And the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana:

an excellent example of true journalism ; gayle lemmon's account inserts the reader inside of the facts, providing an understanding of events by those who lived through them along with compelling insight into how their 'history' impacted their future. read it

This is so close to our own lifetimes and so painful to see how people mistreat others. However, the confidence of the sisters in their ability to provide for their family and the families around them was amazing. Such a sad story.

I love reading about other countries and did learn some things about Afghanistan through the lens of the book. But in the end, I kept waiting for something to happen and after awhile, I gave up and did not finish the book despite getting about 3/4 of the way through. I couldn't get any real sense of who these women were or why I should care about them. The characters just seemed flat despite my trying to stick with it.

Very well written. Amazing story of a young woman's ingenuity to survive under the most harsh conditions. She not only kept her family safe and provided with the essentials for life, but shared with neighboring women.

So far, I really like the book. It appears to be an eas read. However, I find myself stopping and thinking about locations, etc. And, comparing what those women went through (and go through) to US women and it is mind boggling.

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I learned a lot about the Afghani people I did not know. If you want a quick read that opens your mind to the world this is the book for you.

The men of the family leave Afghanistan when the Taliban arrives in Kabul. The young daughters are left to fen for themselves. They learn how to sew dresses and sell their designs to local tailors. They support themselves as well as helping neighborhood girls learn to sew and provide an income for them too.

just beautiful how a woman decided to turn her house into a dressmaker shop with her sisters and friends and went out to the market to sell her dressess and get a name out of the beautiful clothes that they made. very interesting.

I really looked forward to reading the book as it was very highly rated, and I personally love to sew. I soon found myself impatient with the story as I simply didn't find it believable that a young girl who had no interest in sewing was virtually overnight creating, sewing, cutting, detailing and finishing items that were so highly desireable. While I admire the business aspect of survival under the Taliban rule, I felt that as long as the women followed the rules they were "safe" (this according to the book). I am quite curious why the world has heard of the horrendous discipline and truama that the women are going through in Afghanistan, (i.e. news reports etc.,) and if this is true, why was the books author so "understated" and in fact justifying the Talibans behavior? Yes, I admire any person, man, woman, or child who tries to make things better for their part of the world, but I am thinking that the author simply had no passion for the story she was writing and probably should be more careful about her future subjects as the "blandness" was obvious to me, the reader.

The Gerbs sunflower seed meal was not powdered the first time I ordered it and I'm not sure I'll like this a much.

The Bentley's tea seems to be weaker than it used to be plus I'm getting an upset stomach from my tea habit and may have to cancel my subscription.

Anyone would feel for the people in the narrative and the
oppression they suffered under the Taliban --- and admire
their courage in creatively developing a dress manufactury
to insure themselves and others who work with them an income.

But the story goes round and round in the same circle of
frights and emotions. It is a short story told long.

This book had potential to be great, however, it falls short in the second chapter. The plot structure is non existent, skipping around timelines to the point of severe confusion (Kamila learns to sew in a day while Malika is still pregnant, sells the dress the next day, the following day Malika moves in with the sisters after having the babies two months before....), and the writing is juvenile.

This is unfortunate because I think Ms. Lemmon really has a great story to tell here. Whomever was responsible for editing this book really did her a disservice when pushing through to publishing. This book is a great first draft, but that's all it feels like to me. It think in its current state, this book may do more harm than good for the women portrayed in the story.

The credentials of the author, number of reference cited, work put into research and credits given should imply that this book has a lot of detailed facts, explanations and analysis. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Although the main character should be admired for the work that she did (did her meeting with Condoleeza Rice come before or after she became she subject of this book?), and life under the Taliban was surely awful and scary for people in Afganistan, the writing in this book is childlike, repetitive and superficial. The timelines dont make sense and the life of the seamstresses is almost glamorised.

Read this book if you want to understand Afganistan under the Taliban, but not if you are looking for a well-written biography.

Speaking as someone who had a national dress/costume made In Iraqi Kurdistan, I can speak form experience. For One the sewing machines are foot/pedal operated, no electricity needed. Good thing too since electricity is almost non existent. Measuring someone, seamstress uses strings and makes knots. (Many older women/seamstresses are illiterate). Ad even the most senior seamstress that made my dress --- think tunic that pools 6" on the floor, and sleeves about 6feet long, to be tied behind the back (Think Disney's Mulan going to the fortune-teller dress), simple yoga pants with rubber at the waist and ankles --- though were simple design, took almost 2 weeks. Though truth be told, the seamstress was extremely busy.

I - being pretty good at sewing - as in I made my own clothes, furniture covers and corrections of torn stuff , shortening sleeves, pants..... the kind of stuff a dry-cleaning "seamstress" does, though I would NEVER call my self a seamstress as I have no formal schooling, and it takes me forever to figure things out --- well I would likely work on the outfit for 2 full days. So to claim someone made such a dress/costume or one of those baggy pant suits the Kurdish men wear in a day, without formal instruction or some visual aid (remember they are mostly illiterate women) is laughable.

The only thing that I can shed light on is that the baggy pant suits the men of the region wear are all one size. They are ENORMOUS! I should know, there was a time, when I was size 22, my husband is small. We both wore his fathers special suit and posed for pictures. There is a sash of scrunched up fabric that is used to tie the top and bottom together and create uniform look and hides the creases of all that extra fabric.
The women's dress and the "underwear" pants (think Jasemine in Disney's Aladin) are also cut in the same way. The only thing that is measured is the height of the female, arms/sleeves, waist for the pants and legs/pant length. There is enough fabric in the dress to fit 2 me (at size 22) and about 10 me now that Im size 4. So sizing is NOT an issue.

Still to say that someone learned to sew in a day is like saying someone learned to cook in 1 day.
There is NO self-taught cook that can cook a Christmas turkey or bone in ham, make the stuffing, cranberry sauce, parmesan mash potatoes, corn bread pudding, and bake pumpkin pie or chocolate burbon pecan pie from scratch, all in one day and without formal instructions or even a cookbook, and have people pay for the days work. Sewing is not any different.

After much deliberation, I recommended this book to my culture book club as our book to cover Afghanistan. It kept reappearing on Top 10 books set in Afghanistan, and seemed like an optimistic view of women who persevere and even have an entrepreneurial spirit. After reading the book, I was severely disappointed and even embarrassed that I had led my book club to read this book. The writing is very simple, seems as though it's intended for middle schoolers. The characters are flat. The situation is extremely sugar coated. There is no plot or suspense to drive the story. Imagine reading a lot of "The girls worked until midnight to sew the dressers for their large order. Kamila was exhausted, but she felt happy to know that her business was gaining success." The book just seems to go in circles with elementary narratives of the women sewing, selling dresses, sewing, selling dresses [insert far-off risk of potential Taliban danger here]. On the contrary, this book actually led me to feel like one could actually lead a decent life in Afghanistan as long as one followed the Taliban's rules. I learned nothing about Afghanistan from this book. I started out with high hopes, but this book really let me down.

Somehow I did finish this book. The up-front story is quite interesting and is in itself well told, I feel, but much of the context is a puzzle, unexplained. You wonder all along how in the word Lemmon got these women's stories. She claims to know everything these women say to each other -- even private conversations between Kamala and her older sister, i. e. At the end of the book, she says she did not begin this work until 2005, long after the Taliban rule in question, I believe, so that very long and detailed interviews would have been necessary -- considerably after the fact and with a ready translator, we assume. Or does the author speak Dari? Also she does not tell us much about the years that followed the dressmaking business. When the U. S. invasion took place, for instance, that was also in many ways a bad time for Kabul and its women. I also wonder if Lemmon has gone back to these women since this story was published in 2011. The Taliban have re-emerged, for instance. This writer seems to be very positive about the U. S. military, and also about business ventures and investments of every kind. For myself, I don't believe that as long as its women doing the investing, developing, and making money, along with the men -- a country will thrive. In many places, women are the main champions of the environment, and are more concerned than men that everyone be able to live, eat, have healthcare and a place to call home -- and for me, those women are the heroes. The major actor, one met say, though, in Lemmon's drama is Kabala, who IS active in peace and justice for all, and I'd like to know more about her work with the poor and low-income women of Kabul, within the U. N. and otherwise. We need a safe and just world for all, and will not get if more women join in on business and investing -- and fighting alongside men in brutal wars.

So here's the thing; this is not the most detailed, even-handed, descriptive story about what it's like to live female under the Taliban in Kabul leading up to the events of 9/11.

However, Kamila Sidiqi and her sisters, and the way they eked out a living as seamstresses is very compelling.

Kamila is from an educated family, she received a teaching degree on the day the Taliban took over Kabul and instituted a series of laws (overseen by marauding bands of young Talibs) requiring women to stay at home unless accompanied by a male relative (who then was vulnerable to being imprisoned or conscripted if of the wrong ethnicity or suspected political affiliation) and wearing a full-body covering garment called a chadri. Women couldn't be employed by foreign aid organizations. Women couldn't go to school.

Somehow Kamila starts a seamstress business right under the Taliban's noses. Somehow she recruits other young girls, and somehow she manages to use entrepenuership and optimism to keep things going as more and more people left Kabul or were imprisoned, and even through American retaliation bombing after 9/11.

The story is told in a reporting narrative that keeps the foreign author out of the story while breathing life into Kamila and some of her sisters. I was left with a few questions-- mostly what made it safer to leave children in kabul and the parents to live elsewhere, how Kamila's enterprise could have survived without the TAliban being informed, how there was enough money in Kabul for people to buy the dresses Kamila made, etc.

But in the end, for me, a U.S. mid-westerner with hazy political background knowledge of the Middle East, none of that is really important. What's important about Kamila and her story is the humanizing of the people of Kabul through Kamila, as well as the optimism the narrator and Kamilia embody about the resilience of women.

This is the story of Kamila Sidiqi, a new college graduate when the Taliban took power in Afghanistan and banned women from all arenas of public life. Unable to work outside the home, and after her father and brother are forced to flee Kabul, Kamila organizes her large family into a dressmaking business. The business flourishes, and provides support for Kamila's family as well as for many young women whom she employs. Kamila's story is impressive. Her goal to help other Afghani women never wavers, and she in fact goes on to work with the UN and found several other businesses that help to educate and employ her peers.
The writing of this book left something to be desired. The author's background in journalism came through in that although the timeline and facts are clearly related, the drama and emotion that should have driven the story were missing. Another point that bothered me throughout the book was never addressed. The people of Kabul are fleeing or starving, the economy of Afghanistan is in tatters, women are required to completely cover every piece of clothing with the chadri when in public, yet a dressmaking venture is successful enough to support not only a large extended family but much of a neighborhood? I felt like a paradox that big needed more explanation.
All in all, an interesting book about like in Afghanistan under the Taliban, but it could have benefited from more stringent editorial critique.

This is a book in search of a story. The author set out to find a story of women engaging in capitalism in Afghanistan.

The author found the story of Kamila, a young woman who makes and sells dresses to support her family. Eventually, Kamila begins teaching sewing classes in her home during the rule of the Taliban that help her neighbors. During the time of the narrative, her parents move to Northern Afghanistan without her. A brother moves to Iran. Kamila supports her remaining four sisters and another brother as she becomes a successful small businesswoman. Later, she joins international aid organizations.

Although the writing is easy to read, the story jumps too quickly. There were huge gaps in the narrative that seemed to leave years of Kamila's life untouched. Most of the dialogue and many of the details seem to be created by the author, leaving certain passages feeling like they are the author's idealized version of events rather than reality. The greatest details that are provided by the author regard descriptions of clothing and faces, which certainly give the reader visual clues, but leave the reader wondering about the actual environment.

Despite the jumping timeline and the lack of details, there is still value in "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana." It's easy to read and tells the story of an extremely likeable protagonist.

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.

An American newswoman goes to Afghanistan to investigate female entrepreneurs. She gets to know a brave young woman who supports her sisters by learning to sew and eventually starting a sewing school to help other women survive during the Taliban years.

If you haven't already read much about the Taliban, this book will be an eye opener. But if you have read a lot, there's not much new. In addition, it feels like the author padded the text by about 40%, to make it a full-length book. This makes the book skimmable. I read the whole thing in a couple of hours.

What I appreciated the most was seeing how Muslim women can use their gumption and skills to feed their families. I found this to be very inspirational.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. Kamila, her sisters, and the other women were brave, resourceful, and industrious. I am wondering if their accomplishments will take a step back when US forces leave Afghanistan and the Taliban might make a comeback. I felt that the title was a misnomer because Kamila was actually not so much a dressmaker as she was an entrepreneur and marketer. It was really her sisters and neighbors who were the dressmakers, so maybe the title should have been "The Dressmakers of Khair Khana." I took a star off because I found the writing to be stilted and awkward. It didn't flow well. When the author was speaking from her point of view, the narrative was fine. But when she was narrating Kamila's story, the writing was simplistic and unsophisticated, which is surprising as the author is an experienced journalist. Finally, as a seamstress and fiber artist myself, I wish the author would have included photos of the wedding dresses and other outfits these brave and talented ladies made so that the readers could get a visual idea of their work.

The author's intent was to write about "...women who work in war zones; a particularly intrepid and inspiring form of entrepreneurship that happens regularly right in the heart of the world's most dangerous conflicts--and their aftermath." As a former ABC New producer in its Political Unit she understood the stories behind the political representations given to the public on the nightly news programs. It was during her MBA study at Harvard's Business School that she followed her desire to write about this topic.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon presents a family's deeply personal story of survival in war-torn Afghanistan. Too often, we accept media accounts of battles without seeing the dehumanizing effects they cause on the population. While all individuals' stories are unique, Lemmon epitomizes the struggle for survival with that of the Sidiqi family's daughter, Kamila.

Lemmon succinctly summarizes life in pre-Taliban Afghanistan and how it abruptly changes with the arrival of the turbanned Taliban and their edicts. The author depicts characters well. The reader is able to visualize and relate to them, making the story all the more meaningful. Descriptions of settings and the timeline enhance dimension, fleshing-out this true tale. We can feel Kamila's apprehension, frustration, and faith, bonding us to this young woman.

Not to be left wondering, the author's epilogue updates us on Kamila's personal and professional achievements and those of others in this story. She provides a bibliography and website resources for us to learn more about the organizations that help women to become financially solvent, enabling them to support their families. Lemmon's personal comments and a reader's guide are there, too.

