In 1996 Kamela Sediqi received her certificate from the Sayed Djamulladin Teacher Training Institute in Kabul, Afghanistan. Her next step would be to complete her studies at Kabul Pedagogical Institute where she would earn her bachelor’s degree and begin her teaching career in Kabul. She dreamed of teaching literature. Her life changed overnight with the arrival of the Taliban. Forced for the first time to don the full-length burqa known as a chadri, Kamela would be sequestered in her home with her sisters, only able to venture outdoors at certain hours under her brother’s escort.

This is the set-up to journalist Gayle Tzmach Lemmon’s first-hand account of Kamela and the Sediqi sisters who were among the many women who worked to support their families during the Taliban period. Told with a reporter’s eye for detail and history, Kamela’s story is remarkable and fascinating for the simple fact that the repression of women under the Taliban was so utterly extreme, yet her entrepreneurial spirit prevailed.

I loved this story for its unadulterated glimpse into the lives of women during the Taliban, and for the sheer determination and ingenuity it took to support their families. Kamela was one of many women who launched home businesses and risked their safety to find buyers (she would slip out in the early morning hours with her brother as her escort to negotiate business deals with shop owners) for the goods they produced. Kamela, her sisters, and eventually many of the women from the neighborhood of Khair Khana, a northern suburb of Kabul, took up sewing and dressmaking turning out beautiful beaded dresses and professional pantsuits. Eventually she opened a sewing school for young women so they too could support their families.
Kamela’s is a true story. Not only is it hopeful and courageous, its outcome speaks to the kind of personal commitment that is essential to the rebuilding of a ravaged country. ~Wendee