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

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The New York Times bestseller, written by a former reporter for ABC News, that People magazine called “a transporting, enlightening book” tells the story of a fearless young entrepreneur who brought hope to the lives of dozens of women in war-torn Afghanistan

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

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMar 15, 2011
ISBN9780062074959
Author

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

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

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a very interesting piece of Journalism, at least it seems to be written in a journalistic manner/view. I say this as we never get to "know" the young women involved, except through their work....

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

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

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I honestly had no pre-concieved notions about this book, but it turns out that I could not put it down; I finished it in just one day. It horrified me, as an American woman who experiences so much freedom of will and choice in everything I do, to read about what women actually experienced when the Taliban took over Kabul. Yet these women perservered, and lived through all of that with faith and determination. I had no clue, but learned a great deal from reading this book. A great deal enough to be wiser and so much more appreciative.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Young woman in Afghanistan, gets bored with reading books in her home and resolves to improve her life and the life of her family, held captive behind Taliban strictures.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After an introduction full of name dropping (including multiple mentions of Harvard Business School) Lemmon gives us a personal look at life for a teenage girl in Kabul during the reign of the Taliban. Her parents were forced to leave the city due to the father's previous work associations and left her and her sisters to fend for themselves. It was too dangerous to take them on the road and dangerous to leave their house unoccupied. As more strict regulations on the women were imposed, there were few options for Kamila and her sisters to continue their education or even go to the market for supplies without a male accompanying them. Kamila's older married sister was an accomplished seamstress and Kamila prevailed on her to teach them sewing and started a modest business sewing dresses and pant suits branching into wedding dresses. Soon she was employing other girls outside her own family and even giving lessons in sewing and running a business.Kamila's story is remarkable since she had to take on so much responsibility at such a young age. Very inspiring.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    By now we are all quite familiar with the strictures placed on women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The news has bombarded us with images of the burqua-clad women trailing their male chaperones, women who had no choice but to follow the rules of one of the most repressive and highly moralistic regimes around. But what happened to the women who no longer had the protection of a male family member or of only a young boy? How on earth were they to survive in the unbending and dangerous to women world of the Taliban?Kamila Sidiqi is one of five sisters who were still at home when the Taliban took over Kabul. She had just received her teaching degree despite the dangers posed by the civil war raging through the country when the Taliban took Kabul, trapping women in their homes and rendering Sidiqi's valuable degree useless. Worse yet for her family, her father had served under several previous governments, putting him at extreme risk and he eventually fled to some semblence of safety, leaving his family behind. Sidiqi's older brother also leaves Afghanistan for Iran in hopes of being able to find work and to avoid any reprisals against his family for his father's prior loyalties. This leaves the women of the family with only their young, school-aged brother as a chaperone and no visible means of support.But Kamila Sidiqi is an incredibly driven and resourceful woman and she hatches the idea of creating a dressmaking business that will stave off their impending poverty. Learning to sew from an older sister, she and her sisters carefully created a viable home industry right under the noses of the Taliban. And not only did their business provide the support of their own family, but they also taught other women from the neighborhood to sew as well in order to support their families as well. Over the five year span of the Taliban's oppressive rule, Sidiqi, with only her young brother to chaperone her as she negotiated with the male shopkeepers at their local market, created a grass roots business that saved many families from starvation, especially those like her own where the older men had had no choice but to flee the country leaving their wives and daughters unprotected and without a male presence.Lemmon traveled to and from Afghanistan for many years, through the escalating tensions, war in the street, and US bombings in order to chronicle the perseverence, determination, and entreprenurial spirit in women like Kamila Sidiqi that the Taliban had been unable to contain. Lemmon tells the story as if it was a novel, creating dialogue for her subjects despite clearly writing this years after the events she's chronicling. Lemmon's background as a journalist is very evident here as well with the writing coming across as very journalistic, simplistic, and oddly enough, given the content of the story, emotionally distant. She also periodically thrusts herself and the present day into the story she's reporting which comes off as mildly distracting. What must have been the overwhelming tension of day to day living interpsersed with moments of heart pounding terror is not all that well conveyed; instead it is reported but muffled, muted. And there seem to be some rather big omissions in Lemmon's writing about these brave Sidiqi girls. Why did the girls' mother stay in the north of Afghanistan after her husband left for Iran instead of going back to Kabul to help her daughters? How did the young women learn to sew so well so quickly that they could create a thriving cottage industry? Why was there still a market for clothing when people couldn't even find enough to eat? How did the economics of this venture work out? Why did these shopkeepers, who were also acting contrary to the Taliban's restrictions and therefore in danger, cooperate with Kamila Sidiqi and her incredibly young mahram (chaperone)?The story itself is impressive and inspiring, putting a face on the suffering and devastation first of a militant, oppressive, and misogynistic regime and then of a terrible, destructive war but it is also the moving chronicle of unbroken spirit, the will to live, and the sort of woman who can move mountains and change the world. For those interested in another facet of the reality of Afghanistan under the Taliban, this will fill in some of the picture. That these women persevered and succeeded even in the face of threats of beatings, imprisonment, or death is incredibly awe-inspiring and humbling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For all of you who, like me, tend to avoid non-fiction thinking it dry and sleep inducing, I say: READ 'The Dressmaker of Khair Khana'!! You will have to remind yourself that what you are reading really happened; these amazing women really exist; there is an Afghanistan that we don't see on the news. The front cover reads: 'Five sisters, one remarkable family and the woman who risked everything to keep them safe'. I do take issue with that statement. Kamila wasn't the only one to risk everything, she just led the way. And she didn't just keep her family safe - she kept them safe and fed and did the same for so many other women and their families as well. My eyes have been opened. In every war-torn, poverty-ridden, calamity-hit country in this world, there are women working