Press/Reviews

Author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon calls them “breadwinners in burquas,” the women of Afghanistan who managed to support their families and get an education despite the repressive presence of the Taliban. Lemmon went to Afghanistan in...

FiveBooks Interviews:  Gayle Lemmon on Women and War: When war comes, women pick up the pieces, providing for families and taking up jobs previously done by men. Increasingly, women are to be found on the...

Pick of the week – 4 stars! When Kabul fell under Taliban control in September 1996, Kamela Sediqi’s life changed immediately and completely: The teen could no longer attend school; she had to wear a...

1 of 18 books to watch in April 2011!  Oppressed by the brutal Taliban, a courageous Afghan woman and her sisters succeed as unlikely entrepreneurs in this inspiring true story. -...

Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week! In 2005, Lemmon went to Afghanistan on assignment for the Financial Times to write about women entrepreneurs. When she met a dressmaker named Kamila Sediqi, Lemmon (once a producer...

The story of a young Afghan woman who outwitted the Taliban to become a successful entrepreneur. At age 19, Kamila Sidiqi started a tailoring business in Kabul that saved her family and possibly hundreds of...

One of Parade Magazine’s Picks! An Afghan family finds a way to survive in Kabul under Taliban rule in this awe-inspiring true story. With nothing but an idea and the tenacity to see it through,...

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon highlights the role women play in rebuilding Afghanistan In this portrait of an Afghan dressmaker, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, highlights the role women play in...

”The Dressmaker of Khair Khana” is a heart-wrenching, heartwarming story about the courageous women of war-ravaged Afghanistan, akin to Greg Mortenson’s inspiring best-seller, “Three Cups of Tea.” Set in Kabul, it is the true tale...

When the Taliban took over her hometown in 1996, Afghan businesswoman Kamila Sidiqi knew she had to find a way to survive. But she never expected that salvation would come from sewing dresses. Sitting alone...

Kamela Sediqi was not yet 20 when the Taliban took over in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1996. When her father, a military man under former strongman Najibullah (who was killed by the Taliban), moved out of...

When Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, first met Kamila Sidiqi, it was to interview her as the basis of a case study in female entrepreneurship for Harvard Business School. Kamila...

Now, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (Harper, $24.99) may be poised for similar success. Out today,...

“Kabul resident Kamila Sidiqi had a teaching degree, but when the Taliban took over, she was barred from teaching and barely able to leave her house. When her father and a brother were forced to...

Many books have been written about the harsh conditions women in Afghanistan had to suffer during the Taliban rule. We’ve read about them being arrested for leaving the house without a male relative, getting stoned...

International Women’s Day reminds me of the many courageous women I’ve had the pleasure of meeting during my last years at Mercy Corps. In all corners of the globe, women work tirelessly — sometimes against...

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon embroiders the life of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (Harper), the remarkable story of an ingenious young Afghan woman who, under the Taliban’s rule, created jobs for 100 women. -...

Journalist Lemmon (deputy director, Women & Foreign Policy Prog., Council on Foreign Relations) tells the moving story of Kamila Sidiqi, a young woman in Kabul, Afghanistan, who, out of desperation, started a successful dressmaking business...

Against All Odds: Q & A About The Dressmaker With Gayle Lemmon. In The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the story of Kamila Sediqi, an Afghan dressmaker who used her business skills...

  Angelina Jolie pens a blurb for Gayle Lemmon’s Dressmaker of Khair Khana Author/reporter Gayle Lemmon has met actress/activist Angelina Jolie only by e-mail. But both share an interest in female entrepreneurs in war-torn places...

1 of 15 Promising Titles for Early 2011! Christian Science Monitor contributor Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells a true, inspiring story of courageous women and quiet heroism at work in Taliban-era Afghanistan. - Marjorie Kehe, Monitor...

Most books that cover women’s lives in Afghanistan under the Taliban recount suffering and loss, but journalist Lemmon wanted to shed light on the untold stories of enterprising women who found ways to take care...

Launching a business comes with challenges—especially if that business happens to be in a war-torn region. Students in a Harvard Business School course on entrepreneurship will have to consider such hurdles in a new case...

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, deputy director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, has spent more than five years writing and reporting on female entrepreneurs in Afghanistan. Her work is...