A LETTER FROM THE FOUNDERS

I have spent my life protecting what cannot protect itself.

By profession, I serve as a police officer. By conviction, I became part of SHEWORKS because I found another form of service.

My work has taken me across Pakistan—through villages, deserts, mountains, and forgotten settlements where I kept meeting people whose knowledge was quietly disappearing. The last block printer in a family. The last woman who still remembered an old stitch. The last artisan keeping alive a technique that had survived for centuries.

I do not claim to have built these traditions.

I simply believe they deserve protection.

Wherever I encounter a craft worth preserving, I try to connect it with SHEWORKS. If there is a technique fading away, I want it documented. If there is an artisan working in isolation, I want their work to find a future. My contribution to SHEWORKS is simple: to search, to learn, to document, and to help preserve Pakistan's living craft heritage.

SHEWORKS itself has been shaped through the vision of my co-founder, Samina Mehmud, from whom I continue to learn every day. Her understanding of artisans, textiles, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage has been my greatest education. If I have become a better custodian of craft, much of that credit belongs to her.

Together, we believe that a garment can do more than clothe someone. It can preserve a technique, sustain an artisan, and keep an entire tradition alive.

We cannot promise perfection.

We can promise that no piece leaves SHEWORKS because an artisan was underpaid, rushed, or forgotten. The hand remains visible. The craft remains authentic. The maker remains respected.

If you are reading these words, you have already become part of this work.

Wear the work.
Save the stitch.
Honour the hands.

Muhammad Shoaib Khan
Co-Founder • Creative Head • Research & Development Lead

Samina Mehmud
Co-Founder