Thoughts on: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Article first published as Book Review: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon on Blogcritics.

About:
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.

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book— use the form at the end of the post to enter.

• 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061732370

Thoughts:
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (website | Facebook | Twitter)  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.

So tell me, what inspiring book have you read lately?

Synopsis:
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.

Buy this book in from Amazon.com
through the Man of la Book Affil­i­ate Account

Give­away

• Give­away ends: April 12, 2012

• US/Canada Ship­ping Addresses Only

• No PO Boxes

• Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked

Congratulations: awhartness@

TLC Book Tour for The Dressmaker of Khair Khana:

Tuesday, March 20th: Seaside Book Nook
Wednesday, March 21st: EmSun
Tuesday, March 27th: Patricia’s Wisdom
Wednesday, March 28th: Knitting and Sundries
Thursday, March 29th: sidewalk shoes
Monday, April 2nd: Book Snob
Tuesday, April 3rd: Brandi Reads
Wednesday, April 4th: A Bookish Affair
Thursday, April 5th: Man of La Book
Monday, April 9th: Book Club Classics!
Tuesday, April 10th: Wordsmithonia
Wednesday, April 11th: A Bookish Way of Life
Thursday, April 12th: Lit and Life
Monday, April 16th: Broken Teepee
Tuesday, April 17th: Library of Clean Reads
Thursday, April 19th: BookNAround
TBD: Melody & Words

Zohar – Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours

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• This IS my Grandmother’s sewing – Part 2 (cathyturley.wordpress.com)

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