The scourge of capitalism

[Cruzan]

“My sister-in-law made fun of me, saying, ‘You can’t even feed your children,’ ” recalled Saima when Nick met her two years ago on a trip to Pakistan. “My husband beat me up. My brother-in-law beat me up. I had an awful life.” Saima’s husband accumulated a debt of more than $3,000, and it seemed that these loans would hang over the family for generations. Then when Saima’s second child was born and turned out to be a girl as well, her mother-in-law, a harsh, blunt woman named Sharifa Bibi, raised the stakes.

“She’s not going to have a son,” Sharifa told Saima’s husband, in front of her. “So you should marry again. Take a second wife.” Saima was shattered and ran off sobbing. Another wife would leave even less money to feed and educate the children. And Saima herself would be marginalized in the household, cast off like an old sock. For days Saima walked around in a daze, her eyes red; the slightest incident would send her collapsing into hysterical tears.

It was at that point that Saima signed up with the Kashf Foundation, a Pakistani microfinance organization that lends tiny amounts of money to poor women to start businesses. Kashf is typical of microfinance institutions, in that it lends almost exclusively to women, in groups of 25. The women guarantee one another’s debts and meet every two weeks to make payments and discuss a social issue, like family planning or schooling for girls. A Pakistani woman is often forbidden to leave the house without her husband’s permission, but husbands tolerate these meetings because the women return with cash and investment ideas.

Saima took out a $65 loan and used the money to buy beads and cloth, which she transformed into beautiful embroidery that she then sold to merchants in the markets of Lahore. She used the profit to buy more beads and cloth, and soon she had an embroidery business and was earning a solid income — the only one in her household to do so. Saima took her elder daughter back from the aunt and began paying off her husband’s debt.

When merchants requested more embroidery than Saima could produce, she paid neighbors to assist her. Eventually 30 families were working for her, and she put her husband to work as well — “under my direction,” she explained with a twinkle in her eye. Saima became the tycoon of the neighborhood, and she was able to pay off her husband’s entire debt, keep her daughters in school, renovate the house, connect running water and buy a television.

“Now everyone comes to me to borrow money, the same ones who used to criticize me,” Saima said, beaming in satisfaction. “And the children of those who used to criticize me now come to my house to watch TV.”

Today, Saima is a bit plump and displays a gold nose ring as well as several other rings and bracelets on each wrist. She exudes self-confidence as she offers a grand tour of her home and work area, ostentatiously showing off the television and the new plumbing. She doesn’t even pretend to be subordinate to her husband. He spends his days mostly loafing around, occasionally helping with the work but always having to accept orders from his wife. He has become more impressed with females in general: Saima had a third child, also a girl, but now that’s not a problem. “Girls are just as good as boys,” he explained.

More

[Electric Monk]

1. A gold nose ring and bracelets and a third child, well it's all good then

Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? BTW: It's not a uniquely Swedish affliction.

[Cruzan]

2. Are you saying what she did should be outlawed?

[Electric Monk]

3. If that's the way you choose to read what I wrote, knock yourself out.

reading comprehension ftw?

[Cruzan]

4. If you look again, you'll see I was asking you a question

rather than stating an understanding. Reading comprehension, indeed.

[AllentownJake]

5. The $3000 debt her husband had accumulated was a result of Capitalism as well

Probably from the more traditional form of Capitalism we all experience not the NGO.

[Oregone]

6. What's the point of the thread/title?

Kashf is a non-profit micro-finance organization. Hence, it is not a capitalistic entity (private owners do not own the means of production and profit from others labor, as there is no profit at all).

Saima's ability to get a loan and create a viable self ran business is not really part of the capitalistic model either. She, being the worker, owned the means of production.

It was only when she hired 30 families that it became "capitalistic" (but her transformation beforehand was empowered by non-capitalistic means). If she took a low/no interest micro loan to create a business, such that she grossly profits off the labor of 30 other families, well, that is unfortunate in the end. I do not know enough about the other's levels of compensation, and what she is skimming off the top of their labor to make such a judgment regardless.

The next stage in capitalism gets even more disgusting...such that her children, and their children (and on and on) will have the continual right to grossly profit off the labor of others by doing nothing but being born as an ancestor of someone who obtained a non-capitalistic loan. It is the capitalistic model that ensures such people can make money by merely waking up each day, and pretending they don't see their well treated slaves toil away at their expense while they sit at home.

Its just an odd tone you took with this article, contrasting it with "capitalism"