In Afghan culture, even strangers’ plates are piled high with fragrant rice dishes and richly spiced vegetables before anyone else takes a bite. Traditionally, communal meals are enjoyed on a dastarkhan — a tablecloth spread on the ground — where guests are seated on plush cushions, indulged with bottomless refills and wooed by a chorus of warm conversation. Afghan hospitality is legendary. Even a short visit is cause for tea, or chai, with neighbors, extended family and soon-to-be-friends.
“It’s expected that you’ll stay, at least for tea,” said Molly Dingledine of Sisters in Circles, an Asheville nonprofit that supports craftwomen locally and globally through paid piecework. “Sometimes a meal and a long conversation. Or not a conversation if they don’t speak English well enough. But always tea.”
Molly, a jeweler who’s called Asheville home for two decades, has shared countless cups of tea with local Afghan women over the past four years. Their friendships were forged in the aftermath of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which triggered a massive humanitarian crisis and brought tens of thousands of Afghan refugees to communities across the U.S., including Molly’s. In response to the surge in asylum seekers, Sisters in Circles launched the Afghan Women’s Craft Collective, a program that creates economic opportunities for Afghan craftswomen in Asheville as they rebuild their lives in an unfamiliar and sometimes disorienting land.
The Afghan Women’s Craft Collective
For Meena, Beena and Madina — three women we spoke to for this story — the Afghan Women’s Craft Collective represents much more than just a source of income; it’s a vital link to the broader Afghan diaspora in Asheville. Although the city has welcomed only a small fraction of asylum seekers compared to larger urban hubs like Houston and Los Angeles — places with established refugee resettlement infrastructures and sizable Afghan American communities — grassroots programs like the Afghan Women’s Craft Collective play an essential role in cultivating community bonds and instilling a sense of purpose among displaced populations…