These women are making traditional Tibetan carpets in Kathmandu, to be sold to tourists to raise money. Large numbers of Tibetan people have fled to Nepal and India since China invaded Tibet in the 1950's.
The Chinese have systematically destroyed Tibetan culture by demolishing temples, re-locating entire towns, and killing huge numbers of Tibetans. So places like this carpet-manufacturing facility are also serving the role of keeping Tibetan culture alive outside Tibet, in the hope that some day it may return to its homeland.
Right now, with the only country more powerful than China (the United States) more focused on Chinese economic opportunities than Chinese human-rights abuses, that time seems very far off.