The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

This is a really amazing TRUE story of Kamila Sidiqi, who not only survived life in Afghanistan under the Taliban but started a successful home business that helped dozens of other women as well.

Kamila had just graduated school when the Taliban took power in Kabul and her life changed. When her parents flee to the north to avoid being prosecuted for their service in the previous regime, it is up to Kamila to support her family. But how does a woman who can't go out in public without a man, who can't interact with men, do that? She sets up a dressmaking shop in her home, and brings in other neighborhood women to help.

Kamila is an amazing woman who selflessly risks jail, beatings, or worse to support her family AND to help other women support their families. One doesn't really consider what the Taliban's view of women did to Afghan society: women couldn't work outside the home, couldn't interact with men outside their families, and weren't even allowed in public without a male escort. Afghan men were either pressed into service with the Taliban or left the country to avoid being pressed into service, so the economy basically collapsed. But Kamila is a tenacious, dedicated woman, and she does what she has to do.

I highly recommend this book... in addition to being an intriguing story, it was also an educational story.

http://www.amazon.com/Dressmaker-Khair-Khana-Remarkable-Everything/dp/0061732370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319812267&sr=1-1