The story of a young entrepreneur whose business created jobs and hope for women in her Kabul, Afghanistan, neighborhood during the Taliban years.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts to put women and girls at the forefront of the new world order.

Investment in maternal health in Afghanistan provides a cost-effective way to promote strategic U.S. foreign policy objectives including reducing maternal and child mortality, improving public health, empowering women, and fostering economic stability, and therefore, as part of a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan the U.S. government continue its commitments to training midwives and improving other maternal health programs to expand the advances made in women’s health since 2001.

This module features teaching notes with discussion questions and ideas for additional projects by CFR Fellow Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, along with other resources to supplement the teaching of Ms. Lemmon's book, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, in the classroom. In this book, Ms. Lemmon provides an intimate look at the daily lives of women in Afghanistan through the incredible true story of a female entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. This text can be incorporated in a variety of international affairs and foreign policy courses, such as those focusing on Afghanistan, global political economy, international development, and gender studies.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the Facebook COO's new book Lean In encourages mothers with careers to opt out of the parent-or-careerwoman binary and firmly choose both.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that with the help of the private and public sector, women entrepreneurs are helping to combat global poverty, but more work is needed to overcome the challenges of access to finance, access to markets, and access to skills-building and networks.

Throughout Chuck Hagel's marathon confirmation hearing, America's decade-long war in Afghanistan was noticeably overlooked. But it is curious to see the next secretary of defense receive so few inquiries from senators about the war whose end he will presumably oversee in the coming years, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

The Pentagon's decision to allow women in combat elates female veterans, who say all they are asking for is not guaranteed spots, but a chance to meet the same standards and have the same opportunities as men, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says, "Even as the battle in Afghanistan begins its slow wind down, America and its leaders still struggle to engage with it in a serious way."

Despite the fact that Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen-year-old Pakistani women's rights activist, survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, similar attacks against women, like the one in India, are on the rise. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that these attacks are efforts to stamp out women's progress and the potential of women worldwide will not be realized if this type of violence is tolerated.

Americans want to see Congress and the president make a deal on the "fiscal cliff," but the incentives are strongest for policymakers to act only after the cliff has come and gone—and wreaked a great deal of havoc in the process, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

The female veterans who filed the lawsuit say combat exclusion is unfair and outdated, based on stereotypes, inhibits recognition and promotion of servicewomen—and ignores the realities of the modern battlefield, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Bibi Aisha's gruesome maiming put her on the cover of Time. Now, years later, she's working on getting a new face and trying to exorcise the horror, restart her life—and reunite with family, says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says Afghanistan's aspiring tech moguls, impossibly optimistic and totally obsessed, believe that computing will not only help make them money but also secure peace in their land.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that just as Malala Yousafzai, the fourteen-year-old Pakistani girl who was gunned down by Taliban shooters, refused to silently abandon her right to education even at the risk of losing her life, courageous women and men fight daily against a worldview that considers girls' schools a call to action in their battle against modernity.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the surge of protests for women's rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban execution of an Afghan woman.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says girls and women need more encouragement--especially from other women--to aim for the top and stay there.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the need for the development community to adopt a comprehensive approach to skills training for entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict zones.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that while U.S. politicians have accused them of destroying "the fabric of this country," single mothers are a powerful example that is holding society together.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that while Afghan women deplore the burning of the Quran by U.S. troops, they are even angrier at the bloody protests that followed.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the the shocking torture of Sahar Gul is just one example of widespread violence against women in Afghanistan, which mostly goes unreported and unpunished.

Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argue that U.S. investments in midwifery programs in Afghanistan promote sustainable development in Afghanistan and allow the United States to keep its promise to bring a responsible end of the war.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon interviews Ameerah Al-Taweel on why Saudi Arabia's women won't accept a reversal on equal rights.