Kandahar Treasure currently provides work to at least 180 women and men in Kandahar, Afghanistan. With 53 “lead artisans” serving as liaisons between KT and a network of over 173 women artisans, Kandahar Treasure supports women and families across the province. Most of the women employed at the business center are widowed or unmarried, meaning their work at KT is their main source of income and allows them to be self-sufficient rather than reliant upon male family members.
I am proud to sustain my culture and my tradition through my fingers. 
Karima has three sons and one daughter who was blinded as an infant. Karima was the second wife of her late husband and after he passed away, leaving her with four young children, Karima had no idea how to provide for her kids. She learned about Kandahar Treasure through her mother who used to take work to her younger sisters at home. Karima had never learned the art of Khamak, but she could sew. She wanted to take tailoring home but was told that Kandahar Treasure does not allow tailoring to be completed in women’s homes. After much talk with the women of KT at that time, Karima was finally convinced that coming to work in the office was neither a bad nor immoral thing for a woman! She gave her work as a tailor at the Kandahar Treasure office a week’s trial before deciding to officially join KT in 2009. Over a decade later, Karima is proud to report that she supports her family through her income. She is most particularly proud of having been able to cover the marriage expenses of her three sons through her salary. Wedding expenses in Afghanistan are the full responsibility of the groom’s family. She has been able to do what an Afghan father traditionally does – financially support his sons’ weddings. Kandahar Treasure proudly employs Karima to continue to fulfill her and her family’s dreams.
Khanum Gula has an unusual life story for a woman of Kandahar. 
She is the eldest of four sisters, none of whom are married! Khanum Gula lives with her three sisters and a married brother and his family. She worked for more than a decade as a master embroiderer with Kandahar Treasure and finally retired due to poor eyesight in 2019. Her sisters and sister-in-law continue to take work to complete at home. She was one of KT’s best and fastest workers and helped us revive very old traditional designs that some young artisans were not able to. She loves to laugh and loves colorful work; she never liked working with dull threads!
Maami is happily married and has four children – one daughter and three sons. Maami’s family lived in extreme poverty until she and her daughter started to support the family with additional income. For many years, Maami worked as an aide to wealthy women in their homes. In 2009, she realized that her services were not valued at the homes where she worked and, during a salary dispute, she decided to quit her job and join Kandahar Treasure. She worked with Kandahar Treasure as a master artisan until 2020. After the Covid pandemic, she decided to spend more time with her family at home. While she is no longer working with Kandahar Treasure as a full-time staff, she still takes work home to complete. She is very happy with her work at Kandahar Treasure and says, “I am respected for the work I do, and I enjoy making beautiful things.”
Kulsoom is a young master artisan who joined Kandahar Treasure in 2021 when the women decided to return to work after the fall of the Afghan government in August. Kulsoom was only allowed to complete the 6th grade before uncle prohibited her from attending school in 2015. Her parents only have three daughters. Being the youngest and seeing her dad lose his job with the government transition, Kulsoom took this job with Kandahar Treasure to financially support her family. She is angry at her uncle for stopping her educational journey and has challenged him with this job, arguing “you cannot feed us so you cannot stop me from going out to earn.” The power of earning is strong. Kulsoom is determined to continue to learn while she works with Kandahar Treasure. She wants to create a different future for herself and her family through her work. She wants to learn how to use a computer and plans to learn the English language.
Shajana was our politician. A highly opinionated woman, Shajana was a grandmother of three and had herself raised nine children at the time she joined Kandahar Treasure in 2011! Years ago, Shajana lost a front tooth and would always cover her mouth with her scarf. When Kandahar Treasure staff asked her why she covered her mouth, she showed us her toothless smile. We thought she looked cool without the tooth, that its absence was part of her identity, and we told her so. Now she no longer wears the scarf and instead smiles with confidence. With her expressive mind, Shajana became a natural advocate on behalf of the working women in Kandahar Treasure. In 2021, her family had to move out of the country because her sons worked with the security sector in the old government. Shajana no longer lives in Kandahar and the women artisans miss their advocate!
Farzana was handicapped with polio from childhood, leaving her with has no prospect of marriage or children in the future. When she first came to KT, she did not know how to sew in a straight line, but in two months, she could create her first complete pair of local traditional attire! Master tailor Karima was her guide, leading her through an opportunity to be seen and contribute to society. Farzana sent this message of gratitude to our founder, Rangina Hamidi:
“If you and Karima had not helped and taught me how to cut and stitch, I wouldn’t be able to do this by myself. I felt like a deaf and blind person before, but now, with your assistance, I can see my way and hear my words. May Allah grant you all the desires you have in life; I am grateful to you!”
Fawzia feeds the staff of Kandahar Treasure with her cooking skills. Fawzia laughs out loud and says, “I was born to cook.” A fun soul with a deep hurt, she finally confessed that she will have no one to bury her when she dies. Fawzia never married because she said that she could never imagine taking care of a husband – from washing his clothes, to ironing, to taking care of all of his needs and preparing meals for him. She was born an independent soul but knows now at an old age that she needs the support that children and family often give to aging family members. In a conversation over lunch in Kandahar in 2022, Fawzia challenged Rangina Hamidi to consider investing in a permanent home for women of Kandahar Treasure like herself who have no families. Stunned by the challenge, Rangina has started fundraising for a permanent center for women in Kandahar. Fawzia hopes that her sisters at Kandahar Treasure can provide the support she will need when she is no longer able to cook for them. Kandahar Treasure is family for Fawzia, and a permanent women’s center would become Fawzia’s final home with her sisters and daughters—her family not by blood but by heart and shared experience.
Shiringula has been working in different capacities with Kandahar Treasure since she joined in 2005. She served as an artisan liaison, became a full time artisan at Kandahar Treasure, took time off for health reasons and has recently joined back work as an artist at home making the fringes for our beautiful scarves. Her poor eyesight no longer allows her to work on the detailed embroidery, but she is now working to finish KT’s embroidered scarves with the hand-made fringes that she spins daily. All our products’ fringes are all handmade! Shiringula has had a very hard life. Married at a very young age and giving birth to more girls than boys, she finally realized that as an old widowed mother it is her girls who are looking after her wellbeing. She confessed that she never liked it when she gave birth to girls, but she knows now that her strength in life is her daughters.
