The Dressmaker Of Khair Khana

THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA tells the story of a real-life heroine, a young entrepreneur whose business created jobs and hope for women in her neighborhood during the Taliban years.  The story behind the book grew out of a trip to Afghanistan in December 2005 when Tzemach Lemmon was assigned to write a story for The Financial Times and a case for Harvard Business School on Afghan women entrepreneurs.  There she met Kamila Sidiqi, an unlikely breadwinner who had become an entrepreneur under the Taliban. Desperate to support her five brothers and sisters at home and banished from Kabul’s streets by the Taliban, she started a dressmaking business in her living room which offered work to 100 women in her neighborhood. Together these unsung heroines made the difference between survival and starvation for their families despite—and sometimes because of—the Taliban. THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA tells their story for the first time.