by Aleksandra StyśThe world’s news agencies assail us every day with damaging pictures of Afghanistan’s various emergencies. But, we cannot look only at scenes of war and destruction. There is an unknown and peaceful story beyond the headlines, one of passionate and courageous people, many of whom are Afghan women entrepreneurs.
Rangina Hamidi (left) is definitely one of the most representative of this group. A dynamic entrepreneur, she is the president of Kandahar Treasure, and a women’s rights activist. She was in Brussels at the beginning of May, when she came to speak at the conference "Faces of Afghanistan: Beyond the Headlines" organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC), where I work, in cooperation with the U.S. Mission to the EU. We met the following day, May 5, for this interview.
Born in Afghanistan, she left her country at the age of three, during the Soviet occupation. She spent some time in Pakistan first and then moved to the United States in 1988, where she earned a BA degree at the University of Virginia. After 15 years in the US, she decided to return to her native Kandahar, in Southern Afghanistan, very excited about developing the country and the nation. Initially, she was Program Director of the Women’s Income Generation (WIG), a non-profit project led by a development organization, Afghans for Civil Society (ACS) in Kandahar.
But, frustrated by the bureaucracy and discouraged by the total lack of vision on the part of world aid organizations, Rangina soon decided to establish her own sustainable business, one that could not only make money and create jobs, but also make Kandahar women play a pivotal economic role in Afghan society.
“The problem is that people are aware of all these giant sums of money poured into the country, but they do not see any difference. Where has all this money gone?” – asks Rangina. “Nine years after the fall of the Taliban, there are still not enough tangible results”. Criticizing openly that money is often wasted on ineffective and unsustainable programmes, she stresses that only real jobs can provide alternatives to young Afghan men who are otherwise tempted to work for those who make money out of the war. “We are battling with a war economy in Afghanistan,” she says.
Kandahar Treasure employs 350 women artisans from the Kandahar area, all of whom work from home. Items produced, including shawls, pillows, table linens, bracelets, belts, mobile phone accessories, and scarves, are all embellished with a unique Afghan style of embroidery – the so-called Khamak style, one of the oldest, finest and most traditional forms of embroidery art in the world. “It is somehow restricted, geometric, stable, rather ‘inside’ than ‘outside’ which,” she says, “perfectly reflects the life of women from the region.” (Right: Shajana, Sitara, Bib & Roqia.)
This fascinating and extremely energetic young woman is not only a busy entrepreneur, but also a wife and a mother of a 4-month-year old baby, Zara. Rangina deeply believes that women are key actors for social change and, therefore, Kandahar Treasure goes beyond its pure economic activity, thus being a peace project par excellence. It not only gives the home-bound women the possibility to become economically independent and self-sufficient, but also creates a unique platform for ideas-sharing, and provides them with information on a number of topics of key concern: educational projects, NGO programmes, health and hygiene issues being the most striking examples. “Women use their talents and passion for peace, thus contributing to a more hopeful future of the country,” says Rangina, stressing that three decades of war have completely altered the traditional family structure in Afghanistan, and women have in many cases become the main, if not the only, breadwinners of their households. Where is the comparative advantage of her business? The answer is very simple: Rangina does not need any transport, has no factory and no machinery – since all the items are hand-made – and therefore no electricity is needed either. For security reasons, women bring their finished work to the office, then they have to wash and iron the items and check carefully whether there are no mistakes. Rangina pays them immediately for the items they bring, not just for the ones already sold. (Left: Rangina with KT.)
She admits, however, that setting up a small business in a war economy is not an easy task, albeit quite an adventure. She does not use micro-credit, currently quite popular in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as she is personally quite dismissive about it. “I am against a ‘beggar economy.’ We should not be given more money, but create economy that will be sustainable”. For this reason, from the outset her idea was to be totally self-sufficient. “I haven’t received a single penny from anyone since 2008,” she declares. When she started in 2003, the products were totally unsophisticated, often of poor quality, far from being true art. She tried to convince women artisans that making fine products will be the best expression of their cultural richness, and it worked!
Kandahar Treasure’s clientele varies greatly, as they market both locally and internationally and many products are imported to the US, where Rangina’s sister lives. “Our clients are mostly women who care about women’s products and care about Afghanistan in general. These may be women in their 50s or college students. But one thing is clear: people do not buy our products because they feel pity; they admire and appreciate the quality.” She also markets her goods at the military airbase in Kandahar two days a week.
She confirms that the competition is high, as there are many businesses that use grants to train their staff, and, in such cases, their goods are always much cheaper than what Kandahar Treasure produces. “There is a flurry of cheap products coming from China, Pakistan and Iran – you must have an eye for detail to see the difference,” says Rangina. She fully acknowledges that the price of her products is comparatively high, but the product you get is perfect quality and unique. CR
For contact and more information, please visit Kandahar Treasure’s website: http://kandahartreasure.com
Aleksandra Styś graduated from the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw in 2007, where she studied predominantly translation in English and French, as well as anthropological lingustics, and from the College of Europe in 2009, specialising in EU external relations. Passionate about the history and architecture of Warsaw, since 2006 she has worked as a city guide interpreting the complex beauty of the Polish capital to foreign tourists. A real admirer of Art Nouveau and French culture, she is also a zealous jogger and biker, especially in the woods. She is currently working in one of the Brussels think tanks committed to European integration, dealing with foreign policy.