You may also like these books: Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America; The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan; I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban; An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir; Infidel; Things I've Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter; and Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books;

I just finished reading The Dressmaker of Khair Khana on a long roadtrip and had tears in my eyes by the end. This is a beautifully told true story of a young Afghan woman, Kamila, who lived through the Soviet occupation of her beloved homeland with her educated parents and ten siblings, then the occupation by the strict Mujahideen, only to then endure the horrors of the Taliban after they took over her town of Khair Khana and much of Afghanistan. The Taliban ended education and almost all opportunities to work for women, as well as outlawing anything that might bring joy or pleasure to the people and forcing women to cover themselves head to toe in the dreaded chadri (burqa) and to only venture outside if accompanied by a male relative. Kamila was just preparing to attend university when the Taliban rolled into Khair Khana, and instantly her life and the lives of everyone in in her town changed.

As Kamila's life and that of her four sisters and two brothers still living at home with their parents grows more desperate by the day, her father and older brother must leave the family because the security situation is so dangerous that it is not safe for them to remain at home. Kamila's father had entreated her to take care of her mother and siblings in his absence, and she is determined to keep her family from starvation. She comes up with a brash idea: she, a young woman who doesn't know how to sew, will make women's clothing to sell to shopkeepers in her local bazaar. She persuades her older sister, Malika, to give her a crash course in dressmaking, and thus begins Kamila's utterly mesmerizing story, which grows from helping just her family, to helping other girls to support their own families and growing a thriving business employing dozens of women. Along the way the very real dangers Kamila and all of the girls and women face daily is breathtaking.

There were a few flaws in the writing which it seems that thorough editing might have caught. For example, we're told that Kamila's mother eventually leaves Kamila, her four younger sisters and her younger brother to be with Kamila's father in the north. I found myself wondering why both parents would leave their children -- why didn't Mrs. Sadiqi stay in the family's home with her daughters and son? And I wondered how, in a city where almost all citizens lived in poverty and women had to wear a burqa to go outside, women were willing to part with precious money to buy beaded and embroidered clothing.

But these are small complaints. I couldn't put this book down until I finished reading it. This is the story of a young woman who endured horrors and deprivations I have never known, but who never lost her fierce determination to help her family survive in a city and country torn apart by war and a brutal regime that wanted women to be invisible. Kamila's ingenuity, optimism, and fierce love for her country shine through the pages, and made me ashamed for ever complaining about the petty, insignificant hardships in my own life. Her story humbled me.

Good story, unfortunately the writing is poor. Too much of the story is missing. There are eleven children yet we know nothing of the lives of four of the sisters. Where are they? As others have mentioned, no one learns to sew in an afternoon. The devil is in the details. Her sister takes her son to the doctor and is afraid of being beaten by the Taliban. The obvious question which the author makes no attempt to answer, is why doesn't her brother go with her? It's an emergency, what would take precedence? And on and on. There are so many instances of unanswered questions throughout the book that the reader wonders what is and isn't true.

I had a hard time not checking the "horror" box as I marked the shelves this belongs on. Being an educated young woman in Kabul, when the Taliban rolls in, and suddenly, you're basically on house arrest, because, female. And yet, the women of Kabul did not take this lying down. This non-fiction book tells the story of Kamila Sadiqi and her sisters and neighbors. Kamila would be a shero and business owner in ANY culture, but her ingenuity in figuring out how to do so, under the very nose of the Taliban, is remarkable.

The narration and storytelling is a little inconsistent at times, probably because the names, descriptions, and details of some of the events had to be changed to protect the women still in danger in Afghanistan. But their resilience, courage, and determination are admirable, and it's a fascinating book.

This is the latest in a string of inspiring and heartwarming true stories about how determination and the human spirit can literally triumph over adversity and change hundreds or thousands of lives. (Think Three Cups of Tea and its sequel.) On that level, it works well. It offers a fascinating and sometimes horrifying look at life under the Taliban, who for the most part are every bit as brutal, ignorant and fanatical as they've been depicted elsewhere. The title character, Kamela Sidiqi, is clearly a remarkable woman, and one can't help but be filled with admiration for all she achieved, particularly considering how young she was when she started the dressmaking business that sustained her family and many of her neighbors during the dark years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. I couldn't help wondering if it has been optioned for a movie because in the right hands, it would make an incredible film.

But while I enjoyed it, that's precisely why I think it's not as successful a book as it could be. Throughout, there were leaps in time and gaps in the narrative that left me wondering what happened to this person or that and what had transpired in the interim. It's as if the author, who researched her material long after the fact, didn't have the information she needed to flesh out the narrative, so took some shortcuts, kind of hopping around and in places reducing the storyline to a series of episodic vignettes. A good editor would have caught these and worked with the author to fix them, but several slipped through, and I found myself going back to see if I'd missed something about a character. Sometimes I had, but just as often, I hadn't. Particularly toward the end she seemed to be kind of speeding up just to finish the narrative.

I really debated whether to give this three stars or four, but settled on three and a half because it is an interesting story about an amazing woman and her family. It's just that I'd have liked a little more story and substance with my inspiration.

Gayle Lemmon's book, The Dressmaker of Khair Kana, is not horrible, but I did not find it particularly inspiring or impressive in either its story or presentation. I liked Kamila's early story, when she came up with an idea for a business to provide herself and her family with the basic necessities they lacked when war and the victory of the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan put an end to her teaching plans. In the beginning days of her dressmaking business, Kamila was portrayed as actively sewing and participating in the daily tasks. Her eventual ability to provide well for her family, and her generosity in extending the opportunity to neighbors while simultaneously benefiting her business, struck me as a classic and satisfying success story.

However, as time went on, and Kamila had the idea of taking in "students" who then produced most of her inventory as they were being trained, her only real participation seemed to be going to the markets once or twice a week to drop off finished clothing and pick up new orders. While her sisters and friends took over the operation of the clothing business, Kamila began training to basically become a government bureaucrat, and though the author describes her as meaningfully impacting many lives through this, the book is very light on any persuasive details. The story lost me at this point, as Kamila abandoned reliance on her own ideas and effort, instead devoting her time to attending meetings and training sessions. It was tough to feel connected to the characters as the book devolved into an unconvincing propaganda piece for forcibly-funded UN aid programs that was based on conclusory statements rather than meaningful evidence.

While I did appreciate the elements that gave a realistic depiction of life in Afghanistan during this horrific period of war and Taliban occupation, Kamila's life story was ultimately not that compelling or inspirational to me. I would recommend the fiction writing of Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) over Lemmon's work if you want to experience a sense of what life has been like in this country in the context of a masterfully plotted, elegantly written novel with truly heroic characters. In my opinion, Dressmaker offers only average writing talent, and a factually and emotionally sparse account of a woman who rose to financial and social success chiefly via the political bureaucracy rather than her own skill and drive.

In September 1996, when Kamila Sidiqi was aged 19, the Taliban seized control of Kabul. A number of books have been written about the difficulties of life for women in Afghanistan during the rule of the Taliban: this book tells of how Kamila Sidiqi was able to overcome sufficient of these difficulties to be able to create a business which supported her family and others.

Ms Sidiqi's parents and older brother had to flee from Kabul. The Taliban forbade women from working outside their homes, or attending school. For many women, in the absence of a husband, father or brother, this caused great hardship. To earn money to support her family (four sisters and a young brother), Ms Sidiqi asked her sister to teach her how to sew. Eventually, she grew a sewing business from her home, employing some 100 women from her neighbourhood.

In this book, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the story of how Kamila Sidiqi managed to establish and grow this business during civil war and despite the repressive regime of the Taliban.
There are a number of different components to this story. At its heart, this is the story of a young female entrepreneur who managed to establish a viable business despite huge challenges. It is also a story about the consequences of hardship faced by many women as the Taliban tightened their grip on Kabul.

I understand that Kamila Sidiqi now runs a business consultancy called Kaweyan, teaching entrepreneurship skills to Afghanis: I hope that this endeavour is successful.

I am pleased that I read the book: it's heartening to read good news stories out of Afghanistan, but I'm not entirely satisfied. I wanted more: more information about Kamila Sidiqi's business; more information about the other women participating; and more information about how the women viewed the world in which they were living. Perhaps, one day, more of this story can be told. Perhaps, one day, it will be safe enough.

`One day, Inshallah, we will have peace.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Dress­maker of Khair Khana: Five Sis­ters, One Remark­able Fam­ily, and the Woman Who Risked Every­thing to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lem­mon is a non-fiction book which tells the story of a woman who started a suc­cess­ful dress mak­ing busi­ness under the Tal­iban in Afghanistan. Not only did Kamila Sadiqi pro­vide hon­or­able employ­ment to her fam­ily and female com­mu­nity, but also a ray of hope in an oth­er­wise bleak existence.

Kamila Sadiqi is an enter­pris­ing young woman. Fear­less, inde­pen­dent and with a sharp mind, Kamila has to find a way to feed her fam­ily under Tal­iban ruled Afghanistan. All the males in Kamila's fam­ily have either fled, died or too young to be of any con­cern to the Tal­iban she has to find a way to feed her six siblings.

Kamila starts her own stitch­ing busi­ness, hir­ing local women who are not allowed to work unless they are under the strin­gent reg­u­la­tions which the Tal­iban bru­tally enforces how and where women should work. Using her nat­u­rally given tal­ents Kamila doesn't only sup­ply work and income for her fam­ily, but for the neigh­bor­hood grow­ing her busi­ness and inspir­ing others.

The Dress­maker of Khair Khana: Five Sis­ters, One Remark­able Fam­ily, and the Woman Who Risked Every­thing to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lem­mon is a quick read, inter­est­ing and heart­warm­ing book. While short, the book pack­ages a strong story of per­se­ver­ance, fight­ing against the odds, help­ing the com­mu­nity and entre­pre­neur­ship combined.

This is an inspir­ing story of coura­geous women who are in a dan­ger­ous zone with­out men. The males either had to go away, were impris­oned or died while women were forced to be con­fined to their homes, wear a chadri and had to have a male chap­eron escort them around.

As some­one who pays atten­tion to the world around him and beyond the two oceans sur­round­ing these United States, I knew about the oppress­ing sit­u­a­tion in Afghanistan pre-9/11, but one aspect that escaped me was the one the author depicted very were. Besides the daily ter­ror of not hav­ing any con­trol over the small aspects of one's life (like going to the mar­ket or leav­ing your yard), the sheer bore­dom and depres­sion these women felt jumped off the pages.

The more I read the book, the more admi­ra­tion I felt towards Ms. Sadiqi. Not only because of her busi­ness prowess, but also because she cared about her com­mu­nity and cus­tomers - some­thing I feel we have lost on the US. Ms. Sadiqi pro­vided hon­or­able employ­ment, qual­ity prod­ucts and most impor­tantly, a ray of hope in an oth­er­wise unfor­giv­ing world to many women. The Tal­ibs knew about her busi­ness but turned an eye from it due to her qual­ity, work­ing within the guide­lines and con­tri­bu­tion to Afghan society.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana starts with a dedication "To ALL THOSE WOMEN whose stories will never be told" and ends with the story of one woman who defied the odds and started a business during wartime. During the occupation of the Taliban in Afghanistan and their fight for control of the country, all the rights of women were banned. It was against the law for women to laugh, wear nail polish, go to school or to be seen outside of the home unless accompanied by a male relative. Women were forbidden to talk to men unless they were relatives and daily life became very difficult because women were not allowed to work outside of the home.

Kamila knew she had to do something or her large family would starve. Her father and brother had fled to Iran and left only one 13 year old brother to run errands and be the "Male relative" for Kamila and her 5 sisters still at home. So Kamila asks her older sister Malika to teach her to sew and Kamila in turn teaches her sisters to sew and they sell their designs at the market. As Kamila's business takes off she is able to hire other women in the neighborhood and then create even more business opportunities and so on.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana proves that women are amazing, powerful, and resilient human beings that have the will to survive, take care of their families and prosper, against all odds. This book makes me want to stand up and applaud the amazing women of Afghanistan for their strength and will. Kamila's story is very inspiring and gives me the impression that women everywhere can perpetuate change in the world if given the chance. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana celebrates the modern working woman.

"Money is power for women," Kamila said. "If women have their own income to bring to the family, they can contribute and make decisions." (Pg 235) Money changes lives, help families and opens doors to opportunities. It is so important to educate women. We are lucky as American women to have a free education and the freedom to choose a career and more.

Lemmon wrote The Dressmaker of Khair Khana as part of her MBA degree for Harvard. She wanted to find successful women business owners in wartime countries. We always hear about the great deeds of men during wartime but rarely do we hear a positive story surrounding women during a war. This is a positive story about women who made a difference in their small community near Kabul, Afghanistan and taught others how to help themselves.

Anyone who questions why Afghanistan should be rescued from Taliban rule must read this book. While our intervention in that troubled country hasn't been an unalloyed success, this story of one family's struggle to survive under the thumb of fanatic religious military rule makes it clear that no culture exists for long in absolute fear, submission, and suspicion. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Kamela Sediqi was studying at the local university. However, teaching women is anathema to extreme Muslim men, and she was forced to abandon her dream of becoming a teacher. When her father and elder brother were forced to flee the Taliban, however, the reality of impending poverty led Kamela and her sisters to explore garment-making as a way of both earning money to support their family and to provide income for other women in similar circumstances. Kamela's lack of sewing skills was a roadblock she quickly overcame by taking intensive lessons from her elder sister, a talented dressmaker. Using her younger brother as her chaperone, Kamela gradually but steadily found a market for the modest dresses and pantsuits her expanding home shop produced, until their small house burst from the seams with women sewing by hand and by machine, producing order after order of Taliban-approved but stylish clothing for fashion-concscious women to wear for family gatherings and weddings. The characters in the book experienced true life-threatening submission, but with determined resolve overcame the danger of their situation to create as good a life as was possible under the Taliban regime, in fact winning over some Taliban officers because of the garments they sewed for women marrying Taliban men. The author, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, made several journeys to Khair Khana to visit with and interview Kamela and her family, acquiring information that she presents in a simple, novel-like format. The fear of the Taliban is always an undercurrent in the book, but the combination of repetitiveness and lack of emotion in the writing leaves the reader a bit cold, and even a bit bored in some sections. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating story, well-enough told, and is worth reading to find out how this family not only overcame, but eventually thrived in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a story of triumph in the midst of despair.

I am ashamed to admit that before reading this book I really didn't know anything about Afghanistan or life inside of it. I really didn't know much about the Taliban except they are the "Evil Doers" who attacked our Nation on 9/11 and we are now in a war to rid the world of them.

This book is a wake-up call that things are indeed quite different in various pockets throughout the world. Electricity isn't always available anytime you need it, there may or may not be a telephone available in near you, mail delivery is sporadic and in some areas, non-existent.

One thing that isn't different is feeling fear and wanting a better life.

Women went about living their lives attending schools and universities; holding jobs; walking about freely in public unescorted by a male family member with their faces and arms exposed one day and the next finding themselves banned from schools, the workplace, and banned from being seen. They were suddenly required to be hidden under the veils of the full chadri. The chadri few women owned because they never had a need to wear one. Yet they risked being brutally beaten by the Taliban soldiers if a woman was seen not following shadia, Islamic law, and the newly Taliban proclaimed law of the land.

