Archive for the ‘Hamidi, Rangina’ Category

Conditions remain turbulent for many Afghan women nearly 10 years after U.S. and British troops launched Taliban air strikes, but 2005 Project Artemis fellow Rangina Hamidi said new opportunities are emerging. “The doors of opportunity to education, to work and to do other things have definitely been opened for women in the past 10 years,” Hamidi said March 24, 2011, during a return visit to Thunderbird School of Global Management. “However, we still live in great uncertainty and insecurity in 2011, not knowing what the next day will bring.”

Hamidi is founder and president of Kandahar Treasure, the first private women’s enterprise based in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The company produces fine hand-embroidered products, which Hamidi sells in Afghanistan and other markets such as the United States.

Hamidi said the opportunity to work empowers her employs and benefits the entire community. “The source of income for them is a source of stability,” she said. “For 30-plus years, Afghan people in general — and especially Afghan women — have been promised many promises that unfortunately many times were not kept.” She said Kandahar Treasure provides women with a promise for a better future.

“Kandahar Treasure promises a tomorrow,” Hamidi said. “Kandahar Treasure promises that even in the midst of war, even if the international community leaves their country, the women will be able to continue creating a source of income for themselves by creating a beautiful product.” Learn more in the video below:

The Arizona Costume Institute is bringing Thunderbird Project Artemis fellow Rangina Hamidi to Phoenix! Join us next week to hear from this inspiring entrepreneur. Ms. Hamidi was part of the first Project Artemis- Afghanistan class in 2005.

Kandahar Treasure founder and President, Rangina Hamidi, speaks about her mission of economically and socially empowering Afghan women by helping them produce embroidered artisanal textiles which are sold in markets throughout the world. The women of Kandahar make a special kind of fine-needle, exquisitely detailed embroidery known as khamak.

Ms. Hamidi escaped the violence of her native Afghanistan at the age of three, moving with her family first to Pakistan and then to the US in 1988. She returned to her homeland after the 9/11 attacks to help Afghan women establish a place for themselves in their society through sustainable commerce rather than charity.

Ms. Hamidi is a sought after speaker and participant in conferences around the world. She has been internationally recognized for her work with women and was selected as one of 18 finalists for the CNN 2007 Hero Award. In 2010 she was a speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

For more information visit ArizonaCostumeInstitute.com.

ACI Members Reception: 6-6:45pm, Cummings Great Hall, Phoenix Art Museum

Refreshments will be served

Lecture: 7-8:30pm, Whiteman Auditorium

Free and open to the public

(To read more about Rangina, please see her profile here.)

By Wynona Heim, Thunderbird for Good Program Manager, Afghanistan

It is always a good day when we receive good news from Afghanistan, but this news seems to fit perfectly with the season. As we here in the U.S. prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, Rangina Hamidi, a 2005 Project Artemis fellow and owner of Kandahar Treasure, as well as the 250 Afghan women who work in her cooperative, truly have something to be thankful for.

On Nov. 14, Kandahar Treasure opened its first retail shop on the “Boardwalk” at the Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan, where NATO soldiers and international civilian support team members at the sprawling base will be able to shop. The shop features silk scarves and shawls, hand-embroidered pillows, linen furniture covers and more, all hand made by Afghan women working out of their homes. After nearly selling out on opening day, Rangina brought more stock to fill the shop on day two – and this time completely sold out!
Read more »

Rangina Hamidi, CEO of Kandahar Treasures and a Project Artemis graduate at Thunderbird, talks July 3, 2009, on NPR’s “All Things Considered” about the surge in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. She says that to defeat the Taliban, U.S. troops must help Afghanistan build infrastructure and maintain security. Listen to the interview here.

NPR featured Global Citizenship blogger Rangina Hamidi on Feb. 11. She told anchor Marco Werman that Washington shouldn’t give up on trying to support development goals in Afghanistan. Listen to the broadcast.

Hello, friends. I am Rangina Hamidi, and I am honored to be part of Thunderbird’s network as a graduate of Project Artemis. I am an Afghan woman with a little twist to my personal story about how I got involved with working with other Afghan women. My family fled Afghanistan in 1981 following the Russian invasian, when I was about 4. We eventually made it to the United States and settled in Arlington, Virginia, in 1988. I grew up partly in Pakistan as a refugee child, and then the remaining years in the U.S.
Read more »