Archive for September, 2010

Written by: Wynona Heim and Tamara Myatt

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Fatima Hakimzada currently works as Deputy Director of Demo Construction Company in which she is a primary shareholder, and is in her third year of law school.  As with so many businesswomen in Afghanistan today, she harbors dreams that take muscle to realize: schools for the country’s children, some too poor to do anything except beg for bread on the streets, destined for brief lives bereft of the most basic needs.   A natural leader in her community, Fatima has has just returned from participating in the Vital Voices regional conference in Asia, held September 14^th-16^th in New Delhi, India.
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Professor Bullough is the Academic Director for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Programs and is an Assistant Professor of Global Entrepreneurship at the Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship

Why do women in Afghanistan start businesses, and what motivates them to grow them beyond the micro level?

One very real reason that women (and men) start businesses in the developing world is because of necessity.  If  male heads of household aren’t bringing in enough money, then often the women can be successful.  Even in patriarchal societies, while cultural norms may restrict women’s involvement in the economy, many husbands and fathers are very supportive of their wives and daughters being successful outside the home.

In some cases, the women we deal with are stronger than their men and don’t get much push-back. We have yet to research this specifically and support with data. There are very real cultural obstacles women face that are unique from those faced by men.  They stem from cultural limitations placed on women, to outright war and security problems.
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Violence flared in Afghanistan on the night Ilaha Eli Omar ’12 was born in 1979 and has continued ever since, but the Thunderbird Global MBA On-Demand student still dreams of peace for the women of her homeland.

Omar, who left Afghanistan with her family when she was 40 days old, says her prospects would have been bleak if she had remained in the war-torn country. “I could have been dead,” she says. “Or I could have been an amputee or could have been married to someone I did not even know and have 10 kids by now.”

Instead, Omar grew up surrounded by prosperity in Southern California.

“I am educated, I have a business, I have my health, I have everything and more,” she says. “So it is my responsibility now to take everything I have learned and pass it back to Afghanistan.”
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