12 April 2005

(Entrepreneur Kamela Sediqi excels in construction, consultancy)

By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- When Afghan women were freed from confinement in their homes following the fall of the Taliban regime, a new world of opportunity opened before them.  But even though many women have ventured out to rejoin the work force, few have seized the opportunity in as bold and unconventional a way as Kamela Sediqi.

Looking around Kabul after the war, Sediqi saw many women entering traditionally female lines of work.  She herself had worked from home as a tailor under the Taliban rule and relied on her brother to sell her goods.  But when the Taliban fell, she said, many women began to set up tailoring shops, and the competition was too stiff.

So she decided to defy conventional notions about what is appropriate work for women.  She saw that after years of war, much of Afghanistan’s infrastructure and many of its buildings were in desperate need of repair.  Being an enterprising businesswoman, she launched herself into Afghanistan’s newest growth industry:  construction.

“I hope to improve this business to help other Afghan people see that women can do something in different sectors like construction and business,” Sediqi says.  “My work is a very good example for other Afghan ladies and other people.”

Since its founding, Sediqi’s company has taken on several hundred men and women and completed projects from basic carpentry, such as windows and doors, to building a dam in Ghazni Province, southwest of Kabul.

Sediqi’s university degree, which she received shortly before the rise of the Taliban, was in literature, but she did not let a lack of training or experience in construction stand in her way. “I’m not an engineer, just a businesswoman,” she says.  So she turned to a woman friend with a degree in engineering to manage the technical side of the company’s activities.

Sediqi’s success in her construction business opened another opportunity for her when a member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, a public-private partnership aimed at enhancing economic opportunities for Afghan women, established the Artemis Program to send 15 Afghan businesswomen to study entrepreneurial skills at Arizona’s prestigious Thunderbird School of International Management.  The program receives support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Afghan Ministry of Commerce.

Sediqi was selected to participate in a two-week program at Thunderbird, studying entrepreneurship, communication and presentation.  In order to complete the program successfully, each participant had to write a comprehensive business plan to build and market a new enterprise in Afghanistan.

Not content to stop with a successful construction company, Sediqi wrote a proposal to open a business development consultancy company in Afghanistan.  Her plan received support from the international nongovernmental organization Mercy Corps, and, in the past six months, she has trained over 500 men and women from Kabul to Herat in basic business skills and community development.

Sediqi says that she would like to train all of the people in Afghanistan, providing them with business management skills, but she derives particular satisfaction from training Afghan women.

“I hope to train these women to start their own business and make it sustainable in the future, because in Afghanistan, many people think that women cannot do certain things,” she said.  “In my idea, if the Afghan women have a chance and an opportunity, they can do everything.”

The diversification of her business interests has not diminished her commitment to her primary enterprise.  She is currently developing a business plan aimed at obtaining loans and grants for machinery in order to expand her construction company.

Even though her formal training at the Thunderbird School lasted only two weeks, the Artemis Program has provided her ongoing contacts with American women who work in her fields of business – consultancy and construction.  These women serve as mentors, giving Sediqi regular advice in business management.

This continued contact with her American counterparts suits Sediqi’s ambitions.  “Every day I want to learn more about business, because the business world is very big,” she says.  “I just want to be a very successful businesswoman for Afghanistan.”