‘Dressmaker’: The next big Afghanistan book? - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

‘Dressmaker’: The next big Afghanistan book?

The turbulent history of Afghanistan has inspired blockbuster novels — Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” — and best-selling true stories such as Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea.”

Now Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s new book may be poised for similar success.

Lemmon tells the true story of Kamila Sidiqi, who in 1996 at age 19 began a clandestine dressmaking business to support her family and dozens of neighbors after the Taliban seized control of Kabul. Women were forced to quit their jobs and stay off the streets, effectively turning them into prisoners in their own homes.

“This story happens to be set against the most extreme of backdrops — Taliban-era Afghanistan — but it’s a universal story that just as easily could have been set in the U.S. during the Civil War or the U.K. during World War II.” said Lemmon, a former ABC News journalist who is now deputy director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

HarperCollins is spreading the word among the military, through book clubs, mommy blogs and the entrepreneurial world of finance. “It’s an incredible, visceral and emotional story,” said Julia Cheiffetz, senior editor at HarperCollins. Lemmon, who has visited Afghanistan six times, said she hopes Kamila’s story increases economic opportunities for women there.

“Once we see these women as resources to be invested in,” she said, “it will change the conversation and change the world.”

— Gannett