Guests
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 18, 2011 1:09 PM
Whenever I talk about The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, people inevitably ask, "What it was like to travel and work in Afghanistan?" People want to know what it was like being a foreigner and in particular, what it was like being a woman? To put it simply: It was tough. As I started making more frequent, lengthy trips to Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009, the security situation deteriorated. And while Americans became more focused on domestic issues, such as the economy and the national presidential election, violence in Afghanistan intensified. There were frequent stories of reporters and foreigners from the U.S., France, Italy, and Japan being abducted. One day I was working in downtown Kabul conducting interviews for The Dressmaker, and I had turned off my cell phone because I didn't want to be interrupted. When I turned my phone back on at the end of the day, I received a frantic call from the U.S. embassy asking if I was the freelance journalist who was kidnapped? Danger was a daily reality and my time there forced me to face my own mortality. I had friends and colleagues who were injured or killed as attacks against reporters and aid workers continued. In October 2009, Taliban militants attacked a guesthouse used by United Nations workers in central Kabul, then in October 2010 suicide terrorists bombed the main UN compound in Herat. I had been advised by security specialists to travel with bodyguards carrying weapons. But I refused to do so. I knew that drawing attention to myself was the worst way to protect the people I was interviewing. I did what I could to help. I dressed conservatively and often was the dowdiest person I met all day. I wore plain, loosely fitting black clothing with traditional headscarves. Being a woman was sometimes very useful. As a woman I could get away with not speaking at check-points and my loyal and trustworthy "fixer" Mohamad could speak on my behalf. I was also able to gain access to women's stories, which male reporters would never have the opportunity to hear. However, at the same time I could also speak with men because, despite being a woman, I was first and foremost a foreigner. Although the security situation in Afghanistan was volatile, I continued working on The Dressmaker because it was a story that needed to be told. I knew the dangers that I faced while in Afghanistan were nothing in comparison to what these women had risked on a daily basis to survive, risks that they themselves do not see as extraordinary. But as The Dressmaker of Khair Khana shows, their courage, tenacity, and passion is truly incredible. One encounter in particular put this in perspective for me. During an interview, I asked a young woman, "What was life like for you under the Taliban?" Her response was, "What was it like? They stole five years of my life from me." She had wanted to go Turkey to study and become a professor, but the Taliban came to power and her dreams were squashed. By the time they left in 2001, she was older and had to get married. At this point in the interview, she then broke down and said, "All I will ever be now is an assistant... that is not the work I was meant to do." It is stories like hers and Kamila's that drove me to finish this book. The women of Afghanistan have a voice, and it needs to be heard and not forgotten. As pressure increases for a peace agreement between the Kabul government and the Taliban, women in Afghanistan fear that they will be left behind. In interview after interview, Afghan women say they are desperate for peace and talk about welcoming Taliban brothers back into their communities. But they insist that the cost should not be their daughters' schooling or their own ability to earn money for their families. Email Gayle: [email protected]
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Guests
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 17, 2011 4:11 PM
Kamila Sidiqi is The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, and her powerful story symbolizes just how much good business can do at truly impossible times. When the Taliban swept through Kabul and took power in September of 1996, they sent women indoors overnight. Without any warning women who had worked as teachers and engineers and university professors vanished from the city's streets and were barred from their offices. Young women like Kamila who had to support their family and who knew their community was counting upon them turned to the one thing they could: home business. Kamila, a nineteen year old teacher in training, became an entrepreneur, not because she knew the first thing about business, but because she knew she had five brothers and sisters counting upon her for survival. Picking up a needle and thread for the first time and learning how to sew from an older sister who was a master seamstress, she started with one dress she made in her living room. With the help of her younger, barely teenage brother she took that dress to a local market and found a shopkeeper willing to buy the dresses she and her sister produced.
That first sale was the beginning of a journey that turned this would-be teacher into a successful entrepreneur against a backdrop of war, oppression, and poverty. Within months, girls from around the neighborhood came knocking, looking for work for themselves, which would help to support their own families. By the time the business ended, Kamila's living room had become a dress factory! And a place of community where young women could meet and laugh and share jokes and listen to music — all the things that normal teenagers did. Out of want, Kamila created economic opportunity, and out of despair, she created hope. Kamila realized that while she liked the sewing, what she really excelled in was business. She built a network of shopkeepers around Kabul who bought the dresses that she and the women who worked with her made. And she provided a lifeline to women in her neighborhood by providing work when there were no other options.
