Although she was well looked after

I acted as a man to get work

canada goose store Pili Hussein wanted to make her fortune prospecting for a canada goose outlet price precious stone that’s said to be a thousand times rarer than diamonds, but since women weren’t allowed down the mines she dressed up as man and fooled her male colleagues for almost a decade. canada goose store

canada goose deals Pili Hussein grew up in a large family in Tanzania. The canada goose discount uk daughter of a livestock keeper who had many large farms, Pili’s father had six canada goose outlet sale wives and she was one of 38 children. Although she was well looked after, in many ways, she doesn’t look back on her upbringing fondly. canada goose deals

canada goose clearance In search of work she found herself in the small canada goose outlet buffalo Tanzanian town of Mererani, in the foothills of Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro the only place in the world where mining for a rare, violet blue gemstone called tanzanite takes place. canada goose clearance

buy canada goose jacket “I didn’t go to school, so canada goose jacket outlet store I didn’t have many canada goose outlet jackets options,” Pili says. buy canada goose jacket

cheap Canada Goose “Women were not allowed in the mining area, so I entered bravely like a man, like a strong person. You take big trousers, you cut them into shorts canada goose outlet florida and you appear canada goose outlet store toronto like a man. That’s what I did.” cheap Canada Goose

canadian goose jacket I acted like a gorilla I could fight, my language was bad, I could carry a big knife canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose sale To complete the transformation, she also changed her name. Canada Goose sale

canada goose clearance sale “I was called Uncle Hussein, I didn’t tell anyone my actual name was Pili. Even today if you come to the camp you ask for me by that name, Uncle Hussein.” canada goose clearance sale

canada goose coats on sale In the tight confines of the hot, dirty tunnels some of which extend hundreds of metres below the ground Pili would work 10 12 hours a day, digging and sieving, canada goose outlet los angeles hoping to uncover gemstones in the veins in the graphite rock. canada goose coats on sale

canada goose clearance “I could go 600m canada goose outlet winnipeg address under, into the mine. I would do this canada goose kensington parka uk more bravely than many other men. I was very strong and I was able to deliver what men would expect another man could do.” canada goose clearance

Canada Goose online Pili says that nobody suspected that she was a woman. Canada Goose online

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canada goose deals Media captionPili Hussein tells Outlook’s Matthew Bannister how canada goose outlet 2015 she succeeded in becoming a miner canada goose deals

Canada Goose Parka “I acted like a gorilla,” she says, “I could fight, my language was bad, I could carry a big knife like a Maasai [warrior]. Nobody knew I was a woman because everything I was doing I was doing like a man.” Canada Goose Parka

canadian goose jacket And after about a year, she struck it rich, uncovering two massive clusters of tanzanite stones. With the money that she canada goose outlet london uk made she built new homes for her father, mother and twin sister, bought herself more tools, and began employing miners to work for her. canadian goose jacket

canada goose store And her cover canada goose outlet in canada was so convincing that it took an extraordinary set of circumstances for her true identity to finally be canada goose vest outlet revealed. A local woman had reported that she’d been raped by some of the miners and Pili was arrested as a suspect. canada goose store

canada goose clearance “When the police came, the men who did the rape said: ‘This is the man canada goose outlet miami who did it,’ and I was taken to the police station,” Pili says. canada goose clearance

canada goose coats Pili canada goose outlet official has built a successful career and today owns her own mining company with 70 employees. Three of her employees canada goose outlet germany are women, but they work as cooks not as miners. canada goose outlet locations in toronto Pili says that although there are more women in the canada goose outlet online store mining industry than when she started out, even today very few actually work in the mines. canada goose coats

Canada Goose Parka “Some [women] wash the stones, some are brokers, some are cooking,” she says, “but they’re not going canada goose outlet nyc down in to the mines, it’s not easy to get women to do what I did.” Canada Goose Parka

Canada Goose online Pili’s success has enabled her to pay for the education of more than 30 nieces, nephews and grandchildren. But despite this she says she wouldn’t encourage her own daughter to https://www.canadagooseoutletmall.com follow canada goose outlet uk sale in canada goose outlet canada her footsteps. Canada Goose online

cheap Canada Goose “I’m proud of what I did it has made me rich, but it was hard for me,” she says. cheap Canada Goose

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canada goose black friday sale Listen to Pili Hussein speaking to Outlook on the BBC World Service canada goose black friday sale

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