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    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe

    Written by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

    Narrated by Sarah Zimmerman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    ""We're far more accustomed to—and comfortable with—seeing women portrayed as victims of war who deserve our sympathy rather than as resilient survivors who demand our respect…"" 

    Former ABC journalist Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the riveting true story of Kamila Sidiqi and other women of Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s fearful rise to power. In what Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, calls “one of the most inspiring books I have ever read,” Lemmon recounts with novelistic vividness the true story of a fearless young woman who not only reinvented herself as an entrepreneur to save her family but, in the face of ferocious opposition, brought hope to the lives of dozens of women in war-torn Kabul.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 15, 2011
    ISBN9780062027450
    Author

    Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

    Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributor to Atlantic Media’s Defense One, writing on national security and foreign policy issues. She is the bestselling author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and has written for Newsweek, the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, and the Daily Beast, as well as for the World Bank and Harvard Business School.

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    Reviews for The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

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    • 4/5
      I read this book overnight...and I don't usually do that since I love to sleep. This book drew me in right at the moment Gayle Lemmon landed in the airport and went into the bathroom to change into black all over and cover her hair and face....I thought I knew Middle East enough already, until I read this book. The author risked her own life traveling all the way to Kabul, to report a story about a woman who was strong and brave who sacrificed her safety to help out her family and other women in need during the Taliban's rule in Kabul. All women had to stay indoor, were required to cover themselves from head to toe, and could not talk to any men that are not their relatives. When her parents and brother left the girls in Kabul and moved elsewhere for safety, Kamila, the main character, started a dress making business at home to support her sisters, as well as all other women, who came asking for help. It was a very risky and dangerous thing to do, but she survived, and lives to tell the story, as well as carrying on her humanitarian work.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The incredible true story of an Afghan young woman who creates sewing jobs for her family and community during Taliban rule. Kila is inspiring. She dreams big, works hard and never gives up on her country. I learned how women survived during the Taliban reign. Amazingly she has become one of the nations leading entrepreneurs. She defiescpnditions and worked within parameters of rigid Taliban rules what an amazing woman!!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      What an inspiring, true story involving the courage and ingenuity of a woman desperately trying to eek out a living for her family in Taliban controlled Afghanistan. She transformed her community of women into a productive work force. I highly recommend this book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This large family of sisters outsmarts the Taliban by sewing clothes in their home and then marketing to the local shops in Kabul. They reach out to the other women in the community and teach them to sew to earn a little money and to pass the time doing something constructive while the Taliban is in power.
    • 3/5
      Excellent narrator, mildly interesting book about a woman and her relatives/friends who develop a tailoring/sewing company in an oppressive political culture and actually find that they can make a go of it. End of the good stuff about the story...What annoyed the heck outta me is when people, and this author is no exception, put up individuals who have "made it" as an example of what everyone can do and, along the way, lessen the people who are truly at fault and gives a pass to the people creating the harsh awful environment. "See, if one just finds a way to make the best of a bad situation, it can be done! This woman did!" . I just wanted to scream every other page... "STOP, STOP NOW... don't try to lessen the appalling environment in which these women live... THAT needs to be emphasized!!! We should not be putting emphasis on how women can 'make do', 'get by', 'even triumph' in an oppressive regime, that trivializes the aggressor's behavior and turns the focus on the women and what THEY can do. NO NO NO NO NO... the oppressive control and time-warping behavior of the controlling regime is what must be changed. Good for this woman, for being a saleswoman who is turning a profit, but that's it for the story - yay for this woman, she's a good saleswoman, but it's not a method that can be repeated time and again. It's the old "I got rich and you can too! Just follow my 10-step program and send $9.95 to...". OK, off my soap box. If you like stories about individuals overcoming the odds, you'll probably like this story.
    • 3/5
      It started strong, but then somewhere in the middle I just lost interest in it..... The same thing happened later to my husband, too, who read it without knowing how I had liked it.
