Poetic Threads Reports from Pakistan

"We were in the Hazara district taking videos of the 2 women's groups we currently work with: HAZARA PULKARI CENTER & AL FALAH FOUNDATION. We spent time with some amazing women, including Tasleem Bibi, Project Manager for AL-FALAH. We visited one of the nearby villages up on a mountain and we were invited to see work in process by one family run by a single widowed mother whose five daughters are all sewing and embroidering. They allowed us to photograph them which is highly unusual for this province.


Al-Falah Foundation was started by 5 women who saw the basic skills of the local Hazara women and wanted to help the women with marketing their products to a wider domestic audience. They have been around for 12 years and are making significant changes in the quality of women's lives. They currently work with 1200 women in 27 villages. When we were filming at the center they were in the process of taking one of their embroiderers to see her lawyer as her husband was divorcing her and taking custody of all the children.
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If a woman is divorced or widowed she is unable to work outside the home, especially in remote area such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which is very conservative. It is estimated that 2-3 out of 100 women work outside the home. AL FALAH FOUNDATION initially acquired their location on Grand Trunk road in Haripur as it is a heavily travelled road for tourists heading north towards Abbotobad & Nathiagalli. They had hoped to have a boutique within their office complex and had made sgns and bought mannikins, but their signs were torn down and their windows painted over by men in the community not wanting such exposure for a woman's organization.
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They have asked us at PTOP, to help better their marketing and design skills to an international audience and to help provide consistent work for many of these families. "
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Poetic Threads of Pakistan will be bringing the artistry of Pakistan to AsiaStore this July...stay tuned for details!