behind the scenes, without recognition, to pull their families and friends through.As an equal opportunity blog, I have to also touch upon the men in the lives of these women. They deserve their space as well. The thing that amazed me most about this story was not the tenacity of the women in saving their families, women do that every day, although usually under more favorable circumstances. What really struck me was the support these women received from the men around them - even, eventually, from the Taliban itself.The only 'culture shock' I suffered was in considering the actions of Kamila's parents. I felt myself wanting to judge their actions during this unreal time. It took some work to convince me that, as much as I can read and understand the words, I have no real understanding of life in Afghanistan during Taliban rule. These people understood the system and what they needed to do to survive. The parents survived, the brothers survived, the sisters, against all odds, not only survived, they thrived. And the story of how they did it makes for one of the most inspirational, feel good books I have read in a long time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is an account of a young woman living in Kabul during the Taliban regime who started a dressmaking business. It was interesting that this young girl who received her teaching certificate just before the Taliban took over the city was able to work, sell her products and hire other women while women were banned from going to school or to work outside the home. They couldn't even go to market unless a man accompanied them and they had to be completely covered the whole time. And yet I had some questions that were never completely resolved such as: Who was buying the dresses and clothing the seamstresses were making since supposedly money was very scarce? I also did not really understand why her mother went to the north of the country, leaving the young daughters with a 19 year old to look after them.The book does give a glimpse behind the chador into the lives of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The author was a former journalist in Washington D.C. covering presidential campaigns. She left her job in 2005 to go to grad school. She wanted to do international development research and in that vein was going to interview women in war zones to see how they survived and managed to support themselves, rebuild their economy and maintain hope for the future. I thought her book was supposed to represent that research. In actuality, she really only wrote deeply about one woman who worked in a war zone, Kamila Sidiqi, and really wrote only about one war zone, Kabul. I was disappointed with the scope and breadth of the book since I had wanted to learn about other women, as well, from other beleaguered countries that were embattled by war, other women who succeeded against all odds as well, as the introduction had suggested would be the main thrust of the book. For Lemmon, the main point of her book seems to be Sediqi’s “Wonder Woman” approach to survival, Allah will protect her, her faith will prevail. It seemed a bit like a fairytale to present the story that way since many people were brutally and sadistically punished, tortured, and murdered, who also had deep and abiding faith in their religion, and also believed in the teachings of the Koran and prayed, perhaps more than Sidiqi did. Her reliance on faith was a bit over the top, made more for an entertaining television movie, rather than a documentary or reality TV. In addition, her Polyanna approach to survival, stressing her belief that her faith would protect her, endangering her friends and relatives as well, was foolhardy at best, even though it succeeded, and that aspect of her behavior would have been better served it it had been condemned at the same time her courage was praised. The author chose to present and emphasize certain aspects of personality and faith over an innate intellectual ability to achieve.In the book, Lemmon refers to Kamila’s parents alternately as her mother and father and as Mr. or Mrs. Sidiqi, so sometimes I was unsure of the people she was presenting. She does not do to a great job of summing up and bringing the situation in Kabul into the current day, either. It stops in 2011, since that is when the book was published and it needs an addendum to bring it up to date today. She does try to inform the reader of how the characters in the book fared as years passed, but that was of little concern to me since they were never really fully developed. Therefore, I had little interest in the ancillary characters and barely remembered much about any of them. A very brief history of Afghanistan was provided by the author, and thus it seems incidental to the story. In summary, after the war with Russia, the Mujahedeen assumed control. The population of women in Kabul, Afghanistan, was greater than that of the men. After 1996, under the Taliban, without the ability to move about freely, if they had no male in the household, women had no access to employment, no way to shop, and no way to feed or protect their families. Those who enforced the Taliban rules were young, uneducated and cruel, victims of having knowledge that was informed only by the dogma taught by the fanatics that twisted their minds. Education and freedom of movement may have been forbidden for women, but music was forbidden for all, laughter was forbidden and so were all forms of entertainment, even chess. Fear lived in the streets of Kabul and behind closed doors and garden walls. All oppressed by the Taliban, prayed for an end to their brutal regime.The story is about Kamila Sidiqi. In 1996, she lived in Kabul when the Taliban took over the city. Because their lives were in danger, her parents and brother left Afghanistan when the Taliban took over the city. Suddenly, she was responsible for the care and safety of the remaining siblings at home, five sisters and a brother. Under the Taliban, she was a prisoner in her own home. She had to figure out a way to support the household. Fortunately, she had a younger brother who at 13 years old, qualified as a male chaperone. Women could not leave the home without a chaperone any longer, and they were forced to be dressed in a chadri, a garment that covered their entire body except for their eyes which were visible through a narrow slit of netted material. Kamila was resourceful and brave and with her older sister’s help, she learned to sew and was able to build up a clandestine dressmaking business in her home. It not only supported her family but she was able to educate other women in the neighborhood, teaching them the trade and then employing them. She held out the constant hope that the conflict would soon end and Taliban control led by followers of the most violent form of Sharia Law, would be over as well. The author did an admirable job of showing the brutality of the Taliban, the death and destruction they left in their wake, the lack of freedom for the women in Kabul, the general atmosphere of fear that prevailed for all, and the courage and creativity of the women who had to provide for their families with little resources available to them, especially, of course, Kamila Sidiqi. The timeline was confusing because the author began with her own story, in 2005, and then the storyline moved back and forth as she wrote it. It seemed as if she was telling the story as if it was taking place in her time, in the middle of the first decade of 2000, when it actually began when the Taliban took over in 1996, when Sediqi, then only 19 years old, became the head of her household. She opened her dressmaking school in 1997. The high point of the book seemed to be Kamila’s invitation from Condaleeza Rice, to speak in America, in 2005. We learn that after 9/11, in 2001, when George W. Bush was President, the Taliban was dealt heavy losses and no longer had total control in major areas of Afghanistan. Women were granted more freedom. At that time, Kamila’s career began to flourish as she created more opportunities for her fellow Afghanis. She became even more of an entrepreneur, a world famous figure, and was offered many lucrative positions but she chose to stay in Kabul to help rebuild the