How does a woman survive when the men have left, to avoid having to fight for the Taliban or risk being taken prisoner by them, and there is nobody to earn money to live? How does a woman keep herself entertained with sporadic electricity, book that have been read a dozen times, and unable to go outside or work? How does a woman find the money to feed herself and her family when she is forbidden to hold a job? How does a woman survive under these harsh conditions?

This story shows the triumphant tenacity of a woman who refused to be shackled by the laws of the Taliban. A woman who found a way to start a successful enterprise when there really wasn't any hope that such a thing could happen.

Imagine. A seemingly simple business sewing clothing became a victory over an oppression of the Taliban. Perhaps Bush should have gone into this war with seamstresses and tailors with needles and thread rather than soldiers with guns and bombs.

When I think of the bravery this woman exhibited, and the bravery of those who worked with her, to make this daring business endeavor even be attempted I am inspired. Inspired knowing anything is possible if you follow where your heart tells you to go.

I read this book overnight...which I don't usually do. 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, brave, and 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, lives to tell the story, as well as carrying on her humanitarian work.

I found myself holding my breath in several parts of the book, since Kabul during that time was just a dangerous place to be. The last chapter where Ms. Lemmon updated us with the present situation of all the characters in the book was so perfect that it brought happy tears to my eyes. Her writing was simple yet powerful enough to relay Kamila's situation, pain, struggles, fears, and most importantly, her love and hope for her country and other women. This is such an inspirational and informative read. It made my all-time-favorite list, and deserve to be on everyone's else's!

How do you survive when your world is turned upside down and the rules of daily life change, well, daily? Kamela Sidiqi and her family were suddenly thrust into a world of repression by the Taliban after finally escaping repression by their Russian overlords in Afghanistan. Kamela was a university student looking forward to a life as an independent self sufficient woman when the Taliban came to power. The Taliban forbids education of women and any evidence of being independent. As hard as it is to imagine women are forbidden to be outside their homes without a male member of the family to protect them. Those who they are in most danger of are the Taliban themselves who will beat women nearly to death regardless of age or pregnancy for the crime of trying to obtain food for their children by traveling alone to the market. The Sidiqi family men were forced to leave for the North or Pakistan except for the youngest boy, too young to recruit for the Taliban army, who becomes their "protector". Kamela learns to sew from her sister, a skilled tailor and they set up shop in the house making clothing and wedding dresses to be sold by shops where men are in charge. Soon the demand for their product allows them to teach and employ other women, desperate for work, who learn the techniques. The stress of daily life, shopping for supplies, dealing with an unreliable electricity and the danger to her family are unimaginable for Americans. Yet this woman will not be stopped. She is an example to any entrepreneur who seeks to find a ready market for his product and a fair price for all. This could be an handbook about marketing under extremely stressful conditions. Thanks to Kamela and her family these women were able to provide for their families and friends and found independence despite the oppression of the Taliban.

This is a bare bones, real-life story of five sisters who survived Taliban rule with their spirits intact by starting a dressmaking business and turning into a training venture for other young women in their neighborhood in Kabul.

After the Soviet Union tried unsuccessfully for 20 years to take over Afghanistan, the Taliban mopped up behind them, imposing its form of fundamentalist Islam on the people of that country. Overnight, this westernized family with five daughters found themselves at risk. The men fled, to keep from being impressed into service by the Taliban, or worse, and the girls stayed in their home with the youngest of their brothers, barely 13. Having a male living with them was important, because no woman could appear in public without being fully covered by a burqa, and accompanied by a related male. These women were trapped at home under threat of beatings or worse if they ventured out.

As time slowed with no social interaction outside the family, and the books and magazines all having been read repeatedly, the eldest of the daughters still at home, 18-year-old Kamila, decided that the way to keep herself and her sisters sane, as well as to earn some money for their support, was to start a dressmaking business. Afterall, women in the city still needed to dress. She traveled perilously across town to visit her elder, married, sister, and learned from her (in one day) how to sew, well enough to sell her dresses. She went home and taught her sisters, and with them not only started a business to deliver dresses to merchants throughout the city, but started a school to teach other girls from the neighborhood how to sew.

The flaw of this story is that it was developed solely from interviews with the family and others involved in this business and effort to survive in this hostile environment. There is very little in the way of first-person observation in this book. Thus, when Kamila and others, I assume, described how they learned to sew (in one day), this was transcribed directly into the story. I have made many dresses over the years, and this certainly was a moment when I had to suspend disbelief. There are others.

The story also lacked color. The story is a very straight-forward, without many digressions into how things looked, felt, tasted, and the like. Because it is written at this level, it is simple enough for a middle-schooler to read. This doesn't mean that it is not suitable for adults, but it lacks a certain texture that would make it a more interesting read for adults.

This is not to say that it is not a fascinating story that needed to be told. It is a snapshot of how one group of girls survived the vary hard years of the Taliban's rule when everything outside their homes was denied to them. But, sadly, this is not great literature. There is some reference in the book to it having been researched in connection to the author's MBA program. In that context, it is certainly an interesting case-study. But not much more.

When you think of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, what do you think of? Reading this book may well change your thinking, especially about the women there, who, literally overnight, were forced to live under extremely oppressive conditions.

Kamila Sidiq is the second-oldest daughter of a family of 11 siblings. Her mother and, most especially, her father, strongly believe in education for ALL of their children. As the Taliban move closer to the city of Kabul, Kamila completes her teacher training, but ends up using it in a fashion that she never envisioned - teaching other young neighborhood women in her suburb of Khair Khana to sew in order to make enough money to feed their families.

In these pages, we are taken through the five years of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, where the takeover was so sudden that women and girls in a modern culture where women went to work and school in Western wear, were, in one day, thrust into a world where they could not go outside without a chadri, or burqa, a head-to-toe covering with only a small mesh opening for the eyes.

Women and girls were no longer allowed to go to school or work. Medical doctors were no longer allowed to work with male patients or even talk to their male counterparts. Hospitals became segregated, and women and girls were not allowed to talk to any male outside of their own family members.

As Kamila's father, followed by her mother, leave for the northern provinces for safety (Kamila's father had worked for Massoud, the leader ousted by the Taliban), and her brother Najeeb also leaves to try to find work, Kamila, a teenager herself, becomes the head of a household where funds are running dry.

Rather than giving up and giving in, which would certainly have meant even more deprivation for her family in a city where electricity itself is spotty at best, Kamila finds a way to earn a living selling the clothing made by the light of hurricane lamps. In doing so, she opens the way for her sisters and for other women and girls in the neighborhood to help their families as well.

This inspiring story of a woman's will to DO something, when even a trip out of the house without a male relative could mean questioning, beating, detainment, or even death, is one that will fan a flame of hope inside everyone who reads it.

Written by Gayle Lemmon, a reporter who visited Afghanistan over a period of years beginning in 2005, this true story is uplifting and illuminating. As the reader lives and works beside Kamila through these pages, there are moments when you will hold your breath at the dangers faced by her and her family in their attempt to simply make a living. As Kabul and its outskirts are bombed after the events of 9/11, the dangers are different, but still very real.

In short, this is a remarkable story; one that will have the reader thinking of it long after the pages are closed.

QUOTES

Kabulis watched helplessly as the Taliban began reshaping the cosmopolitan capital according to their utopian vision of seventh-century Islam. Almost immediately they instituted a brutal - and effective - system of law and order. Accused thieves had one hand and one foot cut off, and their severed limbs were hung from posts on street corners as a warning to others. Overnight, crime in the monumentally lawless city dropped to almost zero. Then they banned everything they regarded as a distraction from the duty of worship: music, long a part of Afghan culture, and movies, television, card playing, the game of chess, and even kite flying, the popular Friday afternoon pastime. And they didn't stop at actions alone: Creating a representation of the human figure was soon forbidden, as was wearing European clothing or haircuts.

Brave young women complete heroic acts every day,with no one bearing witness. This was a chance to even the ledger, to share one small story that made the difference between starvation and survival for the families whose lives it changed. I wanted to pull the curtain back for readers on a place foreigners know more for its rocket attacks and roadside bombs than its countless quiet feats of courage. And to introduce them to the young women like Kamila Sidiqi who will go on. No matter what.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is the inspiring story of Kamila Sidiqi, an Afghani woman who through her hard work and perseverance managed to support her family and her community. Shortly after Kamila's graduation from a secondary course, the Taliban took over the city of Kabul. Every day the Taliban issued edicts restricting more and more freedoms. People could no longer listen to the radio, dance, sing, fly kites, among other things. The prohibitions against women were damning. Women were forbidden from working, attending school, or leaving home without a male chaperon. In a country where there were few men due to war and migration, significant number of women were condemned to a life of poverty by these rules.

Kamila Sidiqi was tired of seeing her father and brother struggle to support the family. She kept looking for a way to help support her family while avoiding interference from the Taliban. Her older sister Malika had steady business making clothes for friends, family, and acquaintances. Seeing the brisk business her sister was doing, Kamila decides that being a seamstress would be a beneficial occupation. She made sample clothing, scouted for shopkeepers to sell her goods, and gained a network of customers. As word of her endeavor got out, more and more women came looking for work. Kamila decides to start a school to train seamstresses and run an apprenticeship program.

Due to the success of the school, Kamila was invited to participate in programs run by foreign organizations that worked to educate schoolchildren and develop women entrepreneurs. After working for these organizations, Kamila decided to form another business. She had opportunities to travel to Washington D.C. at the invitation of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Kamila had the opportunity to travel to Italy for training and to be part of a MBA program for Afghani women.

The book provides a wider representation of Afghanis. Mr. Sidiqi was very adamant that his daughters be just as educated as his sons. He saw the way women benefited from access to educations and work opportunities. A female doctor was able to complete her education when her father offered to pay the Talibs not to disrupt her education or work in the community. Several neighbors became Taliban to feed their family and watch out for their neighbors. The woman, many of whom were widowed or separated due to better work opportunities elsewhere, supported their families any way possible..

Ms. Lemmon clearly admires Kamila and all the effort she put into creating a safe way to support her family and her neighbors. She spent time living among the people she was writing about. Clearly Kamila can be lauded for following through on her ambitions and selflessly sharing her knowledge with others. Ms. Lemmon manages to convey the will power and determination of all the women who banded together to create a vast underground network to maintain their communities and families.

**I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.**

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 Lemmon

Kamela 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.

Story Description:
The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul. After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war--a rare achievement for any Afghan woman--Kamila was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story, and the result is an unusually intimate and unsanitized look at the daily lives of women in Afghanistan. These women are not victims; they are the glue that holds families together; they are the backbone and the heart of their nation. Afghanistan's future remains uncertain as debates over withdrawal timelines dominate the news.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana moves beyond the headlines to transport you to an Afghanistan you have never seen before. This is a story of war, but it is also a story of sisterhood and resilience in the face of despair. Kamila Sidiqi's journey will inspire you, but it will also change the way you think about one of the most important political and humanitarian issues of our time.
My Review:

This was one book I simply couldn't put down. Kamila Sidiqi's journey into entrepreneurship will inspire you. In the face of war and with her community under the watchful eye of the hated Taliban, Kamila rose above the poverty and strict rules laid out by the Taliban to run a successful business employing neighbouring women by teaching them how to sew. These women became independent breadwinners for their families during a time when women were looked down upon and treated less than human. Without Kamila's dedication, deep faith and belief that she could help to empower these women, their families would have starved to death or been forced to move during a dangerous time.

This incredible true story of Kamila Sidiqi will leave you rooting for her and making you feel empowered to go out and contribute to society. Ms. Lemmon has done a remarkable job at telling Kamila's story and I'd like to say "thanks" for the best few hours of reading I've had in a while.

The story was actually much better than I expected. Any time I even thought of people of Afganistan and similar countries, I just always thought of anti-Americans wanting to kill/destroy anything that was USA. But as I read this story of these sisters who just wanted to live freely in their own country, I had a glimpse of ordinary people trying to survive in their country that had been taken over by the enemy (which was not the USA). These sisters found a way to earn money by sewing within their homes and selling the dresses at the local markets. The conditions under which they worked and eventually ran a sucessful business was mindblowing - limited electricity & lighting, the fear of being found out by the Taliban and being punished or killed, and yet welcoming other women into their homes to also work took a lot of courage and faith. As I read the story I realized these women could have been my sisters under other circumstances. They were determined to feed their family and keep them safe. They always had positive thoughts and faith that they would be OK. Very good story and easy to read.

In 1996 the Taliban take over Kabul after a grueling civil war and life changes dramatically for the Sadiqi family. The Sadiqi's, a devout Muslim family of five sisters and two brothers at home are committed to education for their children both boys and girls. Kamila has just completed a university degree in education. Now the Taliban decree that women cannot work outside of the home and in fact cannot leave their homes without a male family member as a chaperone. Her father and older brother are forced to flee the city and Kamila is left to oversee this family. Armed only with her wits and a strong entrepreneurial spirit she proceeds to set up a dressmaking business in her home which in the end not only brings money but also hope and dignity to her family.

The story was told by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a former ABC news producer turned Harvard business student. She traveled to Afghanistan looking for examples of women in business and met Kamila Sadiqi. She developed a close relationship with Kamila that allowed this story to be told rich with detail. I was struck with the similarities of Kamila's story to entrepreneurs world wide - she had a plan, she developed prototypes, she sold it to tradesmen, she overcame obstacles, she hired workers, and she improved and expanded as she went along. Kamila did all of this under the threat of reprisals from the Taliban and electricity that is available to power sewing machines only sometimes. Like businessmen worldwide she attempts to work around the politics of the current administration, the Taliban. The fact that I loved the best was that Kamila really could not sew very well.

