The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Author:Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Afghanistan, Sociology, Social Science, Kabul (Afghanistan), Labor, Kabul, Religion, Siblings, Customs & Traditions, Sediqi, Business, Community life, Kabul (Afghanistan) - Social life and customs - 21st century, Sisters, Afghanistan), Cultural Heritage, Women, Sisters - Afghanistan - Kabul, Family & Relationships, Kamela - Family, Dressmakers, Kabul (Afghanistan) - Economic conditions - 21st century, Business & Economics, Khair Khana (Kabul, Businesswomen - Afghanistan - Kabul, General, Dressmakers - Afghanistan - Kabul, Biography & Autobiography, Kamela, Community life - Afghanistan - Kabul - History - 21st century, Businesswomen, Biography, Islam
ISBN: 9780061732379
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-03-14T10:00:00+00:00

7

An Unexpected Wedding Party

The babies had been crying all night. Sleepless, overworked, and worried about the health of her twin girls, Malika was tempted to collapse onto her thick red pillow near the wooden crib and join them in their tears. But she had no time for such indulgences. The infants were feverish and colicky; as soon as it opened at 2 P.M. she would take them upstairs to Dr. Maryam’s clinic.

“Bachegak, bachegak”—little baby, little baby—“please, I promise it will be okay,” Malika whispered as she scooped both babies into a tight embrace and walked them around the room, trying to lull them to sleep. The tiny newborn twins had arrived nearly two months ahead of their due date and had struggled to gain weight and strength ever since. They remained weak and sickly, their small bodies battling diarrhea and what seemed like an endless series of infections. Malika had been lucky to find a female doctor in time to assist her premature delivery; these days most women gave birth in their bedrooms without the benefit of professional help. Of course it wasn’t guaranteed that making it to a hospital would improve an expectant mother’s chances; the civil war had destroyed most medical facilities, and combatants on all sides had stripped hospitals bare of equipment and supplies. Patients had to fill their own prescriptions and even had to bring their own food.

With the Taliban in power, doctors in Kabul could once again go to work without fear of rocket attacks, but female doctors—those who hadn’t fled the country when the Taliban took Kabul—faced an entirely new set of problems. The Taliban had ordered hospitals, like every other institution, to be segregated by gender, with women physicians restricted to treating female patients and working in female-only wards. They were not allowed to work with—let alone consult—their male colleagues. Foreign aid organizations were still wrestling with the question of how much support to offer the Taliban, particularly given their policies toward women, so help had been slow to reach the nation’s hospitals. As a result, doctors and surgeons regularly worked without even the basics such as clean water, bandages, and antiseptics. Anesthesia was a luxury. Along with most other women in Kabul, Malika now had no choice but to seek treatment from one of the very few women doctors who had chosen to remain in the capital. Dr. Maryam, like many of her colleagues, ran a private clinic in addition to her hospital work in order to help support her family.

Malika arrived at the doctor’s office early and for good reason; within thirty minutes, a crowd of women had filled the austere waiting room, with many standing against the walls holding infants in their arms. Demand for Dr. Maryam’s services had grown so great in the last few months she had hired an assistant who handed out a numbered piece of paper to each woman as she entered the office. Malika waited patiently for her number to be called. She fixed her

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