    • 4/5
      This book is an account of a young woman living in Kabul during the Taliban regime who started a dressmaking business. It was interesting that this young girl who received her teaching certificate just before the Taliban took over the city was able to work, sell her products and hire other women while women were banned from going to school or to work outside the home. They couldn't even go to market unless a man accompanied them and they had to be completely covered the whole time. And yet I had some questions that were never completely resolved such as: Who was buying the dresses and clothing the seamstresses were making since supposedly money was very scarce? I also did not really understand why her mother went to the north of the country, leaving the young daughters with a 19 year old to look after them.The book does give a glimpse behind the chador into the lives of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.
    • 1/5
      Nice premise: what happens to an Afghani family of 9 females as they are forced from their jobs and pursuing an education to indoors and making a highly successful business venture "hidden" from the Taliban from sewing. Very poor writing. Author is former journalist whose tendancy to write factually and concisely is very much evident and leaves much to be desired for a better emotional portryal amongst family members. Furthermore, Ms. Lemmon's writing is very confusing. She sometimes doesn't mention a person for a long while and then 30-40 pages later they make a random appearance or people disappear without a reason.
    • 4/5
      Nice book on life in Afganistan from the view of women who suffer through all the mess and horror of war.
    • 5/5
      I don't really read biographies, I could say this can be the first one of the modern era. I had seen this book suggested by Good Housekeeping or Better Homes and Gardens some years ago and I happen to have landed a job at a school library where I have been for the past two years. I am an Assistant and suggested the book to the Librarian who asked for it in her next batch, and here I am. I read it and finished it before 2012 is over! I hope the characters are well and successful, I hope they never have to go through such hardships again and thanks for the window into the other worlds.
    • 4/5
      This is a story about a family of women living under the Taliban rule in the 1990’s where the Mother and Father flees from the home to avoid having the family persecuted. The story is remarkable considering that Kamila Sidiqi is in her teenage years when she embarked on taking care of her family to avoid starvation by creating a dressmaking business. The interesting part is that the Taliban forbid women to own a business forcing Kamila to do some very clever and risky moves thus allowing her business to thrive while helping other women in the community support themselves and their families. The book provides inspiration proving that people are capable of doing most anything despite dangerous conditions. And, there is an interesting side story about the movie “Titanic” throwing off the Taliban – Hollywood to the rescue! However, the book lacks a bit in creating more of a depth to the story and jumps around with timelines. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a quick read and provides a selected bibliography to find more information about the Taliban, human rights and building a community. (Patty Meinking 6/15/12)
    • 4/5
      It might not be as well written as some books about Afghanistan but the story is still powerful.
    • 4/5
      Non-Fiction 1996 Afghanistan-The Taliban Era-BiographyAn amazing story of true life heroism from a brave young woman in Afghanistan. Kamila has finished her schooling and a two year course. The Taliban are in control of her homeland causing great fear among all. Due to strict Taliban rules women do not work out of the home, are not allowed to speak to any male outside of their family and are to remain entirely covered from hear to toe. Most males in Kabul are not present due to previous uprisings of have needed to flee to find work elsewhere to support their families. Kamila has strong family ethics and an unstoppable determination. She knows she must do something to support her family so she learns to sew and starts the most amazing business in the harshest of environments. Kamila's story caused me to think! Could I have that same drive to force myself to learn something. Then could I face my fear and go out in public in to the Taliban ruled streets to sell my wares to the local markets? I thought about life under such rule where women were nothing. The lack of food and any security. Then the US sttacks to fight against the Taliban and the locals suffer the ongoing bombing from a country that is not their enemy. The epilogue tells of the rewards from Kamila's faithfulness. Such an enlightening read of courage that leaves one just grateful.
    • 3/5