The story reads like a novel. There are tense moments and tearful heartwarming triumphs. The bravery that these Afghani women show is inspiring. This is a great little book (think Three Cups of Tea) that would be a good read for almost anyone but might be perfect for a teenage girl.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's amazing book "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One remarkable Family, and the Women Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe" is a portrait of the lives of Afghanistan women during the Taliban years. When nineteen-year-old Kamela Sidigi's father and brother were forced to flee Kabul she became the breadwinner of her five siblings. Although the Taliban commanded women to wear the chadri in public and stay at home and not work Kamela and her sisters risked their safety to start a dressmaking business in their home. Over time, Kamela came to employ countless women in her community. Her work made a difference between starvation and the survival of the families whose lives it changed.
Kamela's work after the American invasion and the fall of the Taliban in 2001 continued to focus on women and business. She set up and staffed a Mercy Corps' women's center in Kabul that offered literacy and vocational courses.
Kamela told Lemmon, "Money is power for women." If they have their own income to bring to the family they can contribute and make decisions and the entire family will have respect for them.
In October 2005 Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, asked Kamela to share her story with members of Congress, businessmen and diplomats in Washington, D.C. By then she was not only a business owner in Afghanistan but with the help of Thunderbird, Mercy Corps, and U.S. government funding she had trained more than nine hundred of her countrymen and women how to build and grow a business.
Kamela's story not only inspires but shatters stereotypes. The women in Afghanistan may be victims that deserve sympathy but they are also war heroes who demand respect.
This extraordinary book bears witness to the heroic acts of Kamela and other remarkable Afghan women.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, is one of those books you pick up to read and never forget. An emotional event, and a reading experience about a dynamic woman of courage who without which there would be no story. In 1996, Kamila Sidiqi received her certificate of studies from Sayed Jamaluddin Teaching Institute in Kabul, Afganistan. Her immediate plans to become a teacher abruptly terminated when the Taliban infiltrated her city, Khair Khana shortly thereafter.

Suddenly, her world would operate within the confines of three life changing edicts announced by the Taliban.

"Women will stay at home. Women are not permitted to work. Women must wear the chadri in public." (Lemmon, p16)

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon went to Afghanistan to find a story, a story of hope not destruction and evil. Without a doubt, there are countless stories about destruction and evil, the devastation from years of war that the Afghans have endured, the heinous punishment inflicted under Taliban rule. Lemmon has dug deeper to find the stories of women, women with strength and courage to continue life with determination and unstoppable drive despite the blanket of terror that covers their daily life. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is the story of one amazing woman, Kamila Sidiqi.

When Kamila's parents are forced to evacuate to northern Afghanistan, she is left to take care of her brothers and sisters. She has no source of income and no ability to work outside her home. Walking outside presents a constant state of peril at the risk of encountering the lurking Taliban. A male escort must accompany her at all times. The fear from tortuous reprisals and possible imprisonment are real.

Kamila is confined inside her home with her siblings and they pass the time reading, often the same book again and again. When anxiety and boredom arise along with worries for the future, Kamila brainstorms ways to make money. She has an innate sense for business and she develops a plan to sew dresses. She thinks like an entrepreneur, a businesswoman who only sees possibilities, the glass always half full. She would obliterate her competition were she to compete on the television show "The Apprentice." She has an unselfish and generous spirit, a tireless leader who wants to engage other women in her adventure. What is most uncanny is that Kamila had no clue how to sew, but had confidence in her own ability to learn. She accepted her first order having never sewed a dress before. Some would say that her move was foolish, others might say she has the actions of an optimist. Her methods and business acumen make reading this astonishing story remarkable. Lemmon captivates readers with wonder as she relates how one woman refuses to be a victim and in doing so becomes the teacher she wanted to be by influencing women everywhere. Lemmon's book is unforgettable. Readers will be grateful that she has introduced us to Kamila Sidiqi, a fascinating woman who is making a difference.

Originally published on Bookworm's Dinner, Wisteria Leigh 2011.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, OneRemarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Ms. Lemmon tells the story of a group of women who conquered fear and created a network for survival. When the Taliban seized the city of Kabul, five sisters lost their opportunity to attend college. They were forced to take backward steps and huddle in their homes, afraid to show their faces in public. But, this is more than a story about a family living through war. These women rose above fear and fought back to keep their home and loved ones safe, while they combined their talents to create a successful business. Through their work, they reached out to neighbors and taught skills, even as bombs blew and missiles hurtled.

Led by Kamila Sidiqi, one of the sisters, they combined sewing skills and sheer determination to not only come out of the war alive, but to draw the women of the community together. The destruction that tore their country apart was devastating. But these brave women created a network that not only survived, but thrived. Inspiring, encouraging and well written, this is a story you'll want to read.

WHAT A READ. I couldn't put this book down. The story line was fantastic and read was quite comfortable and distrubing at times. There were just acouple of times that I would have to go back a re-read a little bit to catch myself us again.

When the Taliban storm Kabul, life as the people know it was no longer. Husbands and sons were leaving to try and find work in other cities. The women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male escort and must be covered up completely or they will pay the price dearly. They must NOT work in the public and may work only at home...... NO home business would be allowed. Curfews were set and strictly enforced. One never knows who might be watching you. The Taliban took away books, music, education and beautiful coloured clothing to name afew.

Since Kamela is a teacher (who no longer can teach) Kamela must come up with a way to help her family from starving. Her older sister is a talented seamstress and teaches Kamela sewing skills for dressmaking. Kamela starts out with a basic simple design and knocks on doors of local tailors to show them her work and get them to order dresses from her. She must be very careful not to let the Taliban see her doing this (remember women couldn't be doing any kind of business. As the book progresses the orders starts coming in. She can't keep up with the demands. She starts recruiting the neighboring ladies to come learn how to sew and help produce these dresses. They begin working around the clock just to keep up. All this is being done very secretive.... women can't be in business. Kamela has to be very careful about the coming and goings to her home. If questioned she would say she is just teaching the women how to sew and mend for their families. In her wildest dreams she couldn't come to know just how profitable she can be.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana would surely be a book for a reading discussion.
I would highly recommend reading this heartfelt book.

It is good to educate yourself regarding other cultures. This book does that. While at times it reads like a story, the book is truly nonfiction. One thing that I gleaned from reading this book is that in the United States, we really have it easy for the most part, and do not push ourselves to learn or to be an entrepreneur. We have so many distractions such as TV, parties, activities, hobbies we are privileged to have, movies, etc. These people in Afghanistan had only one thing to be consumed with: survival.

One day, Kamela was studying at a university in Kabul to be a teacher. The next, the Taliban had taken over her local government and with that, mandated that women not work or show their face in public unless covered from head to toe and accompanied by a male. She tried to get used to her suden relegation to second-class status and found that she could not. With the help of her pregnant seamstress sister, she started a small, underground dress-making business, and little by little, it grew, employing more women to accomodate the demand. And with that growth came risk. And with that risk came challenge.

In brief, this is the story of the Dressmaker of Khair Khana - the story of several very brave women who risked everything - their livelihood, and that of their families - to be something other than second-class citizens. It is the story of ingenuity in the face of a drab cultural climate, and determination in the face of the type of risk we in the US find difficult to really imagine.

The writing is very terse and journalistically matter of fact. This is good and bad, as those who get bored by ceaseless detail (like me) find a very quick moving story but those who like to know characters' inner-lives will be disappointed. And while the story is a really inspiring and admirable one, there is - and THIS MAY BE SOMETHING OF A MINOR SPOILER FOR SOME - very little tension in the story. For a story about such a perilous and chancy undertaking (a dressmaking shop running underground against the Taliban's orders), the author does not really convey any of that tension that drives readers to keep reading. And as such, the story might be interesting, but not... gripping.

This was a great read! I don't know much about Afghanistan nor of the on going conflicts that has plagued its country and people, mainly affecting women.

This was a story of war, poverty, a sense of despair but this story also showed how ones mindset can change his and or her circumstances no matter how bleak it looks.

It was amazing to read how the main character (Kamila) transformed the lives of not only her family but many more.

The author also provided information on the Taliban and the rules that they enforced.

I loved it! The version of Islamic law under which the Taliban insisted the Afghan people live basically imprisoned women in Burquas and in their own homes. The male population of the country was decimated by war so many households were left without income, including the well-educated middle-class Sediqi family. Starting small Kamela built a home-based sewing business into a neighborhood industry that supported many families. I loved watching Kamela start small and build her business, staying just inside the lines drawn by the Taliban (or doing a good job of hiding when she moved outside of them). From a small enterprise designed to both occupy herself and her sisters and to feed them, the family sewing business grew to one that not only provided income for women, but training as well. From there Kamela moved to working with a United Nations group dedicated to giving voice to the Afghan women and helping them to sell hand-made goods. After the fall of the Taliban she founded a business which helps others, particularly women, found businesses, so as to improve the economic health of the nation.

The story was interesting, well-paced, heart-warming without being maudlin and a great reminder of how lucky we are to live in the USA.

Grade: A.

I'd like to thank Harper-Collins, the publisher, for making a review copy available through Net Galley. I was under no obligation to read, review, or positively review this book.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a story of a young lady turned entrepreneur to support herself and her family during Taliban rule in Kabul. The main character Kamila Sidiqi, is a charming young lady driven to support and carve a place for herself and for her family/community when her world is turned upside down upon the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul. Kamila is talented and intelligent; you can't help but root for her and her family while they adjust to their new life under Taliban rule. Kamila is very inspiring and is an excellent example of determination and motivation.

Ms. Lemmon's writing is simplistic, almost to the point where more detail should have paid in some areas where other areas I have the sense were heavily embellished. Ms. Lemmon introduces Kamila in a very generic manner, I wish she delved into Kamila's personality and feelings - I felt there was so much detail into Kamila that could have been explored to make the story much more captivating.

All in all this was a great story despite the simplistic style in which it was written. If you want a quick and easy read with an interesting and inspiring protagonist this is a great story you will enjoy.

After years of war against the Russians, the Taliban took over the lives of the people of Afghanistan. They were especially hard on women, requiring them to stay behind closed doors and to wear a chadri when they went out. They were not allowed to go to school or work as they had previously done.

Kamela had just finished one part of her schooling and was ready to continue at a university when the Taliban took away all of her freedoms. Her parents and brothers left for safer places, but it was impossible for 5 women to travel safely. So Kamela was left in charge of her sisters.

With the help of an older sister, Kamela became an expert seamstress and a great business woman. She quietly made and marketed clothes to the local businesses in her neighborhood. All of her sisters were soon involved in the business. Finally Kamela started a school where she taught the neighborhood women about sewing and business. Kamela went on to work for international agencies helping to train many women in business.

I found this story so very timely and important to understand what is going on in the middle east today. The book is very well written and helped me to understand the details of what has happened in Afghanistan in the past 20 years. I also found this book to be a page turner.

The story is fascinating - how a young woman really saved her family and others as the Taliban took over in Afghanistan. The descriptions of the difficult life for all of them and the way Kamila taught herself and others skills so they could survive are truly awe inspiring. Our book club had quite a bit of discussion on how impossible this would seem for us. But we also discussed how this book was written by an journalist used to presenting "just the facts, ma'am" and not the emotions of the people involved or the background involved. We had many questions about the interactions among the sisters, the obvious availability of money for some families who could buy dresses, the reasons parents would leave their children to cope, etc. But this material was the basis for a thesis at a business school. For that, it was substantial journalism - more like a long article than a novel. Worth reading to get a picture of a culture who values a small boy over many adult women.

I have an education. I have a career. I have a varied wardrobe. I drive my own car. I live in my own home. I leave my home when I wish and return when I wish. My daughter enjoys the same freedom and my sons support and encourage their partners to do so as well. Why? We have the good fortune to live in Canada where these freedoms are taken for granted!

In 'The Dressmaker of Khair Khana' we meet a young woman and her family who did not have freedom in Afghanistan during the occupation of the Taliban. Kamila Sidiqui uses her intellect, her education and her chutzpah to start a dressmaking business under severely restrictive conditions that provided not just for her own family, but for many women in the city of Kabul.

It is powerful to read of women who did not just 'accept their fate' but worked against all odds to determine their own future.

This is a true and remarkable story. When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the lives of women changed. They had been used to getting educations, wearing western-style clothing and being able to earn a living. But suddenly they could no longer go to school or even appear outside their homes unless they were dressed in an uncomfortable chadri. How one woman and her family coped, and even flourished during that time is a true story of heroism.

Kamala was 18 and ready to go to the university when the Taliban came to town. One of 11 children (9 girls and 2 boys), she and her sisters were doomed to stay at home and could only go outside if heavily covered up and accompanied by one of her two younger brothers. However, in order to make a living, she bravely got orders for dresses from shopkeepers and she, her sisters and many neighborhood women started a secret sewing business.

It was fascinating and inspiring to read this true account of how the business expanded and how, later, after the Taliban was gone, Kamala continued to work for women's rights. I learned a lot about the Taliban regime though her eyes and did enjoy the book which was only 243 pages long and an extremely fast and easy read.

However, although the danger made the story interesting, I wish it were a little more realistic as to human nature. There never seemed to be any arguments, competition or jealously between the women. Every action was admirable. But yet, this was not a novel; this is a true story and it is likely that the author was not privy to these kind of human details that I wished were there. That said, the book does what it set out to do - make the world realize the strength of these brave woman who managed to survive and prosper during a very difficult time in history.

The first part of the book was very interesting, but I could not believe much of the story once the author started writing about how Kalima became a dressmaker. The editor or editors at Harper Collins must have been asleep at his/her desks to let this book get published. The author's lack of knowledge about dressmaking is pitiful. Anyone who knows anything about sewing knows that a novice, even under the tutelege of an expert seamstress, cannot make a dress in an afternoon and sell it the next day to a tailor shop. Making 5 pants suits, and 3 dresses in one week seems impossible even with her sisters' help. There is nothing about how she got the patterns for the pant suits or dresses, she just cuts the fabric and makes them. Nothing is mentioned about sizes either. No tailor or dress shop would order pants suits and dresses without specifying the size. And I cannot believe that in the destitute city of Kabul there would be a market for so many dresses and pant suits. Particularly after Kalima trained a number of women to make dresses and pant suits to sell also.

Making 6 dresses for a wedding party in 18 hours is too much, even if Kalima had 20 or so women to help her. I find it hard to believe that all those women and sewing machines fit into Kalima's house. The chapter did say that the women came back to see if the dresses fit right, but they were not measured before the women started making the dresses.

Sewing machines need electricity to work, but I understood from the book that the family often did not have much electricity during the day. Towards the last part of the book, Kalima buys a small generator and 2 or 3 sewing machinges at the store. And her brother struggled to carry the generator and the machines home. How did he carry them? In a cart? He could not have carried a generator and 2 or 3 sewing machines by himself. The author needed to get better information from Kalima to make this book credible.

The subject of this book is wonderful - how a teen-aged girl helped her family and neighbors survive the Taliban years by creating a secret, all-female sewing factory in her home - but I often found myself disappointed by the writing style. The author tries to recreate the story, much like a docu-drama. I would have preferred actual quotes from the principle subjects.

This is a great book about what young people can accomplish against great odds. It is inspiring and touching, but much of the urgency is missing, the sense of jeopardy is muted and the time sequencing can be confusing. I guess I would blame that on the author mediating too much of the narrative. Because we are getting a retelling, not real quotes, something is lost in the translation. The author did have to work through a translator - that is obvious.

I recommend it to anyone who is interested in life as a young woman under Taliban rule, in inspiring stories of women who accomplish a great deal under difficult circumstances, or in the power of community. Good book, could have been much, much more immediate and engaging.