economy, improve education and the civil rights for fellow Afghanis. She was in favor of America’s intervention and hoped it would bring about international cooperation to help Afghanistan, That was then, in 2005, and today, it would seem to not have worked out very well as the Taliban may be resurging once again as are other fanatic Islamic groups that believe in the practice of 7th century Islam.The story, although true, left me wanting more. There are few today who are not aware of the brutality and inequity of Sharia Law, the Taliban, Isis, Al Qaeda, and all fanatic elements of Islam that are on the rise and on the march. I wanted to find out more about the people who were able to maintain their faith in spite of these radicals who bastardized it, who were able to maintain respect, moving into the future without inspiring fear and hate. This book did not really explore “women” in war zones or their success, with the exception of this one woman. She seemed to present the Taliban as fools, almost as if had been fairly simple for Kamila to outsmart them. Also, I wasn’t quite sure why Najeeb, her brother, told her story. Why didn’t this very resourceful Kamila tell her own story? There were many unanswered questions left hanging.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don't really read biographies, I could say this can be the first one of the modern era. I had seen this book suggested by Good Housekeeping or Better Homes and Gardens some years ago and I happen to have landed a job at a school library where I have been for the past two years. I am an Assistant and suggested the book to the Librarian who asked for it in her next batch, and here I am. I read it and finished it before 2012 is over! I hope the characters are well and successful, I hope they never have to go through such hardships again and thanks for the window into the other worlds.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was an inspiring story about hope, optimism and persistence in the face of remarkable odds for the women of a household in an area of Kabul during the reign of the Taliban. At the beginning of the book, I found the author's account of arriving in Afghanistan to be a bit off putting. Then somehow her voice is lost in the narrative as she relates the story of Kamila and her sisters.After the recent controversy over Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, I find myself a bit skeptical of this story in part because of the amount of dialogue recorded that the author could not have been present to record. There are other parts of the story that are difficult for me to understand: how both parents could leave their children, mostly female, unprotected to hold down the fort in the city. Maybe it's a lack of cultural understanding on my part, or perhaps there's a piece to the Taliban occupation I'm missing. But if family is everything as is repeated often in the narrative, then I don't understand the parents leaving.Nevertheless the story is inspiring. I appreciated the epilogue at the end with the "where they are now" section and the comments about possible future concerns.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Living in america, it is difficult to know what other women in other countries are going through, just to survive. As we enjoy our nice lives here, others are struggling for food, a bed, and just to be able to walk outside unafraid. I was mesmerized by Ms Lemmon's memoir and how she had to learn to live and help her siblings under the rule of the Taliban. How she picked up a needle and thread and started a thriving business is told and a reader is left in awe of what one must do under the Taliban rule. This is a true story and one that should be required reading by all who complain of not having anything....this plucky, woman, banned from school and confined to her home, found a way out using her grit and determination. What a wonderful gift this book would be to all who feel they have obstacles that they can't overcome; Ms Lemmon is an inspiration to all.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Good Stuff * You can really feel the authors love and admiration for the subjects of her book * A hopeful and passionate real life story about resilience, perseverance, communities working together, faith and family * Excellent bibliography for further background information * Many stories of Afghanistan have so many negative male characters and it is nice to actually see stories of Afghan men who support and want more for their women. * Positively Inspiring and hopeful * Rich historical information that really helps you understand how much Afghanistan has gone through * The mention of what I believe to be very true that learning is the key to the future. Handouts don't work, you need to teach skills for those to help themselves * About incredibly strong real women surviving and thriving through extremely difficult timesThe Not so Good Stuff * Jumps around in a few spots and you feel temporarily lost * Would have liked the How you can help section in the ARC - but hey I think that might be me getting a little picky - they probably wanted to put up to date info for finished productFavorite Quotes/Passages"We're far more accustomed to-and comfortable with-seeing women portrayed as victims of war who deserve our sympathy, rather than as resilient survivors who demand our respect.""As he often told the eleven of them, "I look on all of you with one eye." To him it was his highest obligation and a duty of his faith to educate his children so that they could share their knowledge and serve their communities. Now he watched with a sinking heart as the Taliban closed girls' schools and forced women inside.""The more time I spent in Kabul the more I saw what they saw and the more I understood their frustration. I also wondered if this latest international foray into Afghan nation-building would end well for anyone.""Brave young women complete heroic acts everyday, 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."What I Learned * Incredible amounts of historical information about the history of Afghanistan * That I know very little about the lives of the Afghan people * That I had some prejudices about Afghanistan and this book helped me to realize how wrong I was in thinking some of the things I did. I have a new-found respect for their resilience and their strugglesWho should/shouldn't read * I would recommend that everyone read this. Pretty much everyone could benefit from reading this * Thinking many of the strict Taliban wouldn't be into this * This is a must have for every library4.5 Dewey'sI received this from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. Once again Harper you have introduced me to something that I probably never would have picked out myself
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is a story of hope. It chronicles the lives of a family of daughters left in Afghanistan with their young brother when the Taliban take over Kabul. Their father had been a supporter of the previous regime and was therefore a target. So were their older brothers. It was felt that they were safer staying in the city rather than trying to get them over the border.When money starts running low and womens' freedoms become more and more restricted the second daughter Kamila knows she needs to do something not only for her family but for the women of her neighborhood. But what can she do? Despite the Sharia laws that require women to wear a chadri (or burqua) they still have a fashion sense and want to wear pretty clothes underneath so Kamila decides to learn to sew. And learn she does. Her sister was already a rather well known seamstress so she had a good teacher. Kamila learns quickly and soon has a beautiful sample to take to the shops.But as a woman she cannot go out alone - her younger brother acts as her escort and despite laws forbidding it Kamila manages to negotiate with several shopkeepers for commissions. She slowly but surely builds a tailoring business that keeps her family going and employs a number of women in the neighborhood.The book is a very emotional read as you understand just how difficult it is for women of intelligence trying to live such a restrictive life. The women of Afghanistan had been allowed to go to school and to work before the Taliban came in and made them nothing more than afterthoughts. That did not stop them from using their brains and their skills to keep their families going.After the Taliban were forced out some rights were returned and Kamila went on to even bigger and better projects to help the women of her country. She is truly a woman to be applauded.