After the fall of the Taliban, Kamila began working for the global aid organization Mercy Corps. While there, Kamila established a women's center in Kabul that offered literacy and vocational courses. She trained women in microfinance, teaching them how to use small loans to create and sell products. Her goal was to help women help themselves, so that they could support their families when the foreigners left.
As Kamila's work expanded, she began to train other business teachers, and she traveled around Afghanistan leading courses in entrepreneurship. Her trainings went beyond simple lessons about microfinance and focused on ways for Afghans to effectively use loans to create sustainable businesses. She helped men and women learn how to promote and sell their goods by uncovering market openings and customer needs. This type of skills training has been the crucial missing step for traditional economic aid initiatives. Courses like Kamila's are necessary for Afghan entrepreneurs because it enhances their ability to sustain and expand small and medium-size businesses.
Although Kamila has left Mercy Corps to once more start another business, Mercy Corps continues to increase market access for Afghan entrepreneurs. The organization not only trains people on how to access new markets, but it also facilitates this process by providing partnership programs with foreign investors and consumers. Goldman Sachs, too, fills a need by providing women with 40 hours of management training, so that they can better run the businesses they own — and some they hope to start in the future.
Whether during the Taliban years or today, Afghan women have turned to business in order to help their families and become breadwinners during years in which it has been difficult to be on the streets. Having access to markets helps make this possible, and proves once again the power of investing in women.
Email Gayle: [email protected]
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Guests
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 16, 2011 12:30 PM
Economic development efforts focus on women because investing in women improves the world. Kamila Sidiqi, successful businesswoman and the heroine of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, dreamed big at a time of desperation. When the Taliban swept through Kabul in September of 1996 girls' lives changed immediately. Overnight, young women like Kamila saw themselves shuttered indoors, left with no place to go and no options for work and school.
When her father and brother had to leave Kabul for security reasons she found herself at home with five brothers and sisters to support. The teaching skills she learned at her teacher training institute no longer came in handy, since female teachers could no longer work. So she decided to do the one thing still left to women: She picked up a needle and thread and started a dressmaking business in her living room. Using only her own ingenuity and tenacity, she started with one dress and ended up building a business which created jobs and hope for 100 women in her neighborhood. Her business created a lifeline at a desperate time and supported not only her family, but 100 women in her community and the families who relied upon them. Four years after the fall of the Taliban, Kamila had started her own firm called Kaweyan. Kaweyan provides marketing and business trainings for Afghans throughout the country. It teaches aspiring Afghan entrepreneurs how to write a business plan, do a profit-loss analysis, and make a budget.
Entrepreneurship is key to Afghanistan's future because as Kamila explains, "Afghanistan needs business if it is going to keep growing once the foreigners leave." Kamila now works every day to help train the next generation of Afghan entrepreneurs, both men and women. Helping women enter business, especially those women who have never had access to education, improves their lives and changes the family dynamic, because when a woman earns an income, she also earns respect. And she can afford to make certain that both her boys and her girls go to school.
As Kamila's story shows, business possesses the power to create positive change. Businesswomen like Kamila during the Taliban provided one of the few rays of possibility at a time of overwhelming despair. They became entrepreneurs because they had no other choice. They remained entrepreneurs because they saw that business would make the difference for their families, their community, and their country. Women like Kamila deserve our investment. But it is hard to invest in women when we see only victims to be pitied rather than survivors to be respected.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana proves the power of women and girls to reshape our world. And it shows the true story of just how much women are capable of when it comes to pulling families through impossible times. I hope this book will do its part to change the conversation about women and war and help us to see women as resources worthy of real investment.
Email Gayle: [email protected]
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Guests
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 15, 2011 12:49 PM
There is no greater multiplier in the fight against poverty than an educated female. This is something which Kamila Sidiqi, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, learned from her father. A former army officer in Afghanistan, Mr. Sidiqi had nine girls and two boys and made certain that each and every one of them was educated.
This education proved to be a lifeline during the Taliban years in Afghanistan, when all avenues to women's work were closed overnight. Using only her grit, determination, and education, Kamila started a dressmaking business in her living room, which went on to create jobs and hope for 100 women in her Kabul neighborhood. At a time of desperation, they discovered hope and community.
