Entrepreneurship in a War Zone

Like any jewelry maker, Khanaqa Niazi thinks a lot about gemstones, the cost of precious metals, and designs that will delight the women who wear them.

Unlike most, he is operating a business in a war zone. His and his wife’s handicrafts and jewelry store, Good News, is in Kabul, Afghanistan, and their factory is in a different city, Jalalabad, which means regular journeys across a mountainous and treacherous 200-kilometer route that stretches between Afghanistan and Pakistan and is now used by Allied troops going back and forth with supplies.

“Two months ago, I was in Pakistan for business and there was a fuel tanker [that had been attacked by Taliban] that was burning for three or four days, and I didn’t have a choice but to drive past,” Niazi said in a recent interview with Portfolio.com. It wouldn’t be safe for his wife to make the journey by herself at all.

But Niazi got a taste of a different way to do business in October when he was on a trip to New York recently organized by Business Council for Peace or Bpeace, based in Old Bridge, New Jersey. The group connects entrepreneurs from war-ravaged countries, including Afghanistan, El Salvador, and Rwanda, with U.S. businesses that can show them how to build a better business within their countries and one that could attract global partnerships outside of it.

“We have a very simple philosophy: More jobs means less violence,” says Pamela Massenburg, an executive council member for Bpeace. “The overarching objective is for them to take best business practices from the United States and apply them to Afghanistan.”

Niazi and his wife employ 48 people, who in turn support 288 family members in Afghanistan. Bpeace connected Niazi with Bochic, a New York-based jewelry designer which owns the Bochic and Miriam Salat brands known for their high-profile celebrity placements—think Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry.

David Joseph, the creative director and founder of Bochic, said he found out about Bpeace through an organization called Executives Without Borders, and wanted to work with Niazi.

“Khanaqa’s business has a strong cultural base, as does mine, and [his] is highly influenced by the Afghan tribes,” Joseph says. “Looking at his collection was inspirational, as was his drive to grow both his and his wife's endeavors even in the midst of all of the challenges that he faces.”

Niazi says that one of the realities of his business is catering to about six different Afghani tribes, all with different customs and different tastes in jewelry. In Afghanistan, the women apparently put the Real Housewives franchise to shame: According to Niazi, they pile on the jewelry, and even Taliban women, underneath their requisite burkas, are decked out in big, gemstone-encrusted pieces of jewelry and wouldn't be caught at a special occasions without it.

In fact, his wife, Bakht Nazira Niazi, and nine other women started the business with a handicraft focus in 2006, and her customers kept asking for jewelry. The company’s jewelry is primarily silver- and gold-plated with big, bold gemstones such as lapis, carnelia, and jade, and it has a deal to sell its jewelry through Bajalia, a Winter Park, Florida, nonprofit that helps global entrepreneurs from war-torn countries find a global audience. But it hopes to build more alliances.

Joseph, who works exclusively in precious metals and gemstones, says he finds the culture and tribal influences on Niazi’s jewelry intriguing and is wowed by how hard it is for him to source materials and do things that are so simple in the United states.

“Things that my marketing, Web and graphic team, and sales team find so simple—such as building a website, working with social media (which was a main interest to Khanaqa), creating line-sheets to use for selling appointments, photographing each piece so an archive of images is available—are a major difficulty due to cost and capability in Afghanistan,” he said. “The cost of the most simple things is exponentially higher.”

The good news for Niazi, though, is that his U.S. jewelry friends want the partnership to last beyond the visit. Bochic is looking into packaging options that would utilize Bakht Nazira Niazi’s embroidered textiles, and Joseph says he looks forward to hosting the couple again in the future.

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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com