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    God in heaven. What a slog. Sometimes I think that if a terrible writer applies herself, she can at least improve enough to produce readable report or something. Then I come across a book like this and I decisively change my mind. This book got published because the woman is well connected and it's a good cause. She probably worked for years on this, had the text cut in half, etc. But the facts are plain: she has neither a news sense nor a storytelling fiber in her body. OK, so you want to know something about women in Afghanistan? Stick with A Bookseller in Kabul by a real journalist. True, it takes place after the Taliban has been ousted and a family that has been living in Pakistan returns home. The daughters are educated, some having learned English in Pakistan, the father is liberal by any Afghan standard and yet ...Afghanistan is not an easy country for even these women. Dressmaker, however, has some recommended reading in the back which might be interesting, notably voices of Afghan women by NGOs during the Taliban period, probably based on refugee reports.This book (retrospectively) covers the Taliban period and a houseful of educated sisters. Sounds promising but Lemmon doesn't have the ability to put anything in context--to explain the absence of the parents, to describe the rules of living with the Taliban, to delve into others' life stories (the male dress buyers, for example), to establish social and economic levels, to sketch the nature of the family's Islamic faith and practices, set the conditions (battles and sectors in Kabul?) right before the Taliban arrived, etc. What were the perceptions of the Taliban before they swept the country and then Kabul? Lemmon is also too timid to ask for for money details: how much are these women earning? What does it cost to feed this household? What's the profit margin? The costs of materials? Trust me, the poor farmers and seamstresses in the least developed countries in the world love to talk about this stuff.Oh and I didn't understand how the UN agency was operating in Afghanistan under the Taliban. What were the rules? How many other foreign NGOs?Yes, Lemmon formerly worked for a TV network but not as a journalist. It must have been in administration, ad sales, something like that. I could tell it was going to be bad from the moment she got to the Kabul airport, sans afghanis (duh, how could you miss Afghans in Dubai?) without a clue how to phone the interpreter. Had this woman ever traveled to a foreign country before? Better stick to group tours. She speaks several languages but she couldn't have worked as a translator or interpreter. If she had, she would have picked up some sense of how to tell a story, right?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fascinating look at women outside America and how abhorrent their lives are - and a book that underscores what women must do to survive.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This large family of sisters outsmarts the Taliban by sewing clothes in their home and then marketing to the local shops in Kabul. They reach out to the other women in the community and teach them to sew to earn a little money and to pass the time doing something constructive while the Taliban is in power.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A factual account that reads like fiction, by an American writer about a woman in Kabul who created a business to ensure the survival of her family and those of other women when the Taliban controlled the city.Gayle Tzemach Lemmon left her position at ABC to earn an M.B.A. at Harvard and research women entrepreneurs in war zones. In 2005 she went to Kabul where she met Kamila Sidiqi, a young woman living in the Khair Khana section of the city, who had organized her own sisters to sew in order to survive after the Taliban took over the city. As the Taliban stay lengthened, other women, desperate to find ways to support their families, joined in a network of clothes makers. A sewing school emerged from the project. With her young brother acting as a chaperone, Sidiqi moved around the city negotiating the sale of the clothes. Eventually she was asked to join an UN-related effort to extend such enterprises.Sidiqi’s story is full of examples of the use of the Islamic religion to control women. Upon taking Kabul, the Taliban leaders decreed in God’s name that women should stay at home. If forced to appear in public, they must wear a burqa or chadri which covered the entire body and face. She must also be accompanied by a male relative, even if he was only a younger brother. Foreign agencies working in Afghanistan were told not to employ local women. These rules came as a shock after decades in which Muslim women in Kabul had put down the veil and dressed at times in European clothes. With local men killed or away fighting, the loss of employment was devastating to women who were supporting their families. Like many others, Kamila and her sisters were forced out of school with nothing to do while the family used up its resources.We need to remember, the Sidiqi's were Muslims themselves who had never known such restrictions from their religion. The Taliban and ISIS are the exception to the rule regarding the treatment of women in Islam. Islamic woman may also find deep meaning and peace in their own religious rituals, traditionally practiced at home separate from men’s assemblies at mosque. While those of us from other cultures may be bothered by Islamic practices, like polygamy and the veil, many Muslim women find our individualism and lack of covering equally shocking.Lemmon has written the story of Kamila Sidiqi in a clear narrative, complete with dialog and reading like a fiction. As a good journalist, she has researched and uncovered a story that is too often overlooked--that of the ways women find to support their families in times of civil war and unrest. In chaotic times women’s work may be invisible, but it is present and vital all the same.I strongly recommend The Seamstress of Khair and Khana to readers everywhere seeking to understand what happens to women and families in war and the relationship between women and Islam. By chance three fine books on this subject have recently appeared on my desk: this one, The Guest of the Sheik, and Marriage on the Street Corners in Tehran. I have also post a bibliography of my own reviews about Women and Islam. I believe this is a critical subject for all of us and I hope my reviews are useful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Non-Fiction 1996 Afghanistan-The Taliban Era-BiographyAn amazing story of true life heroism from a brave young woman in Afghanistan. Kamila has finished her schooling and a two year course. The Taliban are in control of her homeland causing great fear among all. Due to strict Taliban rules women do not work out of the home, are not allowed to speak to any male outside of their family and are to remain entirely covered from hear to toe. Most males in Kabul are not present due to previous uprisings of have needed to flee to find work elsewhere to support their families. Kamila has strong family ethics and an unstoppable determination. She knows she must do something to support her family so she learns to sew and starts the most amazing business in the harshest of environments. Kamila's story caused me to think! Could I have that same drive to force myself to learn something. Then could I face my fear and go out in public in to the Taliban ruled streets to sell my wares to the local markets? I thought about life under such rule where women were nothing. The lack of food and any security. Then the US sttacks to fight against the Taliban and the locals suffer the ongoing bombing from a country that is not their enemy. The epilogue tells of the rewards from Kamila's faithfulness. Such an enlightening read of courage that leaves one just grateful.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Nice premise: what happens to an Afghani family of 9 females as they are forced from their jobs and pursuing an education to indoors and making a highly successful business venture "hidden" from the Taliban from sewing. Very poor writing. Author is former journalist whose tendancy to write factually and concisely is very much evident and leaves much to be desired for a better emotional portryal amongst family members. Furthermore, Ms. Lemmon's writing is very confusing. She sometimes doesn't mention a person for a long while and then 30-40 pages later they make a random appearance or people disappear without a reason.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    the story was better than the telling but I love to see the strength of women in adversity
