December 04, 2008

One Project And A World Of Change For Afghan Women

Kudo's to this Virginia Beach woman.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Most of these women do not like burqas, which conceal everything and make women look like giant blue shuttlecocks.

One complained that when the Taliban forced her to wear one, she could not fit her glasses under the tight headband, so she could not see. Another remembered how her daughter, unused to the long garment, tripped and scraped her knees.

So it is with some measure of irony that these Afghan women now sew mini-burqas for foreigners to put on wine bottles. They know the math: They can make as many as 35 wine-bottle burqas from a real burqa, and they can earn a significant amount of money - for an Afghan woman, at least.

The women learned about the odd tastes of foreigners through the Women of Hope Project, started by Betsy Beamon, an American who left her customer-service job with US Airways after the Sept. 11 attacks and moved to Afghanistan to help women.

The women here, each a kind of entrepreneur, have experimented with what foreigners like. One woman sews Taliban dolls. Another sews doll families, a cross between voodoo dolls and Bollywood movie stars.

Another invented the wine-bottle apron, with the word ''Afghanistan'' crudely stitched near a camel. Another woman is such an artist that she can take a picture of a pet or scene and embroider it perfectly on a pillow. Next she wants to make a Michael Jackson pillow.

Now that it's almost Christmas, the women have shifted gears. The artist has sewn a flawless Santa Claus on a pillow - even though she did not know who he was - and cardinals in pine trees. The women sew mini-burqas in red and green, and tiny pillows to be hung as Christmas ornaments - some that misspell Kabul - and Christmas stockings. There are table runners in red and green, and bookmarks with crosses.

In a country where spreading Christianity is against the law and where the Taliban recently gunned down a foreign woman accused of trying to convert Muslims, such crafts could create a major controversy.

But these women, all Muslims, shrug when asked about what they are sewing. ''It's for Christmas,'' said Marjan, about 45, whose husband is sick and does not work.

Thinking of a Christmas gift? There are links to stores that carry some of this merchandise.

Beamon's website - Women of Hope Project.