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

Kamila and Rahim enter the quiet alley. Nervous, she leads her brother into the shop, reminding herself of all the people who depend on her. Ali the shopkeeper seems friendly as they begin to talk in Dari (a language traditionally from the north of the country). They proceed through the formalities, discussing their families and establishing their credentials. Ali has put everything he owns into the store and is desperate for it to succeed. Ali tells Kamila about his own family’s struggles in the war; his brother has fled the fighting and has also opened a tailoring shop. Kamila listens and then presents her sample. Ali likes the work and places an order, asking for minor cosmetic changes. He also asks for wedding dresses, a more complicated creation, but Kamila accepts. Delighted, she and Rahim walk back to the family house.

That evening, the sisters begin to work. Without electricity, they use hurricane lamps for light. They discuss how to streamline the creation process. They form an assembly line and use their mother’s abandoned room for extra space. Kamila reminds them that other women have been selling clothes, so “we really need to make sure our work is as creative, beautiful, and professional as possible” (70). They must stick to deadlines and demonstrate their reliability. While the sisters focus on fulfilling orders, Malika is catering to higher end, boutique clients. Malika understands instinctively how to combine the strict Taliban requirements with a sense of style. Most of her orders are for weddings and Eid (a festival of Islam), though celebrations are less frequent nowadays. There have even been reports of the Taliban breaking up wedding parties and hauling away the groom to prison. Malika’s work is so popular that she is in danger of overworking herself. The other girls help her care for the baby twins, while Malika still takes the time to instruct her sisters. 

One afternoon, their work is interrupted by a knock on the door. Everyone falls quiet. Kamila is relieved to see her Aunt Huma entering with her 15-year-old daughter, Farah. As they talk, Huma reveals that she and her daughters are leaving for Pakistan. She wants to take Kamila and the other sisters with her, but they politely decline; it is too expensive and dangerous to leave Kabul. Later, after Huma leaves, Kamila reflects on her evening. She is more determined than ever to succeed. Weeks pass and the women work hard to fill the orders. They have three clients, but Kamila is keen to expand. They hire a widow named Sara as their first official employee; Sara is a talented seamstress, helping alleviate the pressure on Malika and helping to supervise the creative process. Her presence frees up Kamila to focus on marketing and planning. Soon, their reputation spreads and more women appear at their door asking for work. Kamila is determined to find space for them all. She thinks about opening a tailoring school and enters Malika’s room, desperate to share her idea. 

Kamila and Rahim leave the house in the morning to deliver orders at the market. For most of the previous night, Kamila and Malika had stayed up to discuss their plans for a school. To make it happen, they need more orders. As Kamila and her brother walk, she seeks Rahim’s opinion on the idea. He has taken much of the business on board and has seen Kamila haggle in the market to reduce their costs. Rahim likes Kamila’s proposal for the school but worries how girls will come and go to the house all day without anyone noticing. Kamila has thought about this and plans to ensure that all women are home before dark and that everyone knows that there are no men in the house. The school will open next week, she says. Kamila and Rahim deliver their products to Ali, who tells them of another of his brothers who has arrived in Kabul and opened another tailoring store. Ali promises to introduce him to Kamila. They go to the new store immediately, where Hamid meets them. Hamid places an order and promises more business in the future. He then tells a story, how he had seen an old woman lift her veil for a moment in a store, only to be set upon by the Amr bil-Maroof. The men beat and abused the old woman, shocking Hamid. Kamila and Rahim walk home together in silence.

The school is taking shape within a week. Girls flock to learn how to sew; they pay nothing for lessons but do not earn a salary until they finish their training. The clothing they produce during their lessons is then sold at the market. Neelab, a young girl from the neighborhood and the daughter of a tailor, assists them. She is young enough to be allowed out in public without a male escort, so her help is invaluable. New students are made aware of the rules. After three weeks, the school is growing rapidly, as are the number of orders. After beginning in the spring of 1997 with four girls, the group expands to 34 girls and climbing. The high number is becoming more difficult to manage. The girls develop a strict schedule, designed to limit the number of people arriving on any given day. They also need more space, and Kamila has considered buying a generator to power the sewing machines and speed up their orders. The school is now providing economic support to many of the employees, having a transformative effect on the disposition of women like Sara.

Rahim goes alone to the market to purchase supplies. He does this regularly but one night, he does not return home. Kamila begins to worry, unable to go out and search for him herself. She prays for hours. Finally, she hears the gate and runs to her little brother as he arrives home. He is visibly shaken: He was stopped in the street by three Taliban guards. They interrogated him about his family, particularly about whether his father is fighting the Taliban, until they became distracted and forgot about Rahim. Kamila worries, realizing that—despite their hard work—they are “just kids trying to survive another year of war together with no parents to watch over them” (92).