This book tells the story of Kamela Sediqi, a remarkable young Afghan woman who kept her family's life together through the Taliban regime. Gayle Lemmon was a journalist enrolled in an MBA program when she traveled to Kabul to research women's business initiatives. Her research project led her to an acquaintance with Kamela, which soon developed into a deep friendship. In this book, Lemmon recounts Kamela's story of how she led her family's fight for survival during the difficult regime of the Taliban. Kamela had just graduated highschool when the Taliban took control of Kabul. Her middle class family found itself in a desperate situation when the Taliban banished women from the workplace and even forbid them from appearing unescorted on the street--her household consisted only of young women, a pre-teen boy, and an elderly father who was soon forced to flee for political reasons, thus they had no males who could provide for them. Kamela was a natural entrepreneur, and managed to develop a thriving dressmaker's shop that provided support not only for her family, but also for others in her neighborhood, giving women and girls practical training in a useful trade, as well as an essential income for survival. Lemmon tells Kamela's story with much passion and sympathy, providing an intimate glimpse at what daily life was like for women under the Taliban.

I am writing about this book not because I loved it (I liked it enough, but I loved the topic), but because it's an important book. Just like Imperial life in Emerald City, this book should be read by as many people as possible.

This book should be required reading for those in the diplomatic corps. I could serve as a partial roadmap of how to get things done in a very challenging social environment. Often, I get the feeling that when a non-native organization is trying to do good in its own cultural and social context (as in Imperial life in Emerald City), it results in disaster. Kamila Sidiqi accomplished much while adhering to the rule of Taliban. This is the trick we need to learn and teach to help those who are living under most difficult circumstances.

Kamila Sidiqi comes from a family of eleven children. She is the third oldest, with an older sister and brother. Having blessed with an educated father who believed in education for all his children, she had big dreams. She hoped to become a professor in Dari or literature one day. All this suddenly came to an end when Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

Almost immediately, brutal laws were instituted and enforced. Some of them are as follows:

"Accused thieves had one hand and one foot cut off, and their severed limbs hung from posts on street corners as a warning to others."
Everything that they consider a distraction from worship was banned - such as music, movies, television, card playing, chess, and kite flying.
Creating a representation of the human figure was forbidden.
Wearing western clothing or hair cut was forbidden.
After a short grace period, the length of men's beard must meet Taliban's requirement of longer than a fist length.
Shaving was forbidden.
Modernity or anything associated with it was banned.
Women will stay at home.
Women are not permitted to work.
Women must wear the chadri in public.
Women must travel with a male family chaperone.
Women cannot speak to men they are not related to.
Women were banned from schools, offices, etc.

Women were beaten on the streets if they didn't wear chadri (a face covering that left 2 inches by 3 1/2 inches opening for the eyes), if they were out and about alone without a male family chaperone, if their wrist peeked out, if they were caught talking to a male that wasn't their relative, etc.

Initially, Kamila's family didn't have to worry about money. Her father had made wise investments, and they were able to make it. However, as time passed and the adult males of the family (Kamila's father and older brother) were forced to leave their home due to Taliban threats (Kamila's family came from northern Afghanistan associated with a rival faction headed by a charismatic mujahadeen fighter), and the household finances were more and more difficult to meet. As desperation grew, Kamila talked her oldest and married sister, Malika, into teaching her how to sew. Though Malika had a university degree and had been a teacher previously, she was now helping her husband make ends meet with her sewing.

Kamila noticed that even under Taliban rule, some women run businesses did well (such as female doctors treating female patients) as long as they heeded no contact with males rule. Kamila decided that they could start sewing clothes to sell at various markets nearby. The only danger lay in Kamila having to talk to the shopkeepers (mostly men) about her wares. In the beginning, Kamila and her sisters only sold a handful of pieces, but soon, the word spread about her work ethic, craftsmanship, quality of clothes, etc. brought in more and more work. And Kamila's enterprise spread from mouth-to-mouth and more and more desperate women came to Kamila's house to beg for work.

The remarkable thing about Kamila is that she didn't turn anyone away. In fact, she created sewing school to take in as many women and girls as possible and to train them. Her business grew and she was able to give desperate women a chance to contribute and help their desperate families.

Kamila's secret to success was that she knew the dangers and she adhere to most of Taliban's rules. This was a recipe to her success. She dealt with most women. She didn't "educate" the girls, but taught them sewing, which would serve the girls well as adults in helping out their families. Even some Taliban soldiers and commanders sent their daughters to Kamila's sewing school and ordered wedding dresses and others from her. So, she kept the big rules, but she broke what she considered less severe ones - like talking to males not related to her.

Though she minimized the risks of her sisters and those who worked for her, she took great personal risks - she went to the markets to negotiate, sometimes every day, and she later went on to work for a UN agency against her family's wishes. Through it all, she held her family together, she provided livelihood for hundreds of people, and she made a difference in lives of many.

What I've learned from this books is that under the most draconian living conditions, we are resilient enough to find ways to not only to survive, but thrive. If Kamila can do it, I feel like I can do it, too. Then I wondered if there were any Kamila Sidiqi's in North Korea, in Syria, in Gaza, etc. and I wondered if there'd be anyone there to write their stories.

I hope there is.

The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan made educated and independent women prisoners in their own households. Aside from grave human rights abuses, the Taliban also created an immediate practical problem for thousands of women who could no longer work to support their families. One Kabul woman, Kamela Sediqui, tacked the problem by creating her own sewing business.

When the Taliban came to power Kamela Sediqui was a student who traveled independently around Kabul and who was looking forward to a career. But Taliban occupation led Kamela's parents to flee to the countryside, and left the Sediqui sisters to try and support the family from the confines of their home. Kamela lacked sewing skills, but she saw a need for stylish women's clothes that fit within Taliban restrictions. This small enterprise grew into a veritable workshop that employed numerous girls in the neighborhood.

This is certainly an inspiring story. Kamela's business was fraught with danger. She and her employees constantly risked being caught by the Taliban. I learned quite a bit about Kabul before the rise of the Taliban, and it made the regime's corruption all the more striking.

(4.5/5 stars) Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's book is one of the most inspirational I've read in quite some time. She tells the story of Kamila Sediqi - a young woman who rose to the occasion when her father left the family in her care because he,her mother and brother had to flee Kabul after the Taliban invasion in the 1990s.
After some time had passed the need to buy food and other necessities prompted Kamila to find a way to earn money. She went to her older, married sister who taught her how to sew. From those lessons grew a cottage industry that employed many girls from her neighborhood. By teaching the girls to cut fabric, sew, bead, etc. she helped them gain confidence and self-esteem as well as a way to earn money to help support their families.
I was impressed by the courage and optimism displayed by all of the young people portrayed in this book. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a biography that reads like a novel. It's a compelling story of the power of the human spirit during impossible times.

I appreciated that the author included an epilogue and a Where Are They Today chapter.

I LOVED this book! Kamila, only a teenager herself, received her training certificate but was unable to use it when the Taliban came to Kabul and forced all the women to remain in their homes. Her father, mother and older brother left Kabul looking for work elsewhere. Kamila was left to care for her five younger siblings. She is a very determined young lady. She starts a sewing "factory" in her home. This effort grows into a school in which she teaches the neighborhood girls and women to sew and the "factory" becomes larger. Kamila risks going out and dealing with local male shopkeepers getting orders for their business. Kamila and her sisters are examples of the resourcefulness of the Afghan women. The book will also give you a different view of the Afghan men than our media has usually portrayed. My book group also loved this book.

I am so glad I read this book. Life in Kabul was completely overturned when the Taliban took it over. Many families were forced immediately into poverty as their careers were demolished, as was life as they knew it. Kamila Sidiqi and her family were no different. Everything their large family had worked for fell apart when the Taliban moved in. Her father and mother were forced to leave their home, leaving Kamila and her sisters to fend for themselves.

Kamila used her intuition, spirit, and drive to protect her family to begin a business that would not only provide for her own family, but many other families as well.

This book is truly an inspiration on many levels. It gives voice to the women who are living behind veils both figuratively and literally. So many women in our world do not have a voice, but are performing heroic deeds like Kamila and her sisters. Someone needs to speak up for them and tell their stories when they cannot. I am so grateful Gale Lemmon took the time out of her life and risked much to travel to dangerous areas and write the story of the Sidiqi family down. It motivated and challenged me to write the stories of those who cannot speak for themselves.

A serious disappointment after having wanted to read this for almost 2 years. The book has a YA feel -- everything is simple. The sentence structure is simple, the story arc (what do you call it with non-fiction books?) is simple, the language is simple, and many stories within the arc feel like they must have been pared down or combined or something. The entirety of the book is "She did this. They did that. They went here. She said this. Her sister said that." You never feel you get to KNOW any of the women involved. It feels like you're observing cardboard cutouts of the real women woodenly reenacting their lives. You never get any sense of inspiration, or danger, or the women's motives, or passion for their work, or emotions, or anything. Frankly, it's hard to believe the author spent as much time with them and yet has so little to convey. And every once in a while, you'll read something bizarre like "If Kamila was startled, she didn't show it." Hold up, author. Didn't you get this story from Kamila? What do you mean, "if she was startled?" How do you not know? Are you trying to say, "Kamila was startled, but she made a point not to show it," or something like that?

Anyway, I can tell that underneath this is an inspiring story, but the book itself does not do a good job of conveying it.

"The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" is a biography about a woman--and her family and community--in Kabul, Afghanistan. The book covered September 1996 to November 2001, roughly the period that the Taliban controlled Kabul.

While we do get some information about life before and after this period (with the last event reported happening in 2009), it was mainly a description of life for women before and during Taliban control. Women had to find ways to support their families even though they weren't allowed to work outside their homes. Kamila and her sisters started a tailoring business to support their family and to help provide jobs for other women in the neighborhood.

It was an interesting and suspenseful tale since running the business held many dangers, yet not doing so would mean starvation for many families. I found the story very readable and interesting.

Life in Afghanistan was terrifying for the natives when the Taliban took over. We have many stories of the war, but few of the people impacted by it. This is the story of the women who were left in the city, forced to wear the burkas to set foot out their door, and beaten for any minor infraction. Behind the doors of the home, we have families who are trying to survive. This is the story of a young woman and her sisters who did what they needed to in order to help their family survive after Father and Mother fled the city. We read about her entrepreneurial spirit and courage as she made dresses, sneaking in to sell her wares to merchants, both knowing that if they were caught the punishment was severe. She creates a dressmaker's shop that winds up employing many of the women of the city, and it is here, that they find strength from one another to face each day.

A nice story from a part of the world we don't read too much good about. Let us remember those innocent people who remain unseen with a story that needs to be heard.

This book is a great case study for MBAs. Entrepreneurship can occur even in the most difficult of settings. It tells the story of a young woman who starts her own business - and expands it to hire many women, despite wars, the Taliban's restrictions on women, and a suffering economy. The men in this story are also portrayed in a positive way, fathers and brothers who helped as much as they could, even though they were in danger as well.

It was refreshing to read an uplifting book about Afghan women. Despite the difficult circumstances that this family of women finds themselves in, they find joy, fun, togetherness, and personal growth. The main character forges forward, taking on a pseudonym, to sell her dresses at the market. She pulls together the neighborhood girls to work for her, creating a cottage industry that the Taliban couldn't complain about, because only women were involved.

The writing is not the best writing you'll ever read. This is not literature; expect that you are reading a true story written in a somewhat pedestrian fashion, where the facts are more impressive than the prose. And that's OK.

A glimpse into the people that lived in fear of the Taliban. An eye opener for sure. However, I wish it would have been more about the women instead of so many facts. I am not really a facts kind of girl. I do like a bit little but this was over the top.

When rumors of the Taliban come true, women must give up all they are doing, schooling, working .. everything and stay inside. If they must go outside, they must have a male escort. They must wear the chadri and they must not talk to any other man.

Well, most of the men are going to fight in the war and so that leaves the women, with no way to really work. So Kamila and her sisters start sewing dresses for stores and other women. What Kamila does for so many women is what probably saved a lot of them, their families incomes as well as their sanity.

I loved their story, I just wish it would have been a bit more of them, instead of so many general facts.

Kamila, a hard-working dedicated woman, received a teaching degree during Afghanistan's civil war. Before she was able to use her degree, the Taliban seized control of Kabul. Forced to adhere to strict rules and regulations, Kamila and her sisters found their lives greatly changed. From their relatively free lifestyle, they were suddenly no longer able to work or speak with a non-related male. In order to make money for food, Kamila banded together with her sisters to begins a dress-making business. The business continually expanded and Kamila was ultimately able to teach and employ many of the girls in her community.

Well written, this is an engaging biography of a country little understood in America. It shows both the oppression and hardship of woman, as well as their courage and determination to survive. Overall, this is an important book, one I would recommend to everyone.

Since I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini before I read Dressmaker, I was really surprised how the fiction and history mesh together for greater understanding of both books. These women are great roll models in a country which demeans their women. It is amazing how those who hold the families together are really the women.
I do not mean this as just reading for women. It is vital to all to understand the geography and political climate. The lives are fascinating and so very different from our "more fortunate" lives. More fortunate? Questionable since they rely on themselves, their families, and their friends much more than we with all our education, gadgets and possessions do.

I'm always fascinated by stories detailing the unique trials and triumphs of women in harrowing historical periods but rarely seek them out actively. So I was very pleased to select The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon to receive from the folks at Harper to review.

The author journeys to Afghanistan to find and tell the story of women who helped ensure the survival of their families and communities during the Taliban's reign. She meets a woman named Kamela and the book focuses on the dressmaking business that she ran, along with her siblings (mostly sisters, but one of her brothers helps as an escort and with other duties), in a Kabul suburb. Kamela's family had been well-off prior to the Taliban's rule and education was highly valued for both the nine daughters and two sons. The story highlights the vast changes that the Taliban brought, noting that the county had long suffered from political struggles but that Kamela went from an involved student to being more like a prisoner in her own home. Kamela finds a need and learns to navigate the climate in order to create a dressmaking business that brings much needed money to her family and to neighbors as well.

I give the book four out of five stars. It is a story of strength and survival. The telling is very simple, although I got a little lost at times with the multiple siblings and neighbors. It is a story with a lot of hope and highlights the unique strength of women in oppressive regimes. It isn't really a political history, or even a social history. It doesn't claim to be an "average" woman's tale and I would have liked a bit more insight into how other women (esp those with less fortunate families) compared to Kamela's story, but that's probably a different book. As it stands, I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy women's history as told through an individual lens. It is a portrait of survival

This book is about women in Afghanistan struggling to make a living during Taliban rule, and how Kamila Sidiqi created a thriving business as well as helped her country. Quite an amazing life, especially considering she was 19 when the Taliban took control of Kabul.