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is appealing in two ways. First, it is a great personal story of optimsm and leadership during hard times. Second, it provides a detailed description and feel of life in a place with very different customs and lifestyles from what most of us are accustomed to. The author spent years interviewing both her main subject, and many of the other relatives and people the subject, Kamila lived and worked with.The view by Afgans of the Russian effort, the Taliban effort, and the American effort in their country, which is more clearly dealt with in the last half of the book, is not quite what most Americans would assume.This book is well worth reading.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The incredible true story of an Afghan young woman who creates sewing jobs for her family and community during Taliban rule. Kila is inspiring. She dreams big, works hard and never gives up on her country. I learned how women survived during the Taliban reign. Amazingly she has become one of the nations leading entrepreneurs. She defiescpnditions and worked within parameters of rigid Taliban rules what an amazing woman!!!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It started strong, but then somewhere in the middle I just lost interest in it..... The same thing happened later to my husband, too, who read it without knowing how I had liked it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an eye opening inspirational book about life in Kabul under the Taliban and the bombing of Kabul after terrorist attack in September 2001. It shows, through Kamila, the ingenuity and fighting spirit of the people and how they adapt their skills to survive. The story could be better written but is still a compelling fast read (read in one day). It was nice to see the perspective of the innocent civilians stuck in the war and how eye opening that the women had never seen or even owned a burkha until the Taliban came. Before that, they were quite adventurous women - who partied in stylish western wear, educated themselves, and were very respected by men. The story shows us how precious our freedom to learn and to teach is. Kamila’s freedom ends in an unexpected moment and this thrust her into a situation where she draws on every ounce of resiliency and courage to survive and thrive. The small things I did not like was how was there a market for suits and dresses when it seemed like everyone was out of work and going hungry. Also how did she learn to make a dress in one afternoon and instantly teach her sisters? Overall still a very good book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When most of us hear “Afghanistan” what comes to mind are terms like war, Muslim, bombs, and Taliban. We rarely hear any personal stories from this area so when I was presented with the opportunity to read one, I agreed. In the midst of a war, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon uncovers a story of hope and perseverance. “War reshapes women’s lives and often unexpectedly forces them-unprepared-into the role of breadwinner.” –Gayle Tzemach LemmonKamela Sediqi’s life and dreams of becoming a teacher was thrown into disarray when the Taliban came to power in 1996. Kamela did not sulk and wallow in depression about the major changes imposed by the Taliban such as not laughing in public and wearing a full chadri (a veil where your entire head is cover with only a small screen for your eyes). When she and her sisters were about to suffocate from being homebound (another rule imposed by Taliban) and with money becoming scarce she had an idea. Kamela developed her sewing and marketing skills and started a small dressmaking business from her family home. This business blossomed into a school which taught women in their community a skill as well as gave them a sense of independence. Kamela truly possessed a servant’s heart and a selfless attitude. She was always thinking of ways to help her family and empower other women in her community. All the sewing was performed and taught in the Sediqi home which came to be a place of refuge and peace for the women and girls that came. The Sediqi family was pretty close knit. The father played an integral part in the lives of the daughters as far as encouraging them to pursue education but their mother was somewhat disconnected from the story. The oldest sister, Malekheh, and her family moved in with her sisters when their parents and older brother moved away due to the recent Taliban takeover. Malekheh proved to be a big help and encourager to Kamela. One of my favorite characters was Rahim, Kamela’s youngest brother. Rahim played a major role in building the business because he had to go to the market with Kamela and be her mahram (a male companion that no woman could be without while traveling outside of their home). He also learned how to do embroidery which was quite helpful to the dressmaking operation. During many close calls with the Taliban, one being when an AK-147 was put in her face, Kamela was determined to persevere. In the time Kamela was living in there was no place or time for fear. She was a strong willed young woman who remained focused and relied heavily on her faith. At the close of the book, we learn that Kamela started a construction business that was short lived due to heavy competition and that she was recognized on an international level by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I was also please that the author included follow ups to the characters we met at the close of the book. So many young women are overcoming and rising above unbelievable odds daily and they go unnoticed. I appreciate Gayle Lemmon going into a war zone to bring us this story of courage and hope. Overall I enjoyed this book but it dragged in the middle and was rushed towards the end. I wanted the story to have more depth it read more like an overview. The timeframe of when the events actually happened was somewhat confusing. The book is written in a way that a younger audience could follow along without getting bogged down. This book would be a good informative read for young adult/teenage readers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An inspiring story about a woman entrepreneur who started a business while the Taliban took over her city. Written like a novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Listened to the audio version of this book during my runs and found the characters and their story encouraging me to run longer. While this isn't a detailed story of the struggle and desperation of women under taliban rule in Afghanistan, it's a true story (why do some reviewers insist that it cannot be true when all of the reliable information I can find online supports it?) of a girl and her sisters and their bravery and determination to survive, keep their family together, and help their community. These were women accustomed to western clothes, education, entertainment, freedoms -- and had those taken away literally overnight. Forced to wear a chadri and be accompanied in public by a male (even if a young child). I found I wanted more details at times, but appreciated learning how these women felt about their oppression and how, in this instance, they survived it. Let's not forget the strength and power of girls who are educated.

