Meta recognises Zerin and her 6 Yards Story

The name of the page, ‘6 Yards Story’, hints at it being about saris. In fact, it all started with sari sales. However, now trendy jewellery of traditional design is now high on the online startup sales. The page that sells saris and jewellery, has already gained over a hundred thousand likes.

Bangladeshi women entrepreneur Zerin Tasnim Khan is the founder of the Facebook page and the online business, initiated from the page. Meta, the holding company of Facebook, chose to promote her initiative.

Meta often upholds the stories of exceptional and successful entrepreneurs from different parts of the world, through documentaries in its series ‘Forward Together’. The fourth episode of the documentary, aired on 8 March marking International Women’s Day, featured the success stories of three female entrepreneurs from Asia and the Pacific. One of them was Zerin Tasnim Khan. Meta dubbed them as ‘comunity leaders’.

Zerin Tasnim Khan who is a young architect, designer and entrepreneur, is better known as Laura Khan. Her startup is the first one from Bangladesh to be featured in Meta’s promotion.

Grace Clapham, Director of Community Partnerships APAC (Asia-Pacific) at Meta, introduced Zerin Tasnim Khan at the beginning of the video. Grace said, as half of the entrepreneurs in Asia and Pacific region are women, it is crucial to give them a chance to use their potential. Zerin has proved to be a successful entrepreneur, selling jewellery crafted with native traditional designs, online.

Alongside Zerin, Nadine Angelica Gadia Casino, owner of Alima Mother Support Center of the Philippines and Mar Pages co-owner of Spain’s Solo Female Travellers were also featured in the fourth episode of Forward Together.

Zerin Tasnim Khan narrates the story of creating '6 Yards Story' in the video.

It started in 2014. Zerin was a student of Brac University’s architcture department then. She invited some of her friends to visit her Sirajganj home. Numerous weavers locally known as 'tanti' made saris there. Her friends wanted to visit the weavers’s homes and she took them there. All of them bought severel cotton saris directly from the weavers. Zerin’s friends, amazed at such pretty sarees being sold for such low prices, suggested an initiative to sell these saris in Dhaka.

‘Then I created a Facebook page. As the length of a sari is usually six yards, I named my startup ‘6 Yards Story’. I used to post photos of my friends wearing the saris on Facebook. Later I started getting good response.’ That’s how Zerin Tasnim Khan recounted the story of starting 6 Yards Story to Prothom Alo.

However, one needs some accessories to go along with a sari. Zerin had some antique jewellery in her own collection. He models would wear these at the photoshoots. Zerin said, after a while she noticed that her clients were asking about jewellery and wanted to buy them. They were even more interested in the jewellery than the saris. Then I started making jewellery then she said.

The demand for jewellery at 6 Yards Story has been increasing steadily over the last eight years. Zerin’s business is entirely online based. She does not have a store yet. She herself designs all the saris and the jewellery. At present eight skilled craftsmen are working with her. Jewellery made of bronze, silver and gold are available at 6 Yards Story. Recently diamond ornaments have been also added to the list.

When asked, how was she noticed by Meta, Zerin replied, “I don’t know. I was contacted by Meta. They informed me that selected women entrepreneurs were to be featured on women’s day and I was nominated from Bangladesh”.

In March-April of 2020, when Bangladesh was facing a tough time due to corona pandemic, Zerin Tasnim Khan introduced a different initiative. There were no orders for saris or jewellery. The suppliers were also stuck at home. Zerin observed that many persons couldn't even get their essential medicines amid the lockdown. Then from 6 Yards Story they began to deliver medicines to customers’ houses based on their requirements. “This benefitted many people. Besides, our deliverymen also found work. We provided the services for four months”, said Zerin.

According to Zerin, to become successful in an online startup, one has to always stay in the limelight. That means keeping the products updated on the page otherwise people might not remember. In response to the question, ‘Will your initiative only stay online?’ Zerin replied, ‘I don’t wish to go to offline.”