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The Golden Needle Sewing School was an underground school for women in Herat
Herat

Herat , classically called the Aria, is a city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herat province. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, Afghanistan, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, during the rule of the Taliban.

Because women were not allowed to be educated under the strict interpretation of Islamic law
Sharia

Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means "way" or "path to the water source"; it is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Fiqh and for Muslims living outside the domain....
 introduced by the Taliban, women writers belonging to the Herat Literary Circle set up a group called the Sewing Circles of Herat, which founded the Golden Needle Sewing School in or around 1996.






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Burqa Afghanistan 01
The Golden Needle Sewing School was an underground school for women in Herat
Herat

Herat , classically called the Aria, is a city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herat province. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, Afghanistan, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan....
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
, during the rule of the Taliban.

Because women were not allowed to be educated under the strict interpretation of Islamic law
Sharia

Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means "way" or "path to the water source"; it is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Fiqh and for Muslims living outside the domain....
 introduced by the Taliban, women writers belonging to the Herat Literary Circle set up a group called the Sewing Circles of Herat, which founded the Golden Needle Sewing School in or around 1996.

Women would visit the school three times a week, ostensibly to sew, but would instead hear lectures given by professors of literature from Herat University. Children playing outside would alert the group if the religious police approached, giving them time to hide their books and pick up sewing equipment.

Christina Lamb, author of The Sewing Circles of Herat, told Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an independent international broadcast organization that provides uncensored news, information, and analysis to countries where free media is often limited or banned....
:

They would arrive in their burqa
Burqa

A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of cloaking the entire body. It is worn over the usual daily clothing and removed when the woman returns to the sanctuary of the household ....
s with their bags full of material and scissors. Underneath they would have notebooks and pens. And once they got inside, instead of learning to sew, they would actually be talking about Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
 and James Joyce
James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Ireland expatriate author of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
, Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky "An Honest Thief"* "Elka i svad'ba" ; English translation: "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding"* Belye nochi ; English translation: White Nights ...
 and their own writing. It was a tremendous risk they were taking. If they had been caught, they would have been, at the very least, imprisoned and tortured. Maybe hanged.


Herat may have been the most oppressed area under the Taliban, according to Lamb, because it was a cultured city and mostly Shi'a
Shi'a Islam

Shia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam.Similiar to other branches of Islam, Shi'a Islam is based on the teachings of Islamic holy book, the Qur'an and message of the final prophet of Islam, Muhammad....
, both of which the Taliban opposed.

See also

  • Islamic feminism
    Islamic feminism

    Islam feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of Women and Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of sex or gender, in public and private life....
  • Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
    Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan

    The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is a women's organization in Afghanistan that promotes women's rights and Secularism democracy....
  • Sharia
    Sharia

    Sharia is the body of Islamic religious law. The term means "way" or "path to the water source"; it is the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Fiqh and for Muslims living outside the domain....
  • Taliban treatment of women
    Taliban treatment of women

    While in power in Afghanistan, the Taliban became notorious internationally for their treatment of women. Their stated aim was to create "secure environments where the chasteness and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct," reportedly based on Pashtunwali beliefs about living in purdah....
  • Women in Islam
    Women in Islam

    . Women's testimony is considered less important than men's testimony.. The treatment of women in Islam as second class citizens has been studied and most feminists agree that equal rights for men and women might not be possible in the Muslim world for some time to come....


Further reading

  • Lamb, Christina. The Sewing Circles of Herat, Flamingo