Book preview

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana - Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Introduction

I touched down in Afghanistan for the first time on a raw winter morning in 2005 after two days of travel that took me from Boston to Dubai via London. My eyes stung and my head whirled. Too anxious to sleep, I had stayed up all night in Dubai’s Terminal II waiting for the Ariana flight to Kabul, scheduled to depart at 6:30 A.M. The Afghan airline urged travelers to arrive three hours early, which made finding a hotel feel somewhat beside the point. The predawn destinations on the big black travel board read like a guide to the world’s exotic hot spots: Karachi, Baghdad, Kandahar, Luanda. I realized I was the only woman in the airport, and, perched on a corner window ledge in the sparsely furnished Terminal II lobby waiting for my cell phone to charge, I tried hard to make myself invisible. But I could feel the puzzled stares of the men dressed in their loose-fitting shalwar kameez as they passed me by, pushing their rented silver luggage trolleys stacked high with bulging suitcases that were bound together with heavy brown cord. I imagined them wondering what in the world is that young woman doing here all alone at three o’clock in the morning?

To be honest, I wondered, too. I snuck into the empty but freshly cleaned ladies’ room to change from my Boston outfit of gray turtleneck, Kasil jeans, and English brown leather boots, into an oversize pair of black pants, black long-sleeved T-shirt, black Aerosoles, and black socks. My only color concession was a loose-fitting rust-colored sweater I had purchased at a New Age crystal shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My friend Aliya had lent me a black wool headscarf, and I struggled to casually toss it over my head and shoulders, as she had taught me when we were sitting together on a plush couch thousands of miles—and worlds—away in her dorm room at Harvard Business School. Now, twenty-five hours later, standing alone in a sterile restroom in Dubai, I draped and redraped my shawl a dozen times until I got it passably right. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself. Oh, it’s fine, I said out loud to my worried-looking reflection. The trip will be great. Faking confidence, I turned on my rubber wedge heel and walked out of the ladies’ room.

Eight hours later I descended the metal staircase onto the makeshift tarmac at Kabul International Airport. The sun shone brightly and the scent of charred winter air—crisp, but laced with fumes—went straight to my nose. I bumbled along, trying to keep Aliya’s wool scarf in place as I dragged my orange carry-on behind me. I had to stop every few feet to adjust my veil. No one had prepared me for how hard it was to stay covered while in motion, let alone when lugging heavy baggage. How did the women all around me manage it so gracefully? I wanted to be like them, but instead I looked ridiculous, a goofy foreign duckling fumbling among the local swans.

I waited for an hour in the 1960s-style airport, mesmerized by the carcasses of Russian tanks that still sat along the side of the runway, decades after the Soviets had left Afghanistan. I managed to get through the passport line quickly and without incident. So far, so good, I thought. But then, having gotten through customs, everyone around me quickly began to disperse in different directions, displaying a sense of purpose that I distinctly lacked. I felt a sharp stab of anxiety shoot through my stomach as I realized that I had no idea what to do or where to go. Journalists who travel to faraway and dangerous places usually work with fixers, local men and women who arrange their travel, interviews, and lodgings. Mine, a young man named Mohamad, was nowhere to be found. I fumbled through my wallet for his phone number, helpless and frightened but trying to look cool and collected. Where could he be? I wondered. Had he forgotten the American, the former ABC News producer, he had promised by email to pick up at the airport?