      The author was a former journalist in Washington D.C. covering presidential campaigns. She left her job in 2005 to go to grad school. She wanted to do international development research and in that vein was going to interview women in war zones to see how they survived and managed to support themselves, rebuild their economy and maintain hope for the future. I thought her book was supposed to represent that research. In actuality, she really only wrote deeply about one woman who worked in a war zone, Kamila Sidiqi, and really wrote only about one war zone, Kabul. I was disappointed with the scope and breadth of the book since I had wanted to learn about other women, as well, from other beleaguered countries that were embattled by war, other women who succeeded against all odds as well, as the introduction had suggested would be the main thrust of the book. For Lemmon, the main point of her book seems to be Sediqi’s “Wonder Woman” approach to survival, Allah will protect her, her faith will prevail. It seemed a bit like a fairytale to present the story that way since many people were brutally and sadistically punished, tortured, and murdered, who also had deep and abiding faith in their religion, and also believed in the teachings of the Koran and prayed, perhaps more than Sidiqi did. Her reliance on faith was a bit over the top, made more for an entertaining television movie, rather than a documentary or reality TV. In addition, her Polyanna approach to survival, stressing her belief that her faith would protect her, endangering her friends and relatives as well, was foolhardy at best, even though it succeeded, and that aspect of her behavior would have been better served it it had been condemned at the same time her courage was praised. The author chose to present and emphasize certain aspects of personality and faith over an innate intellectual ability to achieve.In the book, Lemmon refers to Kamila’s parents alternately as her mother and father and as Mr. or Mrs. Sidiqi, so sometimes I was unsure of the people she was presenting. She does not do to a great job of summing up and bringing the situation in Kabul into the current day, either. It stops in 2011, since that is when the book was published and it needs an addendum to bring it up to date today. She does try to inform the reader of how the characters in the book fared as years passed, but that was of little concern to me since they were never really fully developed. Therefore, I had little interest in the ancillary characters and barely remembered much about any of them. A very brief history of Afghanistan was provided by the author, and thus it seems incidental to the story. In summary, after the war with Russia, the Mujahedeen assumed control. The population of women in Kabul, Afghanistan, was greater than that of the men. After 1996, under the Taliban, without the ability to move about freely, if they had no male in the household, women had no access to employment, no way to shop, and no way to feed or protect their families. Those who enforced the Taliban rules were young, uneducated and cruel, victims of having knowledge that was informed only by the dogma taught by the fanatics that twisted their minds. Education and freedom of movement may have been forbidden for women, but music was forbidden for all, laughter was forbidden and so were all forms of entertainment, even chess. Fear lived in the streets of Kabul and behind closed doors and garden walls. All oppressed by the Taliban, prayed for an end to their brutal regime.The story is about Kamila Sidiqi. In 1996, she lived in Kabul when the Taliban took over the city. Because their lives were in danger, her parents and brother left Afghanistan when the Taliban took over the city. Suddenly, she was responsible for the care and safety of the remaining siblings at home, five sisters and a brother. Under the Taliban, she was a prisoner in her own home. She had to figure out a way to support the household. Fortunately, she had a younger brother who at 13 years old, qualified as a male chaperone. Women could not leave the home without a chaperone any longer, and they were forced to be dressed in a chadri, a garment that covered their entire body except for their eyes which were visible through a narrow slit of netted material. Kamila was resourceful and brave and with her older sister’s help, she learned to sew and was able to build up a clandestine dressmaking business in her home. It not only supported her family but she was able to educate other women in the neighborhood, teaching them the trade and then employing them. She held out the constant hope that the conflict would soon end and Taliban control led by followers of the most violent form of Sharia Law, would be over as well. The author did an admirable job of showing the brutality of the Taliban, the death and destruction they left in their wake, the lack of freedom for the women in Kabul, the general atmosphere of fear that prevailed for all, and the courage and creativity of the women who had to provide for their families with little resources available to them, especially, of course, Kamila Sidiqi. The timeline was confusing because the author began with her own story, in 2005, and then the storyline moved back and forth as she wrote it. It seemed as if she was telling the story as if it was taking place in her time, in the middle of the first decade of 2000, when it actually began when the Taliban took over in 1996, when Sediqi, then only 19 years old, became the head of her household. She opened her dressmaking school in 1997. The high point of the book seemed to be Kamila’s invitation from Condaleeza Rice, to speak in America, in 2005. We learn that after 9/11, in 2001, when George W. Bush was President, the Taliban was dealt heavy losses and no longer had total control in major areas of Afghanistan. Women were granted more freedom. At that time, Kamila’s career began to flourish as she created more opportunities for her fellow Afghanis. She became even more of an entrepreneur, a world famous figure, and was offered many lucrative positions but she chose to stay in Kabul to help rebuild the economy, improve education and the civil rights for fellow Afghanis. She was in favor of America’s intervention and hoped