Her story is told for the first time in The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, a story that celebrates the unsung heroines all around the world who pull families through impossible times.
As The Dressmaker of Khair Khana demonstrates, men in Afghanistan champion girls' education every day. Mr. Sidiqi believed it was his highest duty of faith to educate his children, so that they could share their knowledge and serve their communities. As he explained to me during my visits with the Sidiqi family, he was determined that all his children — the nine girls as well as the two boys — enjoy the privilege of school. As he said often, "I look on all my children with one eye." And he did not distinguish between his sons and daughters when it came to the duties of the classroom. To Mr. Sidiqi, investing in the education of his girls was an investment in his family, their future, and the future of his country. He, like so many other Afghan men, was devastated when the Taliban closed girls' schools and forced women inside.
Despite the attempts of the Taliban to stop women's education, brave heroines like Kamila Sidiqi fought back while staying within the rules. They established underground schools to educate women and girls, no matter what the consequences. And Kamila's business created training and work for dozens of girls in her neighborhood alone.
With the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan people and the international community focused on improving education. Now 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan are enrolled in school as compared to 5,000 in 2001. But education for women and girls is being threatened yet again. Girls going to school face acid attacks and the threat of destruction every time they reach the classroom. And yet their hunger to learn makes them brave the risks they confront, just as Kamila braved the risks she faced during the Taliban era, in which she kept working because she knew her family and her community counted on her.
Now more than ever the international community must continue to increase investments in the women and girls of Afghanistan. The Afghan people will not give up the fight for women's and girls' education, and the international community should remember their strength — and the strength of men and women like Mr. Sidiqi and Kamila. As Manizha Naderi, founder of Women for Afghan Women explains, history has shown that girls in Afganistan are "hungry for education," and they will continue fighting for it. Email Gayle: [email protected]
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Guests
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, March 14, 2011 11:32 AM
In December of 2005, I set off for Afghanistan to find a story that no one was writing about. I wanted to write about a story that mattered to the world, and one that would change the way the world sees women. That story belonged to Kamila Sidiqi, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana. When I first met Kamila in 2005, she was a passionate, eloquent businesswoman who believed deeply in the power of business to create a safer, stronger Afghanistan. She told me that "money is power for women" because when women earn a living they also change their lives by winning the respect of their families. The mission of her latest start-up, Kaweyan, was to teach people — both men and women — about marketing and business, and to help Afghans start their own businesses which would be there far longer than foreign aid.
When I asked her how she knew so much about business, she gave me an answer that shocked me.
"Oh," she said, "I had an excellent business under the Taliban. We did a lot of good for our community."
I asked her to go on, fascinated by her most unexpected answer. This was the moment that launched a five-year journey to bring her story to readers.
When the Taliban came to Kabul in September of 1996 nearly every opportunity to earn a living ended for women. Overnight women who worked and went to school could no longer do either.
When Kamila's father and brother were forced to flee the city for security's sake, Kamila found herself a nineteen-year-old at the head of her home with brothers and sisters relying on her for support. So, she did the only thing she could do: she became an entrepreneur.
Together with her sisters, Kamila created a thriving dressmaking business from her family's living room. In time, that business became a lifeline not just for Kamila's own family but much of their community, providing jobs and hope for the women of Khair Khana.
Dangers were very real and very present. Just leaving the house, even with her young brother as her chaperon, carried risks. The Taliban's feared foot soldiers, the "Vice and Virtue" force, patrolled the streets of Kabul and Kamila's neighborhood looking for men and especially women who defied their rules. Even letting a wrist slip out from under the newly mandatory burqa could result in a public beating. Kamila constantly wove in and around the restrictions of the period because she felt she had no choice: like so many women all around the world, she knew her family counted on her and she could not let them down.
I have always been drawn to the work of women in war zones. These unsung heroines pull families through impossible times simply with the strength of their own courage and conviction. I saw immediately that Kamila's story was a universal one of love, sacrifice, bravery and the risks we take for the sake of those we love. Women around the world lead their families through impossible times every day, all around the world, with no one paying attention. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana celebrates them. And I hope it will change the way the world sees women. Email Gayle: [email protected]
Follow her on Twitter: @gaylelemmon
Visit Gayle's website:
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