I don't normally read nonfiction but I enjoyed this book. It's a quick read and the language is similar to a work of fiction. It has some nice details about their daily lives and customs, but not to an overwhelming point. I greatly admire the women in this book and their courage to go on living (and thriving) in such difficult conditions.

The only thing I found frustrating about the book is that it can be hard to tell when an event is actually happening, as the author references some earlier points in the story in a confusing way. But otherwise an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

This is an amazing, true story that reads like fiction. The text flows so smoothly you are immediately drawn in and forget that these are real women, living real lives, and not made up characters. The Dressmaker focuses on a single Afghan family being torn apart as the Taliban takes over their city and enforces their barbaric laws which leave women unable to work, go to school, appear in public unescorted, sing, draw, etc. The five sisters go from being happy, successful students to virtual prisoners in their own home. However through intelligence, daring and perseverance, they decide to become dressmakers in order to support their family. This book tells how they started the business and what impact it ends up having on not only their lives, but also the lives of the other people in their community. Great book!

I recently read Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, which covers a similar time period and similar topic: empowering Afghan women during the Taliban to support themselves and train other women to support themselves. While Kabul Beauty School was like a gossispy day at the salon - lots of information about the women and their lives but little about the political situation - this book is just the opposite. Ms. Lemmon covers the political story in great detail, but the women's story lacks heart and warmth. The biography in the book says that Ms. Lemmon was a journalist, and that's how the book reads: It's a reporting of what occurred, but there's no emotional depth to it. I've wanted to read this book since I heard Ms. Lemmon interviewed on NPR, and I was sadly disappointed.

This book describes the life of 1 family in Kabul, under the reign of the Taliban. One of the daughters begins a dress-making shop which turns into a grand enterprise, employing many other girls and women. Under the Taliban, all women were to stay at home and (apparently) do nothing. The story is interesting in describing the effect of this harsh regime upon a family of fairly well-educated daughters. The parents are not living at home, the father and mother are elsewhere, fearing the wrath of the Taliban upon the father. I was never really clear about the reason for the continued absence of the father. Even after the father fled the country, the mother continued to live apart from her children. There are many such mysteries in this book. Characters come and go, with no good explanation for their presence or lack thereof. Things seem to happen, without reason, the emotional life of the various people are not fleshed-out, leading to a lack of connection for any reader of this book.

I agree with another reviewer who mentioned that the book seemed to be written for children. It does, indeed, resemble a book for the 11-13 crowd. Nothing too deep. no complex occurrences, nothing too stressing. The writing style is also dull and lacking in continuity.

This book would be good for younger people, but there are many better written books about Afghan life available in the marketplace.

When journalist Gayle Lemmon visits Kabul, she wants to meet women and discover how they create businesses. In this book she tells the story of a heroic young woman, "Kamela," who starts a dress business in her own home.

Kamela loved school. I am particularly taken by the comments of other reviewers who contrast Kamela's desire to learn with the entitlement of students in much of the US. Kamela also had a strong work ethic. It is difficult to imagine shopping for fabric and selling the dresses under the conditions she faced. She had to be sure she followed all sorts of esoteric rules. Her brother had to go with her as she visited shops, because she risked arrest if caught on her own. She had city-wide curfews. When she did go out, she had to cover herself completely.

In reading this book I was reminded a little of the Diary of Anne Frank, a story of hiding that's probably common among people living under siege. Kamela spent her days with a small number of women. She wouldn't have the stimulation of change. She couldn't even go to a restaurant. And yet we learn that the Taliban knew what was going on. They deliberately looked the other way - as repressive regimes sometimes do - because they could benefit. One Taliban soldier ordered a wedding dress for a bride.

Lemmon's style of writing is so simple and straightforward it's almost YA. In some ways that makes the story seem even harsher. In another world these young women would have enjoyed a carefree youth.

Definitely worth reading for an insider perspective on women in Kabul and raw courage in the 21st century.

As a seamstress I was fascinated by this book. When their world has gone mad and life as they know it had changed, the women of Afghanistan found themselves in a peculiar situation. They could not leave their homes without a male escort, they could not work out, they had a new dress code that was so old fashioned many of the women had to borrow clothes to leave their home as they didn't have the proper dress to satisfy the Taliban. As many of them found that they were widows with children to support they were left in a quandary. How do they support their families, feed their children and keep a roof over their heads and still follow the rules? If they didn't follow the rules they could be beaten, tortured and killed. For women who were used to going to school (now no longer allowed), holding down jobs, and being able to shop and visit at will, not only were they in financial straights but bored beyond belief. They were essentially under house arrest.

For one family of many daughters, Kamela Sediqi found a way to be productive, earn an income and involve not only her many sisters but other women and girls from her area. She became a seamstress. With one sewing lessons from her married sister that was a tailor, she set up shop and made her first garment. Escorted by her younger brother, she went to the market, avoiding the Taliban soldiers, and took orders for the dresses she and her sisters would make. As someone who has sewed for 40+ years, she did something I would never even think of attempting. But she got orders and took them home and carefully she and her sisters cut the cloth and hand sewed and embroidered the garments. Her business grew, all being secretly done in her home, to the point she was able to hire other women and girls to help her and thus also help with their financial difficulties.

Sewing by lamplight and eventually with sewing machines during the times of infrequent electric power, Kamela and sisters and friends, beat their boredom, supported their families and showed that even when the chips were down, they could succeed against all odds,

I very much enjoyed this book although there were some areas that were confusing, especially the timeline. I was reading the advanced reading copy so I hope someone caught the discrepancies before actual publication. Other than that, it was a very inspirational true story that I enjoyed very much.

An extraordinary story of one, brave woman's struggle to provide for her family under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Kamila was brave and resourceful. Her strong character shines throughout the book.
Her parents were forced to leave the family home and go into exile.

She became the sole breadwinner, managing to feed and educate all her siblings and provide work for one hundred neighbourhood women.

If the west achieves nothing else in Afghanistan we should use all our resources to enable women to attend schools and university and free them from the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

The writing was very simple and it really does detract a lot from this inspirational story.
It is a real shame that it wasn't much better written

This book follows the Sidiqi family during the Taliban rule in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1990s. The family of five sisters and two brothers are forced to live on their own when their mother, father, and oldest brother leave for refuge and in search of some extra income. The five sisters are left with their thirteen year old brother, Rahim, to serve as the escort for the women. Under Taliban rule, women are not allowed in public without an escort and are forced to wear a loose flowing garment called a chadri that covers everything except the hands and has mesh over the eyes. Once the family's main source of revenue leaves, Kamila Sidiqi, a sixteen year old girl, takes it upon herself to provide for the family and teach other women how to provide for their own.

Gayle Lemmon, the author and reporter, provides a much needed understanding of the hardships women faced in Kabul. Lemmon was able to translate Kamila's determination, enthusiasm, and selflessness into words and this makes you able to sympathize with their situation. Malika Sidiqi, Kamila's older sister, was represented very well in her patient, cautious attitude towards Kamila's extravagant plans such as teaching Kamila how to sew for the formation of the tailoring company in the book. What Lemmon lacks is representation of minor characters like the other Sidiqi sisters and their employees. At the end of the book, Lemmon does a much appreciated "Where are they now," but because of her shortcomings, some information is out of place since the characters were so minor. Overall, this book is inspiring and heartfelt, anyone who likes expanding their knowledge of the world or enjoys reading biographies will love this book.

This book is a paradox. Most of the text is simply written, at about a high school level, with conversations and place descriptions and ordinary day-to-day events. But the conversations are about avoiding starvation, or beatings at the hands of the Taliban, the place descriptions are of shops where women can't even clearly see what they are shopping for, and the ordinary day-to-day events include grown women taking their eleven-year-old sons with them on errands, because they aren't permitted out of the house without a male relative.

Welcome to the Taliban's Afghanistan. And let me introduce you to Kamila, a teenager whose rags-to-riches business success story looks a lot like a Western novel. Except for the police batons, and the AK47s. This is a glimpse behind the veil, into how ordinary Afghanis were living (and not living) during the Taliban regime.

This isn't a history lesson, but it would be an inspiration for discussion in any American social studies class. Adults who are curious about the day-to-day life in Afghanistan before the US invasion will also appreciate the book. Let's just say this isn't the CNN version.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana has one clear and consistent theme; women can be found to be strong and innovative regardless of the societal customs or pressures they live with. Kamila Sidiqi proves to be the heroine that journalist, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is hoping exists even within the confines of Iraq's war-torn, Taliban-threatened scene. Lemmon tells Sidiqi's story in simple, honest and detailed descriptions. She makes a clear contrast of Sidiqi's courage, optimism and drive to provide for her family with the oppressive and discouraging environment of a government seeking to hide women and forbid in them any evidence of self-sufficiency.

This book is a great read. It serves to educate the reader on the politics and history of modern Iraq, and reveals the lesser known view point of the women inside this environment seeking the basic right of self-sustenance. The author's journalistic expertise doesn't lend itself to the most riveting novel.The reader is captivated initially with the premise and the suspense of discovering the Sidiqi family, their situation, and Kamila's attempt to solve their predicament. But the story lags a bit when resolutions are reached and the story continues. The author's excellent journalistic work wrestles with a dabbling in good story telling for control of this informative and humanely interesting narrative.

The Russians had been driven out of Afghanistan, and now the militias that had defeated them were in charge. The Mujahideen were fierce and they were cruel. And they hated women.

That is, by Western standards. By strict Moslem codes, they were "protecting" women from all the evil that comes from a naked arm, a visible ankle, the swell of a breast against a blouse. So they redefined what a woman could wear and what a woman could do.

Compared to the Taliban, they were liberals.

1996. Kabul. Malika Sediqi's four year-old son was ill. She rushed him to a doctor --- a female doctor, the only kind of doctor who could be consulted by a woman. And, as she waited for the doctor, she looked out the window:

The first thing she could make out was a shiny dark truck. It looked new, certainly newer than most cars in Kabul.
And then she saw three men standing beside the pickup. They wore turbans wrapped high and thick and carried long rods in their hands that looked like batons. They were striking at something or someone, that much she could tell.
With a start Malika realized that the figure huddled in front of them was a woman. She lay in the middle of the street, crouched in a ball, and was trying to fend off the blows. But the men would not stop. Malika heard the dreadful slapping sound of the wooden batons as they hit the helpless woman--on her back, her legs, over and over again.
"Where is your chadri?" one of the men shouted at his victim as he lifted his arms above his head to strike her. "Why are you not covered? What kind of woman are you to go out like this?"
"Stop," the woman pleaded. "Please have mercy. I am wearing a scarf. I don't have a chadri. We never had to wear them before!"
"You think this is the last regime?" one of the young men shouted. His eyes were black with kohl, the nightcolored cosmetic that Taliban soldiers wore. "This is not Dr. Najibullah or the Mujahideen," he said, his club hitting her once more. "We believe in sharia, Islamic law, and this is now the law of the land. Women must be covered. This is your warning."

The Taliban had arrived.

Crime dropped dramatically. So did pleasure: no music, movies, card-playing, chess, Friday afternoon kite-flying. No more shaved faces for men, no more uncovered heads for women. No more school for girls, no more jobs for women in offices that employed men. Overnight, Kabul lost more than half of its teachers. And the 30,000 Kabul families headed by widows suddenly plummeted into poverty.

Malika's father had worked for the deposed government. He needed to flee. He also had children that he and his wife couldn't take with them. They'd have to remain behind in Khair Khana, a suburb of Kabul.

Who would protect these girls?

Another of his daughters, Kamila, a recent graduate of a teacher training institute.

"The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe" is Kamila's story.

And it's the story of her sisters, who helped her build the sew-at-home dressmaking studio that saved their family, created a community and kept the spirit of personal and business freedom alive in Afghanistan.

But there's more --- it's also the story of "brave young women who complete heroic acts every day, with no one bearing witness."

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, a former journalist and TV producer, insists on that "more," for she began her research looking for a female entrepreneur in a country that had, in essence, jailed its female population. It wasn't easy to find a woman who started a business in a conflict zone, but once Lemmon connected with Kamila, she did some major-league bonding. And what reads like myth-making: "What I found in Kabul was a sisterhood unlike any other I had seen before, marked by empathy, laughter, courage, curiosity about the world, and above all a passion for work."

I found that rhetoric off-putting. But I reminded myself that travel to Kabul from Lemmon's home in Los Angeles took 40 hours, and she made that trip often in the three years she spent on this book. And then I stopped arguing with the author and just read the book, which really does deliver on her claim.

Kamila, it turns out, had no skills as a seamstress. Her genius was to assess the situation, consider her assets and, banking on Malika's ability to sew, start a little dress factory in her living room. Sounds simple, but just going to buy fabric was to risk prison and beating. And then to start a sewing school....

It's not all grim. There's a hilarious passage about the cult for the "Titanic" movie. And another about a rush order for 6 bridal dresses that makes you wonder about the identity of the client. (No spoilers here.) And the victories, when they come, are very sweet.

"The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" is written in an old-fashioned, you-are-there style. It's almost all scenes, with plenty of dialogue --- it reads like "Little House on the Prairie." I don't think that's accidental. This is a book that women can get behind; it's also a Young Adult book with a big moral for girls.

So expect to see "Dressmaker" on better beaches everywhere this summer. And on smart summer reading lists, right next to "Three Cups of Tea." In a time when women's freedom is challenged and threatened --- and not just in Kabul --- Kamila's fist-pump of victory is as necessary as it is inspiring

The story of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe tells us of a woman's drive to support herself and her family during the Taliban rule in Kabul, Afghanistan. The story is remarkable and inspiring, another successful experience by a strong woman who knows her strength and is determined to make a better life despite her horrendously stifling surroundings, however, the author's storytelling was merely average. I'd recommend the book as an inspirational story of success, survival, and a validation of the power of determination. I wish it had been better written because I would have liked to recommend it more enthusiastically.

Poorly written, for the most part, and badly edited. The story of Kamila and her sisters was interesting, but the author destroyed her own credibility over and over, thereby leaving me wondering if any of the events were true. I suspect some were, and I am willing to believe in Kamila's strength and resourcefulness, but she was not well-served by Lemmon's account.