it would bring about international cooperation to help Afghanistan, That was then, in 2005, and today, it would seem to not have worked out very well as the Taliban may be resurging once again as are other fanatic Islamic groups that believe in the practice of 7th century Islam.The story, although true, left me wanting more. There are few today who are not aware of the brutality and inequity of Sharia Law, the Taliban, Isis, Al Qaeda, and all fanatic elements of Islam that are on the rise and on the march. I wanted to find out more about the people who were able to maintain their faith in spite of these radicals who bastardized it, who were able to maintain respect, moving into the future without inspiring fear and hate. This book did not really explore “women” in war zones or their success, with the exception of this one woman. She seemed to present the Taliban as fools, almost as if had been fairly simple for Kamila to outsmart them. Also, I wasn’t quite sure why Najeeb, her brother, told her story. Why didn’t this very resourceful Kamila tell her own story? There were many unanswered questions left hanging.
    • 4/5
      More of a long report than a full book.There is no doubt that Kamilla Sidiqi is an amazing woman who courageously supported her family as well as many other members of the community during the Taliban regime. However, the book lacks depth and feels more like an extended report than the characters telling their story from their hearts. The author has written many articles for prestigious publications in the US, but that is how this book read, rather than as a full length biography.Having said that, I did learn a few things about life under the Taliban that I wasn't previously aware of, in spite of having read a number of books set in Afghanistan at this time. I hadn't realised that the young men who tyranised the streets and battered women who suposedly enfringed the rules, were in fact war orphans, raised by Taliban teachers in madrassas and had been brainwashed into believing that these women were evil. They hadn't had contact with women in their childhoods, no mothers, sisters nor aunts to love them. On the other hand, many local Taliban leaders respected the efforts the women in their communities were making and supported from them behind the scenes. There is a lovely episode in the book where Kamilla and her sisters make a number of wedding dresses at very short notice, which turn out to have been for a Taliban wedding.The writing is rather repetitive in parts, for instance, repeatedly telling us how dangerous it was to go out of the house without a male escort from your family. Yet some areas lacked explanation such as Mrs Sidiqi coming home from the north for a few months after her husband left for Iran and then, for no obvious reason, returning north even though he was no longer there.My book group read this and gave an average of 3 to 3.5 stars. Many had read several other books set in Afghanisatn and didn't feel that this was the best.
    • 4/5
      When most of us hear “Afghanistan” what comes to mind are terms like war, Muslim, bombs, and Taliban. We rarely hear any personal stories from this area so when I was presented with the opportunity to read one, I agreed. In the midst of a war, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uncovers a story of hope and perseverance. “War reshapes women’s lives and often unexpectedly forces them-unprepared-into the role of breadwinner.” –Gayle Tzemach LemmonKamela Sediqi’s life and dreams of becoming a teacher was thrown into disarray when the Taliban came to power in 1996. Kamela did not sulk and wallow in depression about the major changes imposed by the Taliban such as not laughing in public and wearing a full chadri (a veil where your entire head is cover with only a small screen for your eyes). When she and her sisters were about to suffocate from being homebound (another rule imposed by Taliban) and with money becoming scarce she had an idea. Kamela developed her sewing and marketing skills and started a small dressmaking business from her family home. This business blossomed into a school which taught women in their community a skill as well as gave them a sense of independence. Kamela truly possessed a servant’s heart and a selfless attitude. She was always thinking of ways to help her family and empower other women in her community. All the sewing was performed and taught in the Sediqi home which came to be a place of refuge and peace for the women and girls that came. The Sediqi family was pretty close knit. The father played an integral part in the lives of the daughters as far as encouraging them to pursue education but their mother was somewhat disconnected from the story. The oldest sister, Malekheh, and her family moved in with her sisters when their parents and older brother moved away due to the recent Taliban takeover. Malekheh proved to be a big help and encourager to Kamela. One of my favorite characters was Rahim, Kamela’s youngest brother. Rahim played a major role in building the business because he had to go to the market with Kamela and be her mahram (a male companion that no woman could be without while traveling outside of their home). He also learned how to do embroidery which was quite helpful to the dressmaking operation. During many close calls with the Taliban, one being when an AK-147 was put in her face, Kamela was determined to persevere. In the time Kamela was living in there was no place or time for fear. She was a strong willed young woman who remained focused and relied heavily on her faith. At the close of the book, we learn that Kamela started a construction