Kabul Beauty School

Author: Deborah Rodriguez

One-sentence summary: An American hair stylist decides to open a beauty school in Kabul, Afghanistan to help the women gain skills and opportunity to better their lives.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 6

Our favorite thing about it: We loved getting a peek inside the Afghan culture, especially the lives of the women.

Our least favorite thing about it: We did not like the author that much; we found her a little selfish, insensitive to the culture at times and sort of random in her storytelling.

Main Topics of Discussion: Afghan culture, oppression of women, marriage, living abroad, relationships

Our favorite quote: It’s a city (Kabul) that is dense with sadness. There are so many people who lost loved ones in the twenty-seven years of war in Afghanistan, who have lost homes and livelihoods, who have lost entire towns and families, who have lost every dream they ever had. And there is still the occasional bombing or surprise mine explosion that rips away the happiness people finally think might be theirs.

Notes: Our overall impression of the book was that we enjoyed reading about the culture of Afghanistan and that the stories in the book were very revealing of the culture. However, our opinion of the book was mostly shaped by our opinion of the author and her writing style as well as some of the choices she made.

Some of us were bothered by the apparent randomness of the stories that were strung together to form the memoir; others of us were not as bothered by this. Most of us questioned Debbie’s seeming lack of cultural understanding. She appeared to be sympathetic to the culture for one minute and completely disregard it the next. We felt that she could have been more sensitive to cultural norms instead of imposing her will on the Afghan people she met (on the issues where no one was in danger or anything, of course). We also wondered how she could have left her two (teenage, we think) sons back in America for so long. We could not believe that after spending such a long time in the country and with natives that Debbie could not/did not learn to speak the language. We all seriously questioned her decision to marry Sam and felt at the time we read it, that she was careless in entering the marriage. We also wondered how she considered only the ramifications to her of marrying someone with a wife and family in Saudi Arabia but not how it would affect his other family.

We did acknowledge Debbie’s perseverance, foresight and bravery to have set up the beauty school and recognizing it’s potential for Afghan women. None of us were sure of the true benefit of the school before we started the book. In fact, we were skeptical, but when we actually read the book, it became apparent how the beauty school could impact the lives of these women for the better.

As for the culture of Afghanistan, we wondered at how long it would take for such a culture to change. We marveled at the widespread mistreatment of women in various ways and discussed what is/could be perpetuating the view and treatment of women in Afghanistan. We felt the hopelessness and helplessness of each woman’s situation when her story was told and gained a new perspective as to the things we complain about in our lives. We were entertained by the style preferences of the Afghan women as well as their customs in marriage and dancing.

Memorable Meeting Moments: We had dinner at Maggiano’s, where we shared a very tasty family-style meal. Stephanie received her birthday books and we had our first B.A.D. Girls Book Club field trip…to Half Price Books!