Product Description

Soon after the fall of the Taliban, in 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons. Thus an idea was born.

With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.

Yet within the small haven of the beauty school, the line between teacher and student quickly blurred as these vibrant women shared with Rodriguez their stories and their hearts: the newlywed who faked her virginity on her wedding night, the twelve-year-old bride sold into marriage to pay her family’s debts, the Taliban member’s wife who pursued her training despite her husband’s constant beatings. Through these and other stories, Rodriguez found the strength to leave her own unhealthy marriage and allow herself to love again, Afghan style.

With warmth and humor, Rodriguez details the lushness of a seemingly desolate region and reveals the magnificence behind the burqa. Kabul Beauty School is a remarkable tale of an extraordinary community of women who come together and learn the arts of perms, friendship, and freedom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24612 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-10
• Released on: 2007-04-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 275 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A terrific opening chapter—colorful, suspenseful, funny—ushers readers into the curious closed world of Afghan women. A wedding is about to take place, arranged, of course, but there is a potentially dire secret—the bride is not technically a virgin. How Rodriguez, an admirably resourceful and dynamic woman, set to marry a nice Afghan man, solves this problem makes a great story, embellished as it is with all the traditional wedding preparations. Rodriguez went to Afghanistan in 2002, just after the fall of the Taliban, volunteering as a nurse's aide, but soon found that her skills as a trained hairdresser were far more in demand, both for the Western workers and, as word got out, Afghans. On a trip back to the U.S., she persuaded companies in the beauty industry to donate 10,000 boxes of products and supplies to ship to Kabul, and instantly she started a training school. Political problems ensued ("too much laughing within the school"), financial problems, cultural misunderstandings and finally the government closed the school and salon—though the reader will suspect that the endlessly ingenious Rodriguez, using her book as a wedge against authority, will triumph in the end. This witty and insightful (if light) memoir will be perfect for women's reading groups and daytime talk shows. (Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In 2002, just months after the Taliban had been driven out of Afghanistan, Rodriguez, a hairdresser from Holland, MI, joined a small nongovernmental aid organization on a mission to the war-torn nation. That visit changed her life. In Kabul, she chronicles her efforts to help establish the country's first modern beauty school and training salon; along with music and kite-flying, hairdressing had been banned under the previous regime. This memoir offers a glimpse into a world Westerners seldom see–life behind the veil. Rodriguez was entranced with the delightful personalities that emerged when her students removed their burqas behind closed doors, but her book is also a tale of empowerment–both for her and the women. In a city with no mail service, she went door-to-door to recruit students from clandestine beauty shops, and there were constant efforts to shut her down. She had to convince Afghan men to work side by side with her to unpack cartons of supplies donated from the U.S. The students, however, are the heroines of this memoir. Women denied education and seldom allowed to leave their homes found they were able to support themselves and their families. Rodriguez's experiences will delight readers as she recounts such tales as two friends acting as parents and negotiating a dowry for her marriage to an Afghan man or her students puzzling over a donation of a carton of thongs. Most of all, they will share her admiration for Afghan women's survival and triumph in chaotic times.–Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com

Reviewed by Pamela Constable

Almost anywhere in the world, a beauty parlor is a sanctuary from the male world, a hive of gossip, a school of feminine wiles and fount of sage advice for jittery brides-to-be.

In Afghanistan, where war and religious oppression have long kept women socially isolated, and where displays of sensual allure became criminal offenses under Taliban rule in the 1990s, the reopening of beauty parlors after the Taliban regime fell in 2001 was a widely noted symbol of the country's democratic rebirth.

But when Deborah Rodriguez, an American hairdresser, decided to contribute to Afghan women's emancipation by establishing a beauty school in Kabul, her project exposed the constraints of conservative tradition and male-ruled culture that still trap many Afghan girls and women into lives of suffering and injustice.

As readers of her Kabul Beauty School watch the makeup being applied and the curls being coiffed, we also hear the confessions of Roshanna, a tearful young bride who is terrified that her in-laws will discover she is not a virgin -- a cardinal sin by Afghan standards -- when her consummation ceremony fails to produce a bloody sheet.

We also learn the story of Mina, forcibly married to an ugly old man in repayment of a debt, then later beaten, disowned and threatened with having her only child taken away because families are feuding over her dowry money.

These women, and many others, find in Rodriguez's classes both a temporary safe haven and the seeds of future emancipation. Inevitably, though, the school has to be shut down after it becomes a target of suspicious scrutiny and bureaucratic greed -- neighbors complain there is "too much laughter" inside, while officials try to confiscate a fortune in beauty products donated from the United States.

Kabul Beauty School is not a work of literature. Its writing is clunky in some spots, breezy in others, and the text is full of clichéd epiphanies about the hardships of Third World living. A good editor would have looked up how to spell "salaam aleikum" and taken out the author's whine about having to boil water on an old gas stove. Since the book's publication, a variety of people, including her former partners, have complained that it contains numerous inaccuracies and overplays the author's role in establishing the beauty school.

But the real-life victims we meet and the tortures they routinely endure give the book its power. No reader will fail to wince at the description of a bride forced to have every pubic hair plucked so she looks as young as possible for the groom. No reader will fail to be outraged at the image of a girl's scarred back and burned feet -- all punishments inflicted by her pious Taliban husband.

When Rodriguez describes Roshanna's wedding celebration in an ornate hotel, it is with compassion born of terrible insight. "She and her husband sit without touching, without smiling, like bride and groom mannequins propped in the chairs. . . . For a moment, it's hard to believe that this woman with the dead eyes and rigid body is my Roshanna. . . . I realize she is so stunned with fear that she can't do anything other than stare. I don't even see her breathing."

Rodriguez also takes a personal plunge into the minefield of Afghan romance by marrying a man she meets there. The subplot of that tempestuous bicultural relationship is revealing, but it also has a self-indulgently confessional quality. In contrast, her story of the beauty school and the Afghan women who found refuge there is an important testimonial to the stubborn misogyny of a country many earnest Westerners are trying so hard to change.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

Inspiring story of an American in Afghanistan
Well written, highly personal story of a wonderfully gregarious woman who tried to help Afghani women become more independent by teaching them hairdressing and how to set up beauty salons. She sounded as if she would make a social success wherever she went and her dedication is admirable.

Kabul Beauty School
This book provides an excellent insight into the daily ups & downs for the women of Afghanistan. I was impressed that the author gave up her life and clients in America to live very differently in Kabul. My son was in Afghanistan for a year - I felt like I knew some of the places from his descriptions & photos. Very delightful book.

Beauty School Drop out
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil

The book starts out interesting, but very quickly becomes all about the author. Neither the author nor the ghost writer are strong writers. None of the side stories or characters are finished or ever mentioned again.