business that was short lived due to heavy competition and that she was recognized on an international level by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I was also please that the author included follow ups to the characters we met at the close of the book. So many young women are overcoming and rising above unbelievable odds daily and they go unnoticed. I appreciate Gayle Lemmon going into a war zone to bring us this story of courage and hope. Overall I enjoyed this book but it dragged in the middle and was rushed towards the end. I wanted the story to have more depth it read more like an overview. The timeframe of when the events actually happened was somewhat confusing. The book is written in a way that a younger audience could follow along without getting bogged down. This book would be a good informative read for young adult/teenage readers.
    • 4/5
      A fascinating story about a female entrepreneur trying to start a business in secret under the restrictive taliban regime. We have no idea what true oppression is. I can’t imagine being in the midst of a career or college and having the world crashed out around you and losing every single right that you had because you are a woman.“Now that it has been taken away, Kabuli girls of every age understood exactly how precious education really was.”
    • 4/5
      The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a story of hope. It chronicles the lives of a family of daughters left in Afghanistan with their young brother when the Taliban take over Kabul. Their father had been a supporter of the previous regime and was therefore a target. So were their older brothers. It was felt that they were safer staying in the city rather than trying to get them over the border.When money starts running low and womens' freedoms become more and more restricted the second daughter Kamila knows she needs to do something not only for her family but for the women of her neighborhood. But what can she do? Despite the Sharia laws that require women to wear a chadri (or burqua) they still have a fashion sense and want to wear pretty clothes underneath so Kamila decides to learn to sew. And learn she does. Her sister was already a rather well known seamstress so she had a good teacher. Kamila learns quickly and soon has a beautiful sample to take to the shops.But as a woman she cannot go out alone - her younger brother acts as her escort and despite laws forbidding it Kamila manages to negotiate with several shopkeepers for commissions. She slowly but surely builds a tailoring business that keeps her family going and employs a number of women in the neighborhood.The book is a very emotional read as you understand just how difficult it is for women of intelligence trying to live such a restrictive life. The women of Afghanistan had been allowed to go to school and to work before the Taliban came in and made them nothing more than afterthoughts. That did not stop them from using their brains and their skills to keep their families going.After the Taliban were forced out some rights were returned and Kamila went on to even bigger and better projects to help the women of her country. She is truly a woman to be applauded.
    • 4/5
      Listened to the audio version of this book during my runs and found the characters and their story encouraging me to run longer. While this isn't a detailed story of the struggle and desperation of women under taliban rule in Afghanistan, it's a true story (why do some reviewers insist that it cannot be true when all of the reliable information I can find online supports it?) of a girl and her sisters and their bravery and determination to survive, keep their family together, and help their community. These were women accustomed to western clothes, education, entertainment, freedoms -- and had those taken away literally overnight. Forced to wear a chadri and be accompanied in public by a male (even if a young child). I found I wanted more details at times, but appreciated learning how these women felt about their oppression and how, in this instance, they survived it. Let's not forget the strength and power of girls who are educated.
    • 4/5
      This book is appealing in two ways. First, it is a great personal story of optimsm and leadership during hard times. Second, it provides a detailed description and feel of life in a place with very different customs and lifestyles from what most of us are accustomed to. The author spent years interviewing both her main subject, and many of the other relatives and people the subject, Kamila lived and worked with.The view by Afgans of the Russian effort, the Taliban effort, and the American effort in their country, which is more clearly dealt with in the last half of the book, is not quite what most Americans would assume.This book is well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      This book would be a good companion book to The Kite Runner. It was well written, informative and even a bit suspenseful to read. It is heartening to think about the women that have the strength and courage to carry on in a world so oppressive to women.
    • 4/5
      A book about the Taliban's occupation of Afghanistan and one woman's decision to provide for her family and support her community regardless of the risk.
    • 4/5
      Love the books about pre-Taliban, Taliban, and, dare I say, post-Taliban Afghanistan. However, it left me wanting more.
    • 3/5
      This is a very interesting piece of Journalism, at least it seems to be written in a journalistic manner/view. I say this as we never get to "know" the young women involved, except through their work....

