The Alterations Lady

A refugee’s exhilarating story of displacement and perseverance in the face of extremism and the American who is forever changed by what she hears.


When Cindy Miller met Lailoma Shahwali, who was altering her daughter’s wedding dress, she expected their interactions would be brief. But in Lailoma she found not just a seamstress, but a survivor who would open up about her remarkable experiences in her native Afghanistan under Taliban rule, her husband’s brutal murder in front of Lailoma and her young son, her mountain escape into Pakistan, and her journey to a new life in the United States.


A breathtaking account of triumph against all odds, The Alterations Lady documents Lailoma’s childhood as an Afghan girl, the indignities she endured when the Taliban seized her beloved country and stripped her of her hard-won rights, her relentless determination to protect her child and offer him a better life, and her navigation of the complicated United States immigration system. This timeless story of one refugee’s pursuit of the American dream and her search for sanctuary in a foreign land is a poignant reminder of the plight of refugees everywhere and the possibilities offered by a nation of immigrants.