The text consists of excerpts from Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's non-fiction narrative, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, which chronicles the extraordinary resilience of Kamila Sidiqi and her family in Kabul, Afghanistan. The primary setting is the capital under the oppressive Taliban regime, where strict religious edicts banned women from working or attending school, forcing them into perilous confinement. In response to the economic peril and emotional despair, Kamila courageously started a discreet, home-based tailoring and dressmaking business, often traveling in a chadri to secure vital orders from shopkeepers. This initial enterprise quickly expanded into a secret sewing school that employed and empowered dozens of other neighborhood women, offering them both income and a sense of purpose during a period of intense restriction. Kamila risked beatings and imprisonment by defying rules that required women to remain at home and be accompanied by a male guardian for all public excursions. Following the American invasion, the narrative details Kamila’s continuing mission to build a stable country by working with ...

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