"Helping the Women of Afghanistan - Rubia: An International Outreach Project" is the name of an article I wrote for The Quilter magazine that was published in January 2007. The Afghan woman I interviewed, whose name I will not share here now (for her safety), was in the United States to promote the organization called "Rubia," a group comprised of needleworkers who sold embroidered pillows to raise money for literacy and health programs in their country.
I was lucky enough to hear one of the four talks the woman gave at New Hampshire libraries between August 21 and 26, 2006. She was the assistant director of Rubia, at the time. She had 12 years of schooling, unlike most Afghans. In fact, only five to fifteen percent of Afghan citizens can read or write. At that time, children (mostly male) attended school for about two hours per day in crowded classrooms doing rote work, but not exercises involving creativity or critical thinking.
Rubia encourages the individual artistry of program participants, who embroider traditional motifs from various Afghan regions, such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbek, Uzbek Lakai, Tajik, and Turkomen. Some of the women even draft their own designs and they are encouraged to embroider their own logo, often a flower motif, on the back of the pillow, and sign their name or initials in Persian.
Life in Darkness
Safety for women and girls is always an issue, and they generally do not go out by themselves, even to attend school. In this male-dominated society, everything a woman does must be approved by her father, brother, or husband.
Living in windowless rooms, engineered that way for safety, and wearing burqas when they leave the house, the lives of many Afghan women have traditionally been ones of isolation and darkness (on more than one level). Even before the Taliban occupation in 1996, women wore burqas in public. These over-the-head garments limit vision and have only a small opening through which to see and breathe. The burqa is usually viewed by westerners as a symbol of oppression, so it is surprising to learn that Afghan women actually like to wear them, since they provide a sense of security and anonymity.
Political Events
In 1996, the Afghan government, which had been backed by the Soviets, was overthrown. With the financial backing of the United States, competing warlords or so-called "commanders" from the Mujahideen emerged. When the Taliban, a militant Islamic group, subsequently took over the country, they were viewed as having restored civil order. However, it was not long before the Taliban occupation was seen as a violent regime that enforced a strict version of Islamic law.
When the Taliban entered her town, the woman I interviewed and her family raced into the streets and ran until they reached neighboring Pakistan, a country where they lived as refugees for seven years, before they eventually returned to Afghanistan.
Today, the country of Afghanistan is in turmoil. The whereabouts of all of the women of Rubia is questionable. Their motto was "Mending Afghanistan Stitch by Stitch" and, with any luck, the organization will be able to continue to bring literacy, hope and the celebration of artistic expression to the women and children of Afghanistan, in the future.
This article was excerpted from one previously published in The Quilter magazine. In the original article, many photos of Afghan pillows were shown, as was a 41" square piece of Afghan patchwork, possibly circa 1960, comprised of silk, cotton, and linen fibers, probably of Chinese or Soviet origin.
Our hearts go out to the people of Afghanistan for all that they are now enduring.
Patricia L. Cummings
8/21/2021