      It is the story of a young Afghani woman, Kamela, began a dressmaking business in order to support herself & her four sisters during the Taliban regime.

      The story is one of hardship, danger, & courage mixed with hope and many surprises.

    • 3/5
      So this book told one story, and told it in detail. It was a good story: one of nine sisters develops a plan to support herself and her sisters after the Taliban sweep through Kabul, even though she can no longer teach in schools, or even go outside without a full-length burqa and a male relative.

      The Taliban are scary, and this stirred up some honest outrage at what women under their regime had to endure. As I said, it's a good story, and I'm glad someone told it. But I have to say, it wasn't exactly a complex narrative, and so it was a little bit too Point A to Point B for my taste.
    • 4/5
      After an introduction full of name dropping (including multiple mentions of Harvard Business School) Lemmon gives us a personal look at life for a teenage girl in Kabul during the reign of the Taliban. Her parents were forced to leave the city due to the father's previous work associations and left her and her sisters to fend for themselves. It was too dangerous to take them on the road and dangerous to leave their house unoccupied. As more strict regulations on the women were imposed, there were few options for Kamila and her sisters to continue their education or even go to the market for supplies without a male accompanying them. Kamila's older married sister was an accomplished seamstress and Kamila prevailed on her to teach them sewing and started a modest business sewing dresses and pant suits branching into wedding dresses. Soon she was employing other girls outside her own family and even giving lessons in sewing and running a business.Kamila's story is remarkable since she had to take on so much responsibility at such a young age. Very inspiring.
    • 4/5
      Listened to the audio version of this book during my runs and found the characters and their story encouraging me to run longer. While this isn't a detailed story of the struggle and desperation of women under taliban rule in Afghanistan, it's a true story (why do some reviewers insist that it cannot be true when all of the reliable information I can find online supports it?) of a girl and her sisters and their bravery and determination to survive, keep their family together, and help their community. These were women accustomed to western clothes, education, entertainment, freedoms -- and had those taken away literally overnight. Forced to wear a chadri and be accompanied in public by a male (even if a young child). I found I wanted more details at times, but appreciated learning how these women felt about their oppression and how, in this instance, they survived it. Let's not forget the strength and power of girls who are educated.
    • 2/5
      Young woman in Afghanistan, gets bored with reading books in her home and resolves to improve her life and the life of her family, held captive behind Taliban strictures.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating book about a woman who started a business in Kabul during the time that the Taliban was in power. Leaves me once again amazed at how little I know about Afghanistan.
    • 4/5
      By now we are all quite familiar with the strictures placed on women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The news has bombarded us with images of the burqua-clad women trailing their male chaperones, women who had no choice but to follow the rules of one of the most repressive and highly moralistic regimes around. But what happened to the women who no longer had the protection of a male family member or of only a young boy? How on earth were they to survive in the unbending and dangerous to women world of the Taliban?Kamila Sidiqi is one of five sisters who were still at home when the Taliban took over Kabul. She had just received her teaching degree despite the dangers posed by the civil war raging through the country when the Taliban took Kabul, trapping women in their homes and rendering Sidiqi's valuable degree useless. Worse yet for her family, her father had served under several previous governments, putting him at extreme risk and he eventually fled to some semblence of safety, leaving his family behind. Sidiqi's older brother also leaves Afghanistan for Iran in hopes of being able to find work and to avoid any reprisals against his family for his father's prior loyalties. This leaves the women of the family with only their young, school-aged brother as a chaperone and no visible means of support.But Kamila Sidiqi is an incredibly driven and resourceful woman and she hatches the idea of creating a dressmaking business that will stave off their impending poverty. Learning to sew from an older sister, she and her sisters carefully created a viable home industry right under the noses of the Taliban. And not only did their business provide the support of their own family, but they also taught other women from the neighborhood to sew as well in order to support their families as well. Over the five year span of the Taliban's oppressive rule, Sidiqi, with only her young brother to chaperone her as she negotiated with the male shopkeepers at their local market, created a grass roots business that saved many families from starvation, especially those like her own where the older men had had no choice but to flee the country leaving their wives and daughters unprotected and without a male presence.Lemmon traveled to and from Afghanistan for many years, through the escalating tensions, war in the street, and US bombings in order to chronicle the perseverence, determination, and entreprenurial spirit in women like Kamila Sidiqi that the Taliban had been unable to contain. Lemmon tells the story as if it was a novel, creating dialogue for her subjects despite clearly writing this years after the events she's chronicling. Lemmon's background as a journalist is very evident here as well with the writing coming across as very journalistic, simplistic, and oddly enough, given the content of the story, emotionally distant. She also periodically thrusts herself and the present day into the story she's reporting which comes off as mildly distracting. What must have been the overwhelming tension of day to day living interpsersed with moments of heart pounding terror is not all that well conveyed; instead it is reported but muffled, muted. And there seem to be some rather big omissions in Lemmon's writing about these brave Sidiqi girls. Why did the girls' mother stay in the north of Afghanistan after her husband left for Iran instead of going back to Kabul to help her daughters? How did the young women learn to sew so well so quickly that they could create a thriving cottage industry? Why was there still a market for clothing when people couldn't even find enough to eat? How did the economics of this venture work out? Why did these shopkeepers, who were also acting contrary to the Taliban's restrictions and therefore in danger, cooperate with Kamila Sidiqi and her incredibly young mahram (chaperone)?The story itself is impressive and inspiring, putting a face on the suffering and devastation first of a militant, oppressive, and misogynistic regime and then of a terrible, destructive war but it is also the moving chronicle of unbroken spirit, the will to live, and the sort of woman who can move mountains and change the world. For those interested in another facet of the reality of Afghanistan under the Taliban, this will fill in some of the picture. That these women persevered and succeeded even in the face of threats of beatings, imprisonment, or death is incredibly awe-inspiring and humbling.