update these Terms from time to time. The current version is always the one published on this page, dated at the bottom. Material changes are announced to active account holders and newsletter subscribers by email. Orders placed before a change remain governed by the Terms that were in effect at the time of order.

Contact

Questions about these Terms should be directed to care@soznikar.com. The studio responds within one business day during studio hours (10:00 to 20:00, every day).