Anwara's silent revolution

Anwara Khatun with some of the women workers at her garments factory. PHOTO: STAR

She has set the example by dint of hard work, devotion and talent. Her success is now a matter of discussion for many in Satkhira town.

Fifty-two year old Anwara Khatun with a scissors in hand remains always busy cutting fabrics on the table for making clothes at her factory or giving instruction to others.

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Many cast a curious look at her well decorated garment shop at Puratan Satkhira in the town.

Abandoned by her husband, Anwara had started dress making at home to feed her two minor sons and a daughter.

Now she employs about 40 women and owns a well decorated garment shop and runs a tailoring training centre. She has also a house of her own.

She is now well known in the town as a successful entrepreneur and a tailoring trainer.

"There was no one to care for us for long 20 years. No one ever inquired when I was starving along with my two sons and one daughter," Anwara recalled while talking to this correspondent recently at her garment factory.

Those days are gone. She now earns at least Tk 25,000 a month.

Anwara is now involved in different activities for women's development in the town.

Born in a poor family in the town, beautiful Anwara was married to Sheikh Mahbubur Rahman at the age of 15 in 1972. Rahman was the son of a solvent farmer in the area.

They had happy days. She gave birth to two sons and one daughter. But it was not long that her dreams were shattered. Her husband fell in love with another woman of the same village and wanted to marry her.

She protested. He used to beat her often. At times her in laws also joined him.

One day, she along with her three children was driven out of her husband's house. He finally divorced her in 1985. She took shelter at her father's house.

But she was undaunted. She started working as a domestic help but could not manage two meals a day for her children and herself.

"One day my younger son Tutul, went to his father for food but he drove him out. Coming back home he tried to commit suicide," she said.

"The painful incident made me determined to fight poverty and to educate my children so that they do not have to face the same fate like me ".

Fortune smiled on them when ASA (Association for Social Advancement), an NGO, offered her training in tailoring and promised micro-credit.

ASA's branch manager Das Sanatan advised her to take training on tailoring. She started attending training course but some so-called clerics tried to obstruct her from going out of home for work, saying it is prohibited in Islam. But she ignored.

As she topped the list of trainees, the training centre authorities gave her sewing machine as prize.

ASA also gave her loan of Tk 7,000.

She bought fabrics and started dress making at home. Her neighbors and well-wishers were the customers in the initial days. She also collected orders other areas in the town.

Day by day, she earned reputation as a good dressmaker in the town. Her devotion and skill helped her. People especially women began to come to her with orders from different areas of the town.

As the workload increased, she set up a well decorated garment shop at Puratan Satkhira in the town.

"Gradually I learnt block, batik and printing and set up a cottage industry at a rented house".

Now she gets order for all types of readymade garments from traders at faraway places. "Many of them pay me in advance", a happy Anwara said. Within five years, Moina reached a position that encouraged others. Forty women now work in her factory.

"It is a great satisfaction that 40 women are earning form my factory", she said.

She also set up a tailoring training centre to train distressed women on tailoring.

Sixty women attend the training course daily in three batches.

"It is also a great pleasure for me that at least 450 women trained by me are now have become self-reliant".

Her efforts have created awareness and hopes for better life among many distressed women in the town.

Anwara plans to expand her factory to provide jobs for about 250 unemployed women. "I will need financial support from bank or NGO for this ", She said.

"Recently I married off my daughter Nipa and my son-in-law runs a biscuit factory. They are happy ", she said.

Her elder son Sheikh Masudur Rahman is a fish trader.

"I fought and won. I am grateful to ASA for the initial financial help " she said.