Review: Kabul Beauty School

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez

Kabul Beauty School is the true account of a Holland, MI hairdresser living in Kabul, Afghanistan. A year after 9/11, Deborah Rodriguez flies overseas to work as a nurse’s aid, but finds her true calling in helping the women of Kabul learn to become beauticians.

After persuading multiple companies in the beauty industry to donate thousands of dollars in products and supplies, Rodriguez helps to open the country’s first modern beauty school and training salon. Class after class of women are now able work, giving them more independence then most of them have ever seen and the ability to support their families.

Throughout the book, Rodriguez recounts the intimate, sometimes shocking details of her students’ daily lives. Many of the hardships they face, normalcy in their world, would be unimaginable to most Westerners.

Rodriguez also humorously relays the cultural missteps she makes being an outspoken, independent American woman living in the Middle East.

I found the book to be shocking and sad, yet funny enough to keep it from being depressing. The writing, at times, was not great, but the story was powerful enough to keep me reading.

Up next: Steve Harvey’s Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man (My mom passed it along to me and I already blasted through the first three chapters.)

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