A Shop of One’s Own

While the Affreedis might be able to live comfortably off of a single paycheck, many families in Little Pakistan are not able to do so. The average income of a South Asian family residing in Midwood is $15,233 annually, according to a survey conducted by the Council of Peoples Organization (COPO), a non-profit organization based in Midwood. This survey also showed that the average family size in this area is 5 people. Most families have to be extremely frugal just in order to scrape by.

“Fifty percent of the workforce is lying idle,” says Jagajit Singh, a graduate of NYU’s School of Social Work and the co-founder of COPO. “ Half their problems can be solved if the women of these families start working.” Singh strongly believes that the entire Midwood community would greatly benefit from this increase in income and the increase in average standard of living it would bring. Following the September 11th attacks COPO started English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, which were open for both men and women to attend, but the women hardly did.

Desire for a better lifestyle inspired many of the businesswomen in Little Pakistan to start working in the first place. Before she opened her hair, waxing and threading salon, Raheela and her husband were having difficulty supporting their children, she decided it was time to get a job. Her husband, who at that time owned a store in Midwood, agreed that some additional money would be helpful. Raheela started working as an assistant in a fancy Manhattan salon. Two years later, with her husband’s help, she opened her own salon in Midwood. The lack of competition in the area, combined with Raheela’s affordable prices, soon attracted droves of Pakistani women to her salon. Today, her business is as busy as it was ten years ago. She is paying for her eldest son’s college (he is studying Finance at the University of Miami) and planning to fund college educations for both of her younger daughters. According to some other women in the working community of Little Pakistan, Raheela is also rumored to own a number of pricey properties in the Midwood area. “Right now finances are the least of my worries,” says Raheela with a smile, as she snips the ends of a customer’s hair. “The only thing I’m worried about is finding a fair Pakistani girl for my son.”

Raheela’s neighbor and fabric store owner Kausar Parveen has just launched her new business for the same reasons. When her husband’s job at a local grocery store did not produce enough income to comfortably support her family, Parveen started working for another woman who owned a jewelry shop. “That job taught me most of what I needed to know about owning a business and handling customers,” says a beaming Parveen. “After a while, I knew I was ready to begin my own business.” With the help of her husband, and the advice of her working friends, Parveen rented a tiny space in Midwood and began ordering rolls of cloth from Pakistan. On a regular day, Parveen is on her feet, assisting and advising women of all ages, on what kind of fabric suits them best. Life at home is much easier for Parveen now, and she is grateful that she has something to do during the day when her kids go to school.

In short, it seems that the women who do really want to work are finding ways to make it happen. One of their methods is to invest in and sell products that they know well, such as fabric and jewelry. Beauty salons are another popular business venture. These are jobs at which women who may not be that educated or speak English fluently can succeed. In addition, because most of their clientele is female they don’t have to worry about interacting with men to a degree that would make them or their husbands uncomfortable.

“There is a lack of familiarity even in their own culture with men, and now these women are interacting with men that they never met before, in a place where different nationalities, cultures and ethnicities converge. These women are generally taught not to trust men who are not from your family,” explains Ramdas, “Their husbands are away for most of the day and they don’t want there to be a misunderstanding. The men also play into this thinking a little bit. They go back to Pakistan and get an arranged marriage so they can marry someone who traditional, and that is what they expect when they get their wives here.”