Contributor: Parvina Fazilova

Ravot, Tajikistan — Most young women here grow up not expecting to earn a college degree, learn a trade or even leave their village for any other reason than to marry. They can expect to wed shortly after high school, and then to spend the rest of their lives mastering the strenuous and often lonely task of juggling domestic chores, childrearing and farming, often while their husbands work menial jobs in Russia.

This is the life that awaited 20-year-old Nadira Mamadova. She, however, had another idea. For as long has she can remember, Nadira harbored dreams of becoming a hairdresser.

"Don't be absurd," her father told her — and in an isolated village like Ravot, it was easy to dismiss her ambitions. There were no stylists here from whom she could learn. In the city, Kanibadam, yes. But to travel the 20 kilometers back and forth took more money than her father could spare from his $30-a-month teacher's salary. He needed to save that for her dowry and to help marry off his three sons, all of whom toiled in Russia. And besides, he needed her to tend, harvest and dry the apricot trees on the family's rented orchard.

"In any case, village women aren't going to come to you to have their hair done," he added. "You'd be better off learning to embroider from your grandmother."

So Nadira deferred her dreams until the summer of 2005. That's when she heard about a Mercy Corps-sponsored vocational training program for young people in Ravot and other rural communities in this multiethnic border region of Tajikistan. Mercy Corps planned to train a select group in one of several high-demand professions, including carpentry, cooking and, yes, hairdressing. It is part of the agency's Peaceful Communities Initiative, a USAID-funded program that helps citizens and local governments build stronger communities in the Ferghana Valley, a densely populated region of Central Asia that spans Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Nadira applied to the training program immediately, and became one of about 100 youth accepted into the courses. Over the next three months, she learned to cut hair and set different hairstyles. Then she began to practice on her own, accepting clients into her own home for a nominal fee so that she could continue to practice and improve her techniques.

"At first, the only instruments that I had were a comb and a pair of scissors," she says, "But I cleared out a room in our house and started to cut hair, very cheaply, for my girlfriends and the neighbor kids. This gave me enough start-up money to purchase the rest of the equipment and products I needed."

Today, she makes a steady income using the skills she's learned and a full array of tools, including scissors, combs, dyes and a hairdryer. "I charge anywhere from three to ten somonis apiece (US$1 to US$3), depending on the cost of the products needed for each style. I can also do girls' makeup and give manicures." (Family members, she notes, still receive their cuts and styles for free.)

Nadira's schedule gets especially full during the summer wedding months, when local brides request elaborate traditional hairstyles for their ceremonies. "Before," Nadira explains, "girls from our village had to travel all the way to the city to get their hair cut and styled for their wedding."

Her father has traveled the path from skeptic to backer after witnessing his daughter's passion evolve into a productive livelihood. "Now my little daughter is earning more than I do!" he exclaims proudly.

"Life changes, and our girls are changing, too," he says, reflecting on the last year. "It used to be that young women in this community couldn't be seen without their hair covered. But nowadays, there are many women who cut their hair shorter and even color it."

Nadira's growing confidence has allowed her to start thinking about opening a full-service beauty salon to keep up with the rising demand. She also hopes to return the opportunity that Mercy Corps provided to her by hiring local girls as her own apprentices. She can offer them the same pride of knowing a skill, the confidence to be able to support themselves and the joy of fulfilling their own dreams.

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