At last I found his mobile number on a piece of crumpled paper at the bottom of my purse. But I had no way to call him; I had dutifully charged my UK cell phone, but my London SIM card didn’t work here in Kabul. So much for preparation.

Ten minutes went by, then twenty. Still no Mohamad. I imagined myself, five days later, still stuck at the Kabul Airport. As Afghan families cheerfully hurried out the glass doors, I felt more lonely than I had at 3 A.M. in Dubai’s Terminal II. Only the unsmiling British soldiers milling around massive NATO tanks in front of the airport brought me any comfort. Worst-case scenario, I thought: I could go to the Brits and ask them to take me in. Never before had I found the sight of a tank at an airport reassuring.

Finally, I spotted a twenty something bearded man selling phone cards, candies, and juices at a little corner stand by the airport’s front door. I broke out a five-dollar bill and a big smile and asked in English if I could use his phone. He smiled and handed it over.

Mohamad, I cried, shouting loudly to be certain he could hear me. Hello, hello, this is Gayle, the American journalist. I am at the airport. Where are you?

Hello, Gayle, he said, calmly. I’m in the parking lot; I’ve been here the past two hours. We can’t come any closer because of security. Just follow the crowds; I’ll be waiting for you.

Of course, security restrictions. How could I not have thought of that?

I pushed my own overstuffed silver luggage cart the length of two football fields to a parking lot miles away from the NATO tanks and their British soldiers. There, as promised, was Mohamad, smiling warmly.

Welcome to Kabul, he said, grabbing my green Eddie Bauer duffel crammed full of headlamps, long johns, and wool blankets I had bought just for this trip. I wondered how many naïve foreigners Mohamad had greeted at the airport like this. He had worked with journalists for years and was a journalist in his own right. A friend at CBS News in London had insisted I hire him because she knew he was professional, experienced, and trustworthy—exactly what I would need in Kabul in the winter of 2005, a time when occasional rocket attacks and bombings had begun escalating into a full-blown insurgency. At that moment I felt most grateful for her insistence.

The streets of the Afghan capital were a cacophonous free-for-all, with crutch-bearing amputees, taped-together cars, donkeys, fuel-towing bicycles, and United Nations SUVs all fighting for the right-of-way with no traffic lights to guide them and only a smattering of police governing their progress. The crunchy grime of the brown Kabul air clung to everything—lungs, sweaters, headscarves, and windows. It was a noxious souvenir of decades of war in which everything, from the trees to the sewage system, had been destroyed.

I had never seen such an urban Wild West. Drivers would nudge the front end of their vehicles to within two inches of our blue Toyota Corolla, then suddenly careen back into their own lane. Afghan music blared from the Toyotas, Hondas, and Mercedes that were stuck with us in the gridlock. The city was clamorous in honking horns. White-haired old men with woolen blankets draped loosely across their shoulders stepped in front of cars, halting traffic and paying no attention to the oncoming vehicles. Clearly they—and everyone else—were used to this mad jumble of barely managed chaos that was Kabul.

I was not. I was a first-timer.

I was on winter break during my second year of MBA study at Harvard Business School. Journalism had always been my first love, but a year earlier I had given up my job covering presidential campaigns for the ABC News Political Unit, where I had spent much of my adult life. At thirty, I took the leap and decided to pursue my passion for international development, certain that if I didn’t leave then, I never would. So I shed the warm cocoon of my Washington, D.C., world for graduate school. The first thing I did was start hunting for a subject rich with stories that no one else was covering. Stories that mattered to the world.

The issue that called me was 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.

I began my research in Rwanda. I went there to see firsthand how women play a part in rebuilding their country by creating business opportunities for themselves and others. Women accounted for three-quarters of Rwanda’s citizens immediately after the 1994 genocide; a decade later, they remained the majority. International officials—all men—in the capital city of Kigali told me there was no story: that women did not own small businesses in Rwanda, that they worked only in the far less lucrative microfinance sector selling fruit and handicrafts at little stands on the side of the road. My reporting showed me they were wrong: I found women who owned gas stations and ran hotels. And the fruit sellers I interviewed were exporting their avocados and bananas to Europe twice a week. Shortly afterward I published a profile in the Financial Times of some of the most successful entrepreneurs I’d met—including a businesswoman selling baskets to Macy’s, the famous New York department store chain.

Now, just a few months later, I was in Kabul, again for the Financial Times, to report on a surprising phenomenon: a new generation of Afghan businesswomen who had emerged in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover. I had also promised to find a protagonist for a case study that Harvard Business School would teach the following year. My former network news colleagues had tried to help me prepare for Kabul and paved the way by sharing their contacts, but as soon as I arrived I realized just how little I actually knew about the country.

All I had was the passionate desire to pursue a story.

Most stories about war and its aftermath inevitably focus on men: the soldiers, the returning veterans, the statesmen. I wanted to know what war was like for those who had been left behind: the women who managed to keep going even as their world fell apart. War reshapes women’s lives and often unexpectedly forces them—unprepared—into the role of breadwinner. Charged with their family’s survival, they invent ways to provide for their children and communities. But their stories are rarely told. We’re far more accustomed to—and comfortable with—seeing women portrayed as victims of war who deserve our sympathy rather than as resilient survivors who demand our respect. I was determined to change this.

So I came to Kabul in search of that story. The plight of Afghan women had won worldwide attention in the wake of the Taliban’s ouster by American and Afghan forces, which followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I was eager to see what kinds of companies women were starting in a country that had barred them from schools and offices just four years earlier. I brought with me from Boston four pages, single spaced and neatly stapled, containing the names and email addresses of possible sources, the product of weeks of conversations with TV reporters, print journalists, Harvard contacts, and aid workers in the region.

