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Harriet's parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and
doing `the Season', she would meet and marry a suitable young man.
But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight
of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do
something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk
weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by
UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan's last remaining
silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the KHAD,
narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis
in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who
became her devoted companion. At the end of the first Gulf War she
travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly-liberated Iraqi
Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders
and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the
Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about
conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and
military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about
young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling
and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no
financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic
fundamentalism. Harriet left her traditional, comfortable home and
chose to live a life of adventure and danger helping refugees who
had nowhere else to turn. She continues to raise money for charity
through her business selling oriental textiles and remains friends
with the refugees she helped in Afghanistan. However, she is now
married, to just the sort of husband her parents always hoped for.
Harriet's parents hoped that, after leaving boarding school and
doing `the Season', she would meet and marry a suitable young man.
But she was to disappoint them. Just after the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan, she set off for Peshawar to see for herself the plight
of thousands of displaced Afghan refugees. Determined to do
something about their dire situation, Harriet set up a small silk
weaving project for illiterate Turkmen refugees, and was sent by
UNESCO to Mazar-i-sharif to work with Afghanistan's last remaining
silk ikat weavers. During those years she was arrested by the KHAD,
narrowly missed being blown up, survived acute bacterial meningitis
in a Kabul hospital, and rescued an abandoned pi-dog puppy who
became her devoted companion. At the end of the first Gulf War she
travelled with the Peshmerga in the newly-liberated Iraqi
Kurdistan. Then in 1994 she joined a group of unemployed builders
and decorators driving convoys of food and aid from Croydon to the
Muslim enclaves in Bosnia Herzegovina. Much has been written about
conflicts in these countries, by war correspondents, diplomats and
military personnel, but this is a different story. It is about
young woman from a sheltered and privileged background travelling
and working alone, in and around war zones, frequently with no
financial or practical support, at a time of increasing Islamic
fundamentalism. Harriet left her traditional, comfortable home and
chose to live a life of adventure and danger helping refugees who
had nowhere else to turn. She continues to raise money for charity
through her business selling oriental textiles and remains friends
with the refugees she helped in Afghanistan. However, she is now
married, to just the sort of husband her parents always hoped for.
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