The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women.

Farghana Alimy, a current 2009 Peace through Business student, is already putting her In-Country Education into action by opening a new branch of her boutique.

Farghana says she is grateful for the training she has received from the Institute.

“I want to thank you first of all, your best instructions helped us a lot,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Farghana Alimy, a 2009 PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS student who has been selected for Leadership Development in the U.S., works with customers in her boutique.

Despite having only been through the first step of her PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS program, Farghana has already begun to blaze her own path of economic prosperity in her home country.

Farghana is one of the 14 selected Afghan students who will be traveling to the U.S. in August for Leadership Development.

As a 20-year-old businesswoman from Afghanistan, Farghana spent large chunks of her life becoming educated in a country that hasn’t always been tolerant of educated and career-driven women.

In response to the Taliban’s strict control over the country in the earlier part of the decade, Farghana and her family immigrated to Pakistan so that she could receive a proper education. It was in Pakistan that Farghana excelled in English classes and first fell in love with the concept of running a business while helping her uncle and brother operate a cosmetic shop in Peshawar.

It wasn’t until she returned to Afghanistan that her business dream became a reality. In 2004, her mother, another dedicated and fearless Afghan woman, opened her own business selling garments.  Through her mother’s inspiration and hard work, Farghana decided to open her own store adjacent to her mother’s. Eventually, the two combined their units to make an even larger store.

Some of the garments sold in Alimy's shop.

With her mother to guide her through the learning process, Farghana has  learned many of the necessary business principles it takes to be a successful businesswoman. It was this knowledge in addition to her In-Country training that allowed her to successfully open a new branch to her boutique business.

This shop will continue to focus on garment retail but will be novel in that it  will be in a market where she will be competing against male-owned shops. But this doesn’t seem to faze the young entrepreneur, as she chooses to focus on market demand rather than gender discrimination.

“At this [new] market, we have new competition, who are men. There are very few women working in the market. They are working as saleswomen, not the owners,” Farghana notes as she described her new surroundings.

But this doesn’t strike her as the key issue.

“The most important thing at this market is the quality of our products. We are trying to have the best quality.”

Spoken like a true businesswoman.