The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom

The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom

by Deborah Rodriguez (Author)

Synopsis

In the tradition of "Reading Lolita in Tehran", a look at the lives of women in Afghanistan through the lens of The Kabul Beauty School. Most Westerners now working in Afghanistan spend their time tucked inside the wall of a military compound or embassy. Deborah Rodriguez is one of the very few who lives life smack in the middle of Kabul. Now, Rodriguez tells the story of the beauty school she founded and the vibrant women who were her students there. When Rodriguez opened the Kabul Beauty School she not only empowered her students with a new sense of autonomy -- in the strictly patriarchal culture, the beauty school proved a small haven -- but also made some of the closest friends of her life. Woven through the book are the stories of her students -- there is the newlywed who must fake her own virginity, the 12 year-old bride who has been sold into marriage to pay her family's debts, the brilliant former medic who has not left her house for thirty years. All of these women have a story to tell, and all of them bring their stories to the Kabul Beauty School, where, along with Rodriguez herself, they learn the art of perms, of friendship, and of freedom.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 03 May 2007

ISBN 10: 0340935235
ISBN 13: 9780340935231

Media Reviews
Heart-rending but uniquely entertaining book... this is a colourful, bitter-sweet but often hilarious book. It'd make a terrific movie. -- Daily Express Terrifically readable, and rich in personal stories. -- Kirkus Reviews Mad but splendidly warm hearted American woman ... a remarkable heart warming story. -- Sunday Times A terrific opening chapter--colorful, suspenseful, funny--ushers readers into the curious closed world of Afghan women...This witty and insightful (if light) memoir will be perfect for women's reading groups and daytime talk shows. -- Publishers' Weekly starred review This is a beauty of a book! I was on the edge of my salon chair as I read her gut-wrenching story that revealed true beauty outside and within. -- Kathy L. Patrick, Founder of The Pulpwood Queens Book Club Rodriguez has written a very gutsy, real-life adventure story for women... Her trials and tribulations in setting up the school and entering an arranged Afghan marriage not only make fascinating reading but reveal a side to Afghanistan that few foreigners have experienced or understood. Her courage in tackling gigantic cultural barriers is also remarkable. -- Publishing News This lively memoir is full of darkly funny moments - a customer who had never seen a blow dryer thinks it's a gun and runs screaming from the salon chair -and the humor leavens the horror stories about life in this war-torn land. A dishy but substantial read. -- People If a clash of civilisations is imminent, we need writers such as Rodriguez [...] to show that those on the other side of the divide are humans too, with the same fears and aspirations as the rest of us. -- New Statesman
Author Bio
Deborah Rodriguez from Holland, Michigan, has been working as a hairdresser since 1979. In 2002, Rodriguez helped found the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty school and training salon in Afghanistan.