Interview With an Afghan Entrepreneur "Rahiba Rahimi"

Starting and maintaining a business in Afghanistan is not that easy as it seems, it requires determination and hard work, just to have a real idea about running business in Afghanistan. I interviewed Rahiba Rahimi, Founder and President of Laman clothing brand. Hope this gives an overview of doing business in Afghanistan.  

Interviewee: Rahiba Rahimi, Founder and President, Laman,

Address; Old Taimani, behind Q Kabul,

 Email and Phone Number: rahiba.rah@gmail.com, +93 77 061 9941

Background:

Laman was founded in 2015. They are a design company that produces clothing for both men and women. They use a fusion of western designs and traditional Afghan elements and handcraft in their work. While promoting local arts, they are focusing to contribute and revive the cultural heritage of Afghanistan. Laman is opening a new avenue for Afghan fashion into the modern world.

Rahiba Rahimi, President of Laman, is currently a political science student at the American University of Afghanistan. When Laman was established, she was only 21. She is a quite young female entrepreneur in a male dominated society. She is also an advocate of women’s stand in afghan society. Most of her tailors are female. She also makes an effort to reach out to women who have great handcraft skills but cannot leave the house to work, so they work for Laman from their homes.

I learned about Laman through friends and have known Rahiba and her work at Laman ever since the establishment of Laman. Most companies open for profit and use the market’s demand to define themselves, however, Rahiba work with a vision and leads the market toward it.

Rahiba grew up watching the Afghan culture being cherished by her family in many ways especially through clothing. She envisions reviving and re-discovering what she calls the ‘almost forgotten’ ethnic traditional hand craft such as Afghan embroidery that is mainly produced by women who have inherited the skills over generations. She brings together the Afghan tailoring and embroidery with western designs, to revive Afghan fashion and introduce it not only on national but on international level.

What influenced her the most was the desire to see Afghan designs in new forms and produce fine pieces with International standards, thus not only revving Afghan fashion but also redefining it.

There’s a huge market for Afghan products, such as clothing with traditional Afghan elements. Rahiba and other Laman co-founders saw this as an excellent opportunity for continuously improving the quality of Afghan products and keep these high quality products in the local and global market of fashion. Most of the investors are leaving Afghanistan but they decided to invest. They are not only willing but proud to work for Afghanistan.

In 2015, Laman became the only private manufacturing company in Afghanistan to produce a line of clothing in modern form. They held themselves to the standards of International market. They hired professional workers all of whom work in different parts to keep Laman a success in the local and global market manufacturing company.  They sought advice from other entrepreneurs who had experience in the market. As part of representing Afghan fashion and clothing, they regularly participate in national and international exhibitions. They have participated in exhibitions in Dubai in 2015, in Nepal in 2018 and in India almost every year since 2015. They have held runway shows inside Kabul, at Laman house, U.S. embassy ad British consulate. 

More companies began opening, however, they have been able to stand out through their marketing and work quality. Due to the lack of availability of raw materials within Afghanistan, high salaries of professional workers, and having to hire trainers from abroad, their prices turned out to be higher than their competitors, which limited their coverage of different socioeconomic classes.

The major problem that they faced was security. They still face this problem and try to keep low profile. While they want to revolutionize Afghan fashion, they reorient their activities to be more cultural sensitive.

Rahiba’s advice to other entrepreneurs is that they go after something they believe in and love. Once they start, they should continually recreate themselves and evolve. This will keep them relevant to the market and keep them energized and motivated to do more and keep moving.