An American journalist doing projects for the Financial Times and Harvard went to Afghannistan in search of women who set up and operated their own businesses. Names and details are changed, but "Kamela" became a success during one of the worst parts of the Taliban rule. The book portrays life in Kabul under the Taliban in excruciating detail; rules and rules and harsh punishments. The rules restricting women's lifes caused incredible hardship, but the men didn't have it good either. Kamela's father has to go into exile in another part of the country, while one of her brothers, like the father and son in The Kite Runner, flees to Pakistan. Men were arbitrarily jailed or forced into the Taliban army. When they had to leave, women were left with no means of support for themselves and their children and were forbidden to even leave the house without a male relative. They too could be jailed or beaten savagely on the street. Some women had to support themselves by prostitution, for which they could be executed. As Kamela's sister says, "You have to assume the Taliban are always watching." Not the way most of us are trained to or want to live.
Nevertheless, she goes along with Kamela's idea of starting a dressmaking business and teaches her to sew, since the youngest six children in the family have to live. The one thing I found difficult to believe is that Kamela could make a beaded dress in one afternoon on her very first lesson. I learned to sew, but we started with very simple things and would work up to something like that. Kamela is smart, she sees that with the economy collapsing, people still need clothes, and going to a shop accompanied by her brother, she learns that store owners can no longer afford to import clothing and are willing to buy from locals.

Kamela takes an awful if not impossible living situation and turns it around into something that really pays off. She doesn't sit around feeling sorry for herself, and she brings her family together to work toward a common purpose. She also took enormous risks, but she was nobody's victim. How many of us could do as well?

Back in 2005, author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon took a trip to Afghanistan as part of her work. Mrs. Tzemach Lemmon returned to Afghanistan in 2006, when she heard about the women there earning money after the Taliban take over. Mrs. Tzemach Lemmon was writing for the Financial Times. Gayle knew she needed to learn more about these women and what they endured with the Taliban.

This is the story of Khair Khana and sisters. Before the Taliban came, Afghanistan was a little more liberal in the fact women were allowed to not wear the custom chadri (head pieces), in fact they could wear what they wanted and even get an education degree. This is exactly what Khair Khana did. She graduated with a certificate in teaching. Unfortunately, before Khair Khana can put her certificate to good use, the Taliban come and tell everyone that women are to stay at home and always wear a chadri. Khair Khana knew that she needed to do something to help with an income for her family. She took up sewing and making clothing.

This book is a nonfiction novel. While it is based around true events, some parts are briefly glossed over by the author. This is because out of respect of the women, which I can appreciate. While, I did like learning about Khair Khana, her sisters and the other women in Afghanistan and the fact that they turned a lemon into lemonade as the saying goes. I didn't experience a strong connection with Khair Khana. I don't know if this party had to do with the fact that it seemed like this book was missing some of the gaps due to the fact that it seemed the author held back on wanting to give too much detail. Though, I can not imagine what it must be like to have a group like the Taliban come and take over and tell you that your freedom has been taken away and you must stay in your home. I had some mixed feelings about this book but overall, it was pretty good.

We hear a lot about the war in Afghanistan but how often do we really think about what it was like to LIVE there when it all started? This book is about a Afghani woman and her sisters who were living in Kabul before the Taliban moved in. They lived like you and I do, wearing western style clothing, going to school, holding jobs, going shopping, dating, marrying, having children, etc. They were religious, but not to any sort of extreme. They would casually throw a scarf over their heads out of respect for their culture but were still able to wear makeup, style their hair, men could grow beards or not, they had choices.

The one dark day, everything changed. The Taliban moved in. Suddenly they were forced to wear a chadri, a full length burqa that covers the entire body, including the face. Most women had grown up in a much less restri.ctive society and didn't even own such a garment! The main character, Kamela and all of the women of Kabul had their lives transformed overnight. They were now banned from schools and offices and even forbidden to leave their own homes without a male escort (a relative). The economy collapsed and many men were forced to leave their families behind in search of work. Kamala was desperate so support her 5 brothers and sisters so she began sewing clothes in her living room (chadris were part of what she made since almost all women were without and MUST wear one when they did leave the home to get food or medical care or other errands). She had no idea that her little sewing business would changes the lives of hundreds of families by providing jobs to neighborhood women who depended on her quickly growing business to keep them from starvation and to survive.

This is a wonderful book that portrays women of war as survivors, instead of victims. Against all odds, these women made (and continue to make) a difference!

This may be one of the most boring books I've ever read. I'm half-way through and am struggling to keep reading. It's about a woman trying to keep her business going during the Taliban years. There is no feeling of wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next, like so many of the other books I have about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc. It's just the repetitive accounting of how she and her crew make dresses in their little house. There is not much substance to this book. What this woman in the story did is laudable, but not worth writing a whole book about. Because I bought it, I will force myself to finish it.

It has already been a few years since I read this book, so I don't have a lot of details fresh in mind to share with you; besides many good and complete reviews have already been written in this space. I did find this story interesting, in the main, an important story, but not as interesting and convincing as it could have been. For the writing I give a B- at best. For Kamila, the heroine of the story, kudos for her courage and intelligence. She did a remarkable job of developing a business and helping not only her family, but many other women and their families. I admit that I was puzzled at how she could learn to sew an outfit on her own after just a few hours instruction, and be able to sell it and get orders for more. And without patterns to aid her. The whole dressmaking (they also made women's pants suits) business seem rather fantastical, and other parts of the story telling were not fantastic.

But mainly I want to leave with you with something that stands out in my memory from this book. Kamila was obviously a very gutsy young lady to develop such a plan and carry it out at such great risk under the noses of the Taliban after they took over Kabul. She had a big family, mostly girls, and all of them educated and successful, the women as well as the males. You might ask "how did this come about in such a sexist, repressive environment?" I believe that the answer lies in how the parents, especially the father, treated their children. Kamila's father impressed me very much indeed. He spoke of his daughters with pride and love, and he felt very strongly about education. He absolutely believed that education was the key, and he said he valued education for his many daughters as much as he did for his sons. If more men had attitudes like this father, it would change the world for women, as well as for men.

I think because the author had to recreate all the dialogue as she was not there at the time, but simply picked up the story years later, that the writing shows this immediately. The story itself is inspiring and the women who lived through such repression need to have their stories told. But this would have been much more interesting as a long magazine article. I think that the Dari language is a much more formal language than English and the author simply literally translates their dialogue, which is what makes reading it so boring because it's so repetitive. And dragging out years of women doing the same thing (sewing and hiding out from the world) is probably as boring to live through as it is to read about. Also, the fact that these women seemed to learn to sew overnight and became good enough seamstresses to sell their wares also rings false. If you've read Three Cups of Tea or Little Princes, this book will disappoint you.

I initially became interested in this book through the recommendation of a Navy SEAL who now runs a global rescue company in Boston and asked my editor for a galley. The book is wonderfully amazing in it's ability to capture the reader in a specific story while recognizing, but not getting lost in, the dramatic/dangerous events surrounding Kamila's family. A must read for all looking to understand the HUMAN element of change in global business and politics. -John Konrad, Author of Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster

Summary: Like many memoirs written since the fall of the Taliban, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the story of an Afghanistani woman who disobeyed the strict regime and made a way for herself and the women of her village. In this case, Kamila sets up a small dressmaking factory in the midst of Taliban-controlled Kabul so that she can provide for her family. Selling through the local tailors, the women's business thrives. As word spreads among the women's community, young girls flood to Kamila's house to beg for work. Determined to help all of them in any way that she can she decides to open a school where she will instruct the girl's in the basics of tailoring so that they will be able to make their own money. Taking the education a step further, Kamila begins working with the UN to education women about business and the Qu'ran. When the Taliban are overthrown, Kamila works with the new aid agencies to re-establish peace in Afghanistan.

Bechdel Test?: Absolutely passes. The women talk amongst themselves about everything from money, to family, to politics.

Strangest Part?: Hearing about the Titanic fever was hilarious. Apparently when VHS tapes of Titanic hit Afghanistan, men began cutting their hair in "the Leo" and the Taliban had to outlaw the haircut. Any men caught with the floppy hair were taken to the barber for a buzz cut.

Rating: 2/5
I'm not loving it. Maybe it's because I'm in a class on Afghanistan right now (HIST 391: Afghanistan and Central Asia) but this book feels like a million others only less interesting. There has been a major uptick in books about Afghanistan since 9/11 and this is one in the series. It looks only about the surface-level problems in Afghanistan, like women's education and empowerment. While I agree these things are absolutely essential to nation building, so are roads, access to clean water and basic medicine!

So often life deals very difficult moments, and those moments turn into years. Here you can read about Kamila Sidiqi and how she triumphs over a repressive country that is mired in violence. Kamilia confined to her home starts a business to be the sole breadwinner for her five siblings when the older men in her family are forced to flee the city.

True grit and determination turn a very difficult situation into survival. A true story so worth the reading. These women triumph over difficult situations and make the best of their lives in difficult times.

I first heard about the horrors the Taliban were inflicting on the women and girls of Afghanistan online,long before 911, through videos of the public abuse brave Afghani women were recording and smuggling out of the country. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe only touches on the dangers faced by these remarkable young women (just teenagers themselves when the Taliban came to power), but that is perhaps a good thing in what is essentially a tale of triumph over extreme adversity. Well worth a read!

One note in particular: while The Dressmaker is not listed specifically as a book for the Young Adult market, this is eminently suitable for even quite young teens. Don't hesitate to add this to the summer reading list, use it as part of a Social Studies unit or mail it off to your grand-daughter!

What a great read! I started it and didn't want it to end. The story was told in a way that allowed for drama and some suspense but was always respectful of the fact that this was based on real people and their lives. I'm glad to have learned about Afghanistan's history, the political situation there, and how important the role of women will be in shaping the new Afghanistan as foreign countries pull out. I enjoyed the author's style enough to purchase her next book as well. I highly recommend this hopeful and uplifting book.

This is an inspiring story, but seems more like fiction than non-fiction. It reads like a novel with lots of missing pieces of information. But since it is non-fiction, I hold high esteem for the accomplishments of Kamila, Malika, and their sisters and family.

What's missing? Lots of details. For example:
How did Kamila become such a proficient seamstress/tailor almost overnight?
What logistics did they have to do to establish the "school"?
What kind of training did the other inexperienced women who came to her "school" receive?
How could they become so proficient so quickly?
Later in the book, suddenly her mother appears back in the story - how did that happen?
Suddenly, her father appeared at the door one night - how did that happen and what did he do next?

Near the end of the book, the author introduced the dramatic consequences of the 9/11 attacks. From that point on, there was virtually no mention of the dressmaking business or the women who were employed - the author concentrated only on Kamila - that is quite a gap.

There is so much potential here to write an even better book than this. The story of this magnitude and impact (with such profound and positive outcomes for Kamila) deserves more than 229 pages. And, although the author devoted five pages at the end to "where are they now," there are still many unfilled gaps.

I'm glad I read the book - I was expecting it to be of the quality I found in "Three Cups of Tea." But I didn't find it - I wanted much more.

In 2006 I began an indepth study on entrepreneurship and women in Afghanistan. In fact, my focus was on teen girls as entrepreneurs and how to work with them in war-torn Afghanistan. Over the next two years I met Afghan-American women, American women working in Afghanistan, and was introduced to several non-profits that helped women in Afghanistan. One point that I learned was-if the country was to come out of the ashes of the 20 plus years of war, women needed to be educated and they also needed to become part of the economic system. I was introduced to Gayle Tzemach, we met and she really opened my eyes as to what was happening in Kabul. This was in 2008 and she had already been there on several trips. I began to read all of her work on women as entrepreneurs in Afghanistan and Rwanda. When I learned of her book it was a natural for me to want to read it. As the founder of the Girl's CEO Connection and creator of the Realizing a Vision conferences I am always looking for teen entrepreneurs. In the case of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana-it would simply be reading an extended version of Gayles' writing and learn about some young girls in the past in Afghanistan. Much to my surprise, I had already learned about Kamila--as an adult businessowner and her business development consultancy. What I did not know was she began as a teen with an idea to keep her family and friends alive while living on the edge to do it.

Gayle gained the trust of Kamila, her family and extended family, her neighbors and yes the shopkeepers. Life in Afghanistan, especially Kabul, is about gossip--there are no newspapers, Internet as we know it, and life is not a bowl of cheeries as in the U.S. and Europe. It is more than not easy-for many in the U.S. it would be impossible and it is not the fault of the normal Afghan family or citizen. Gayle's account is not a fictionalized biography. She spent five years or more getting to know the women, taking notes and working with them. This is a major feat-

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a book that American women, and yes women in other civilized nations need to read-more so this is a "textbook" for high school girls and college women who are considering entrepreneurship, business, non-profit and even psychology as a career. It is also a true walk of faith, whether as a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu-a faith that believes in a God that protects and guides.

I have worked with women and girls from all walks of life as entrepreneurs-from the homeless to the MBA to those with VC investors. Women with an entrepreneurial spirit can accomplish anything for their lives and families. What the reader learns in The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is even in the most remote area of the world, the most war-torn, a country that once allowed women to excel and now holds them back, the female entrepreneurial spirit cannot be held back. I've seen similar spirits in the inner cities of Boston and New York-in others areas of the U.S. where women are working to bring their families out of poverty. What is different with Gayle's book and the women of Khair Khana is that they risked their lives to become entrepreneurs-they risked everything to take their talents and skills to survive men who were more than abusive, men who do not believe women have worth. The Khair Khana women are true role-models that girls and women can learn from, even in an advanced society.

I am recommending this book, not because I met the author and followed her work. I am recommending it because in an age where women want to be entrepreneurs and community leaders, yet may have their doubts, The Dressmaker shows how courage and perseverance wins out. I want all the young women who follow the Girl's CEO Connection to read the book as well as the Girl Scouts, Girl's Inc., NFTE, BUILD and all the the other teen entrepreneurial groups. I am recommending it to Babson's Center for Womens Leadership, Stanford's Student Business Association and any other college that emphasizes entrepreneurship and especially social entrepreneurship.

In other words-this is a book that will teach about women of Afghanistan that so far no one else has done-from a spirit of entrepreneurship and nation building. It is a "text" book for females who either need or want to do something that makes a difference, even when the challenges appear to be unsurmountable. Congratulations to Gayle Tzemach Lemmon and all her years of stepping out on the edge to write about women in war torn countries. Congratulations to Kamila and her family, kudos to her father and brothers--they are truly marvelous and I commend her sister Malika-I am the oldest of eight children and Malika is an excellent role model for being "the eldest female" with some very head strong siblings.

Read and enjoy and learn-

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is an inspiring story of Kamila Siddiqi, a courageous, young woman who set up her dressmaking business in the years of the Taliban regime. The chapters are well laid out beginning with an overview of what was going on in the Afghan society followed by the chapters about Kamila's parents moving off to the north and Kamila becoming the person responsible for the remaining household. I particularly liked the chapters that describe Kamila's transition from an inexperienced woman starting her new business, to one grabbing more business deals, adding new ideas to her existing plan such as the tailoring school and then moving on with more responsibilities in the UN agencies to influence a larger women population. However, there were times when certain information as well as phrases were repeated. I also think that the book lacked depth when talking about the problems and fear faced by the Afghan locals, including Kamila's family members. Overall, I am glad that the author shared this wonderful story with the world or else another strong woman's story may have gone untold.Hats off to Kamila for all her efforts and resilience.I am inspired!