I discussed interview ideas with Mohamad. Over cups of tea in the empty dining room of a hotel frequented by journalists, I asked him whether he knew any women who were running their own businesses. He laughed. You know that men in Afghanistan don’t get involved in women’s work. But after a moment of thought he looked up at me and admitted that yes, he had heard there were a few women in Kabul who had started their own companies. I hoped he was right.

As the days passed, I worked my way down the roster of potential interviewees but kept coming up empty. Many of the women whose names I had been given were running nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, that were not businesses at all. In fact, I was told, when the international community first entered Afghanistan en masse in 2002, it was easier to register an NGO than a company. The incentives were fixed early on. American officials in Washington and Kabul may have been championing Afghan businesswomen, holding public events and spending millions of government dollars on their behalf, but here I was struggling to find a single entrepreneur with a viable business plan. Surely they were out there and I just hadn’t looked in the right places?

My deadline was approaching, and I was beginning to fear that I’d return home empty-handed and let down both the Financial Times and my professor at Harvard. And then finally a woman who worked with the New York nonprofit organization Bpeace told me about Kamila Sidiqi, a young dressmaker turned serial entrepreneur. Not only did she run her own firm, I was told, but she had gotten her unlikely start in business as a teenager during the Taliban era.

At last I felt a jolt of reporter’s excitement, the thrilling rush of news adrenaline that journalists live for. The idea of a burqa-clad breadwinner starting a business under the nose of the Taliban was remarkable for sure. Like most foreigners, I had imagined Afghan women during the Taliban years as silent—and passive—prisoners waiting out their prolonged house arrest. I was fascinated, and eager to learn more.

The more I dug around, the more I realized that Kamila was only one of many young women who had worked throughout years of the Taliban regime. Driven by the need to earn money for their families and loved ones when Kabul’s economy collapsed under the weight of war and mismanagement, they turned small openings into large opportunities and invented ways around the rules. As women throughout the world always had, they found a way forward for the sake of their families. They learned how to work the system and even how to thrive within it.

Some staffed foreign NGOs, often in the area of women’s health, which organizations the Taliban permitted to continue. Doctors could still work. And so could women who helped other women to learn basic hygiene and sanitation practices. Some taught in underground schools, leading courses for girls and women in everything from Microsoft Windows to math and Dari, as well as the Holy Q’uran. These study sessions took place across Kabul in private homes or, even better, in women’s hospitals, the one safe zone the Taliban permitted. But the women could never fully let their guard down; classes would pack up at a moment’s notice after someone came running down a hallway to warn that the Taliban were coming. Still others, like Kamila, launched home businesses and risked their safety to find buyers for the goods they produced. Though their vocations differed, these women shared one thing in common: their work meant the difference between survival and starvation for their families. And they did it on their own.

No one had fully told these heroines’ stories. There were moving diaries that captured the brutality and despair of women’s lives under the Taliban, and inspiring books about women who created new opportunities after the Taliban had been forced into retreat. But this story was different: it was about Afghan women who supported one another when the world outside had forgotten them. They helped themselves and their communities with no help from beyond their poor and broken country, and they reshaped their own future in the process.

Kamila is one of these young women, and if you judge by the enduring impact her work has had on modern-day Afghanistan, it’s fair to say that she’s among the most visionary. Her story tells us much about the country to which we continue to send our troops nearly a decade after the Taliban’s foot soldiers stopped patrolling the streets outside her front door. And it offers a guide as we watch to see whether the past decade of modest progress will turn out to have been a new beginning for Afghan women or an aberration that disappears when the foreigners do.

Deciding to write about Kamila was easy. Actually doing so was not. Security went to pieces during the years I spent interviewing Kamila’s family, friends, and colleagues. Suicide bombings and rocket attacks terrorized the city with increasing frequency—and potency. Eventually these grew sophisticated and coordinated enough to pin Kabulis down in their homes and offices for hours at a time. Even the usually stoic Mohamad occasionally showed his nervousness, bringing me his wife’s black Iranian-style headscarf to help me look more local. After each incident I would call my husband to say that everything was okay, and urge him not to pay too much attention to all the bad news in his Afghanistan Google Alert. Meanwhile, all across Kabul cement walls rose higher and the barbed wire surrounding them grew thicker. I and everyone else in Kabul learned to live with heavily armed guards and multiple security searches each time we entered a building. Thugs and insurgents began kidnapping foreign journalists and aid workers from their homes and cars, sometimes for cash and sometimes for politics. Journalist friends and I spent hours trading rumors we had heard of attacks and potential attacks, and texting one another when security alerts warned of neighborhoods we should avoid that day. One afternoon following an intense day of interviews I received a worried call from the U.S. Embassy asking if I was the American writer who had been abducted the day before. I assured them I was not.

This worsening reality complicated my work. Afghan girls who worked with Kamila during the Taliban era grew more nervous about meeting with me for fear that their families or bosses would shun the attention a foreigner’s visit attracted. Others frightened of being overheard by their colleagues refused entirely. Don’t you know the Taliban are coming back? one young woman asked me in a nervous whisper. She worked for the United Nations at the time, but had just been telling me all about the NGO she worked for during the Taliban. They hear everything, she said, and if my husband finds out I talked to you, he will divorce me.

I didn’t know how to answer such questions but did everything I could to protect my interview subjects and myself: I dressed even more conservatively than the Afghan women around me; wore my own headscarves, which I had bought at an Islamic clothing store in Anaheim, California; and learned to

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