Haji Jaweed first opened a clothing store in Kabul in 1994. It did not last long there.
When the Taliban took over the city in 1996 and executed leaders of the previous government, he fled to Pakistan, where he opened a new shop and a factory specialising in Afghan clothing. During that period, under the first Taliban regime, Afghanistan became synonymous with the brutal oppression of women.
After the Taliban’s defeat in 2001, however, Jaweed returned to Kabul. Over the next 20 years, he opened four stores in the Afghan capital, providing clothes for the weddings held by each of the diverse communities that call the Central Asian state home. He also filled orders for his dresses from foreign countries where decades of conflict and displacement had left an Afghan diaspora eager to preserve their culture.
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