Everyone else has summarized the story, which is compelling. However, I found the writing boring, simple and very repetitive. Right from the start it seemed like it was written for middle school level, for example, with appositive phrases to explain what naan is, when, in fact, a good reader would get that from context even if they did not already know (in this day and age, really, you don't know what naan is?). The historical context is also interesting but so simplistically written it feels both redundant and condescending for more educated and sophisticated readers. If you have been reading books set in Afghanistan for years, like The Kite Runner, you will likely find this one pales in comparison. A good beginner book and I agree with one reviewer who mentioned it might have been optioned for a movie so little time was spent really fleshing out the writing. There were gaps that made no sense, such as the mother appearing suddenly and leaving just as suddenly. In addition, there were physical descriptions of the women that had no bearing whatsoever to the essence of the content. I wondered why they were in there. It did not enhance the story at all to know that one woman visitor had dark curly hair. It was actually downright obnoxious to have another woman described as assertive and strong attached to her tall, statuesque appearance as though these attributes must belong together. No wonder women around the world feel so inadequate at times, when even their own gender betrays them. I give it 3 altogether but 4-5 for the story itself and 1-2 for the prose.

I loved this story. A simple tale of a young woman - doing what she needed to do to survive. It was inspiring. I also enjoyed learning what life was like for women when the Taliban took over. The Taliban and the Nazis have a lot in common. Both groups citing ridiculous reasons for hate. What drives a group of men to hate women so much? This goes way beyond religion. The Taliban are probably all pedofiles with a yearning for young boys and take their guilt out on women. Disgusting.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. More than just the story, which is absolutely inspiring, Lemmon's writing really brings the reader into the story. It made me feel nervous, scared, and joyous - all in one chapter!

I have had this book for awhile, and had inadvertently put it in a box at work for books to share/pass along to others! Well, I finally took it out and read it this past week - soooooo glad I did before passing it along to others to read. If you can't be inspired by this book, I don't know what can inspire you! Humanity and their will to survive never seizes to amaze me!

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is an interesting tale about women and war. The story flows nicely and there are moments of tension when danger seems to be just around the corner. However, while telling the story of these heroic young girls most of the men in the story come off as cowards.

The main character's father sums it up quite nicely, "This is our country and we must stay and see it through whatever comes. That is our obligation and our privilege." That is what he told his daughters the night before he fled to Iran to join his oldest son. You see, life in Kabul was just too dangerous for men folk which is why so many of Kabul's women had to become heroes in the first place.

The book was eye-opening. I read this for a book club. While it gave much to talk about, ie: courage, Taliban control, women taking control of their lives and succeeding under difficult conditions, there were many more questions that it did not answer. Was this story unique to the country or were there many such enterprising communities? What were the ramifications of their success to themselves and to the community. Most of the book club felt that we were reading a report rather than a book.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is - without a doubt - the best nonfiction book I've ever read. Women's entrepreneurship under the Taliban in Afghanistan is truly something that deserves all of our attention. We all need a little hope about the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, and this story not only provides that hope - in an incredibly readable and page-turning narrative - but provides a cultural and political landscape from which we can all learn.

Lemmon is an incredible story teller as well. This books reads as quickly and as easily as a fiction novel, perhaps even better than most works of fiction. My favorite moment in the story is when the Titanic obsession hits Kabul, and even though the movie is outlawed under the Taliban, every Afghani manages to watch it, and all of the men get Leo haircuts.

A worthwhile read that helps one better understand the tremendous difficulties imposed on women by the Taliban and the courageous ways they fought back through their own ingenuity and enterprising spirit.

I gave this book 4 stars because a 5 star rating is reserved for books that change my life.

I believe it's vital to read the real stories of Muslim women, in order to understand the chaos in their lives.

This story is inspiring - against the odds, to be so successful!

The story itself (if true) is a great story. However the writing is amateurish and left me with many questions, which may be why the authenticity of the book is being questioned. How could all these girls learn to sew such quality so quickly that their work was quickly marketable? In the state this area was described why was there such a market for dresses, particularly wedding dresses? If the book had been better written and more credible it could be a really good book.

This book was amazing. Women of the United States would not be able to survive the restrictions these women lived through and accomplished. It's so hard to believe that in this day and age there can still be countries that live under these conditions. Highly reccomend reading it.

Too often, American perceptions and stories of Afghan women, particularly during the Taliban period, are reduced to a list of atrocities committed against women, who cower and hide, voiceless and powerless. Only a female journalist could have told this story -- not only because of cultural norms and trust issues involved with the female sources, but also because Gayle Tzemach Lemmon wisely recognizes the critical role that women have played in Afghan society through decades of war and unrest.

Author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon details the life of several courageous women who lived under the Taliban rule. Although I found of these daring women who chose to educate themselves, expand their minds and become entrepreneurs in spite of oppression, I still found portions of the dialogue to be a little stilted and awkward. But, Lemmon's book was an interesting read in spite of its shortcomings.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana helps to humanize a conflict that all too often is faceless in the media and news reports. This story demonstrates the risks posed by living in the region affected by Afghan conflict. Inspiring.

I was really excited to read this book. I thought it would be more like Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Sun...couldn't be father from what I expected. The story was great...a young Afghani woman making a difference for her family and community despite Taliban pressures...but the execution...definitely lacking. There was no timeline to this story at all. You were be reading about the present day and then it would say something like "speaking of buses, a few weeks ago when she took a bus to here this is what happened" and then go right back to the present day. Very odd. I really wanted to love this book, but it was pretty bad.

I was delighted when this book was chosen as the next book for our bookclub. I hadn't heard of it but loved the subject matter and, having loved books like 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' and 'The Kite Runner', I looked forward to a book that would entertain and inform me.
However, I very quickly realised that the quality of writing fell far short of those other wonderful works which described Afghanistan so vividly and poetically. It feels like it has been written by a high school student.
The subject matter sounds fascinating but the lack of detail and the inconsistencies relating to the timeline make it feel much less real than it should.
I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

A journalist with a Harvard MBA writes about a female Afghan entrepreneur but leaves out any specifics on how or why the woman's business supposedly succeeded. The writing is suitable for children, but the lack of detail means the book won't hold the interest of most adults.

Not just another depressing account of how the Taliban oppresses women, this account shows how women can creatively improve their lives even in dire, restrictive circumstances. I was inspired by the creativity, bravery, and tenacity of these women. Definitely worth reading.

This is a story that is important to tell. Unfortunately, it was turned over to a writer with modest skill. The storytelling was shallow and simplistic. I found myself skipping whole parts out of frustration. So much more could have been shared.

Compelling story but the writing is too concrete missing the shades of grey. Yes, we get the general sense of loss suffered by the women once the Taliban arrived, but could have been explored at a much more of a personal level.

The creativity of Kamila and her family to work, train and care for the women of Kabul through a most difficult time, shows the world that faith and determination will outlast terrorists. A must read for all who feel like they are victims.

This had the potential for being a great-to-excellent book as the storyline is truly engaging; however, the writing reads like an English 101 class with inconsistent timelines and underdeveloped characters. What a shame. I think another visit to a different Editor could totally turn this book around.

Great story of the power of perseverance and determination. Kamila's story demonstrates the change that one individual can achieve. Especially powerful when you consider the age of the individuals involved.

Even with two Master's degrees, I found this a difficult book to follow or even find very interesting. It may have been the complicated and unfamiliar names of the numerous and complicated characters, or perhaps the lack of familiarity with places and customs. I can't say with certainty. This book seemed endless and I just could not make myself get past chapter 2.

I regret having to join the one-star reviews. Ms Lemmon let a great story slip through her grasp. It read as novel for young children - and one that glossed over what adult novels depicted. See The Swallows of Kabal, by Yasmina Khadra, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I read this in two days and was left unfufilled. I wanted it to be a bigger story. I think it could have been deeper. I kept feeling that the story was stretched too thin. I wanted to like it more. Things I liked, the cover was inviting, and the story WAS important. What I didn't like was that it was published 5 years after the facts and it felt dated.

I rarely do reviews. Usually only for books that I think outstanding or are so bad that I wished I had never read the book and want to warn others. Unfortunately, this was a book that I think future readers require a warning.

I have tremendous respect for the women in Afghanistan who survived under the Taliban regime. I have even more respect - even awe - for women who found a way to more than survive. So, I was looking forward to reading this book and the story of Kamila and her sisters. After the Taliban, Kamila's father and oldest brother are forced to flee Kabul because of their association with the former government. While the family had some money, it would not be enough for Kamila and her sisters to survive for long. So, Kamila asks her older sister to teach her how to sew. After a few lessons, Kamila apparently was able to sew well enough (and to teach her younger siblings)to have tailors purchase a few dresses that she and her sisters made. I just think it is incredibly unbelievable that a woman could learn to make patterns and designs, sew and do intricate bead work after a few lessons.

Kabul under the Taliban was a city with great poverty. The author even mentions this. So, how is it that a market existed for new dresses to the point that Kamila and her sisters eventually employed 30 women working non-stop to feed this market? It just doesn't seem logical that there was such a demand for new clothing during a time of mass unemployment and poverty.

Given the controversy now surrounding Three Cups of Tea, and the illogical aspects of this story, beware that you may be reading a fictional or greatly embellished story.

We sponsor a summer literacy program for teens from families with low income, primarily immigrants. All of us working in the program as volunteers have strong academic credentials and very professional backgrounds. After carefully researching the recent controversy over Greg Mortenson's international best-seller, "Three Cups of Tea", we removed Mortenson's book from our recommended reading list. Perhaps Ms. Lemmon had only the best of intentions. But this story is simply not believable. It is poorly written, poorly edited and has no credible documentation or evidence of any sort of fact-checking to confirm the character, Kamila's, story is at all credible. This book is not the replacement for Mortenson's now discredited books.
Ms. Lemmon states in the "Author's Note" that for security reasons she used pseudonyms for many characters in the book. However, toward the end of the book there is a photo of Kamila with Condoleeze Rice. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I were concerned about the safety of myself and my family, especially in light of the recent upsurge in violence in Afghanistan by the Taliban and al-Qeada, I certainly not allow a photo of myself with none other than Condoleeze Rice to be made public. The author showed a lack of discretion in "outing" Kamila in this manner. Richard Nixon had his "enemies list". So does Karl Rove. Unfortunately, due to the author's lack of common sense, this young woman is undoubtedly now on the Taliban's list.
The main character, Kamila, is the daughter of a retired Afghan military officer. Why did this father, a retired military officer after all, not have the resources and connections to get his entire family out as the Taliban, with their horrific, medieval -like violence, take over in Kabul? He apparently believed it would be too dangerous for the women to travel through territory held by the Taliban. According to the author, the father also felt it would be difficult to fend of arranged marriage proposals. This latter excuse is really quite ludicrous. Right up front I had a very difficult time believing that men such as Mr. Sidiqi were leaving women behind in Kabul to fend for themselves, leaving them to risk rape and even death at the hands of the brutal Taliban. Many of us are familiar with the history of Afghanistan under the Taliban, including their horrific execution of men and women alike in public arenas such as soccer stadiums. However, well over one million Afghans did make it out of the country into Pakistan, Iran and other neighboring countries. Really, was her father a complete coward?
Nevertheless, Kamila, who is sixteen at the time, is left behind and seems to take it upon herself to become the breadwinner for the family. She risks the life of her thirteen year old brother as well. She and her brother venture out to the local bazaar, where Kamila, a Muslim women and fully veiled of course, approaches several male sellers of clothing who she has never met before in her life with a proposal to sell them dresses from her small home based business. Why would her mother allow her to take this risk with the Taliban roaming the streets, aimlessly terrorizing innocent civilians at random? Apparently, Kamila was a great marketer (I'm being sarcastic), and two male clothing vendors decided they could purchase some of her creations, and could she have the dresses ready next week please!
Ms. Lemmon describes the implosion of the Afghan economy, with families barely knowing how they wouild be able to provide for next week's meals. How was Kamila able to afford the machinery, fabrics, notions and a generator to run the machines? Where did this money come from? How were they able to obtain fuel on an ongoing basis to run the generators? Without UPS or FEDEX how would they even be able to have the machinery delivered? Did they haul it on bus or in a taxi? Who on earth would be able to afford the types of dresses she purportedly made? How often would such clothing be purchased? At one point, toward the end of the book, she apparently even makes some wedding dresses for a Taliban wedding? How naïve and stupid does she think we are to believe this? Not me.
I have very high standards and a high degree of skepticism when I read non-fiction. When people I work with as well as friends of mine in academia were praising Mortenton's books, I was the skeptic, finding Mortenson's books to be implausible. I received much criticism for my opinion at the time. However, I would need much more fact checking and footnotes before I would come close to believing this story. Certainly Ms. Lemmon has the education and background to have prepared more adequate documentation before publishing this book. How about some podcasts of interviews she conducted? Was this story all based merely on interviews with one individual, Kamila? Does she hope to have it made into a movie, perhaps starring Angelina Jolie? (Sorry for the continued sarcasm.)
On the author's website, there is a one minute video of the dresses, that's it. I would have liked to see some photos of the inside of Kamila's house. How were all these women crammed into a house that is home to Kamila's extended family as well as a sewing shop? How much did each of the women, especially the young women recruited from the neighborhood, actually earn through this work? Or were they something like indentured servants? It sounded more like a sweat shop to me.
At the end of this book there is a "Selected Bibliography". Actually, it's a recommended reading list and not a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of sources used in a work of scholarship. This book is not a work of scholarship. Even an eighth-grader would be highly bored and very skeptical about this story.
For a credible view of Afghanistan under the Taliban I would recommend reading Saira Shah's book "The Storyteller's Daughter"and watching the related video, "Beneath the Veil". Here is a link to the video:
[...]
Saira Shah is a British/Afghan journalist. (Ms. Shah's father was the late Idries Shah, a philosopher and storyteller. Ms. Shah was born and raised in Britain.) The documentary "Beneath the Veil" won a Peabody Award in 2002. It was initially produced prior to 9/11 when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan. (This documentary is highly graphic, showing horrific scenes of mass graves, executions in a football field, immense destruction of entire villages, and other atrocities. I would not recommend it for viewing by young people.)

It is amazing how many people thought this book was good (or great). I thought it was written in the style of a fairy tale, and as such it neutralizes all of the drama in the story. It also detracts from the achievement. I found it a great disappointment.

I found the dialog to be quite fake sounding, the girls' overnight dressmaking skills just totally unbelievable, and the story line repetitive. An awkwardly written book and just not very interesting.

Somebody give me a reason to read. When I read that the author had neglected to determine if her mobile would work while visiting a foreign country - one torn apart by war - I lost all faith in the writing.