At a small business in Asker, Norway order sheets cover the walls in the Sisters in Business’ conference room. Rattling sewing machines and boxes of reusable surgical gowns fill the main room.
The company founders, Sandra Tollefsen and Farzaneh Aghalo, and the immigrant women they employ, are very busy these days. All are focused on supplying the health workers across Norway who are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I compare the women to soldiers in war. We come from war-torn countries, so this is no match for us,” Aghalo laughs.
Aghalo and Tollefsen met in 2007 and built their business on the strength of hardworking women like themselves. They partnered with IKEA and the Asker municipality, establishing a sewing studio at one IKEA store and another in Asker. The workshops provide careers for recent immigrants. “Most of these women have very little formal education, very little work experience and have to shoulder most of the unpaid care work and domestic chores at home. We wanted to do something about it,” says Tollefsen.
When Norway imposed strict measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, many companies had to close. Sisters in Business lost its customers and had just announced layoffs when an order for 100 medical gowns was received. They had never made medical supplies before but obtained a gown to use as a pattern and has stayed busy ever since.
Donated machines, materials and facilities support the sewing effort. United Nations photo: UNRIC/ Veslem?y Svartdal
IKEA donated money to buy new sewing machines. The Asker municipality provided access to larger facilities. When seamstresses ran out of buttons, students volunteered to 3D-print new ones. In all, 14 women – mostly immigrants from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan and Somalia – are working in “one of the most important communal efforts of all time,” Tollefsen says. Some employees can’t read or write. I help them fill out their paperwork. They know they’ll receive help here,” Aghalo adds. “Here we have a sisterhood.”
Asked why they won’t hire “brothers,” Aghalo explains that without men in the workplace, “you can be free here. You don’t have to wear your hijab.”
"My children are very proud,” says one of the women, Zainab Mohsini. “Not just of me, but of all the women. They help me get to work on time. If I can help society with my little needle and thread, why shouldn’t I?”
The workshop, which closely follows authorities’ social distancing, equipment cleaning, and handwashing recommendations, has become an important social network for its staff. It's ”a family business,” the founders say proudly.
Norway no longer has its own textile industry, a reliance on imports exposed by Covid-19. Sisters in Business hopes its work can serve as a model of domestic manufacturing capacity in the pandemic’s aftermath.
"Just imagine how many people will be left unemployed because of the virus!” Tollefsen exclaims. “Now we really need to support local businesses. We can’t go back to the way things used to be.”
This business, by providing safe and sustainable employment to immigrant women, exemplfies the ideals of Sustainable Development Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.
