The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
HarperCollins, 2011, 256 pgs.

Kamila Sidiqi was raised in a family that prized education. She graduated from a teaching institute in Kabul shortly before the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. Confined to home under Taliban laws, Kamila and her siblings were anxious and fearful as Kamila became the sole support of her family when her brother and father fled to Pakistan to avoid arrest. Defying Taliban rules she started a dressmaking enterprise that grew to support her family and others in her neighborhood.

Though the book is a biography, the style borders on fiction as the author alternates events and background with reconstructed conversations. This style creates a quick moving and readable story, but, as a result it often feels more like fiction than fact. I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoyed Three Cups of Tea or The Kabul Beauty School and works of fiction about Afghanistan such as Under the Persimmon Tree or The Swallows of Kabul. SH