The Kabul Beauty School - Softcover

Rodriguez, Deborah

3.66

25,177 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340935243 ISBN 13: 9780340935248

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2007

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Deborah Rodriguez arrived in Afghanistan in 2002 with nothing but a desire to help and a beauty degree. When she arrived she learned that the once-proud tradition of Afghan beauty salons had been all but destroyed by the Taliban.

With her knowledge of both beauty and enterprise, Rodriguez helped found the Kabul Beauty School and opened a modern salon in Kabul. She trained local women to become beauticians - one of the few ways in which a woman could support herself and her family. And it is here that she not only empowered her students with a new sense of autonomy - in this strictly patriarchal culture the beauty school proved a small haven - but also made some of the closest friends of her life. In the tradition of Reading Lolita in Tehran, woven through the book are stories of the students, for example, the 12-year-old bride who has been sold into marriage to pay off her family's debts, the medic who had not left her house for 30 years, the newlywed who must fake her own virginity...

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, friendship and freedom.

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Product Description:

Kabul Beauty School 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. "Kabul Beauty School" is her witty and insightful memoir of friendship and perseverance. Full description

Review:

Terrifically readable, and rich in personal stories. (Kirkus Reviews)

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... On hearing so many heart-rending stories from local women decimated by Taliban rule, she opened up a beauty school to give purpose and money-earning capacity back to then. 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)

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