The Kabul Beauty School
I've decided to chuck my old plan of reviewing things in order, and just reveiew whatever I've read recently, because to tell the truth I don't really remember all the books from year one all that well, unless they were spectacularly good or spectacularly bad. So, I'm just going to do things as I've read them, and yesterday morning from about 6:30 to 10:00 am I read 'The Kabul Beauty School'
Rating: ☆☆☆
Title: The Kabul Beauty School
Author: Deborah Rodriguez
Genre: NF / Middle East / Memoir
Read: 29th May 2007
Comments: I had read about this school a few years back in some women's magazine or other, and I remembered being very skeptical; thinking "Why start a beauty school in such a war-torn country?, Why not do something more worthwhile?"
After reading this though, I realized how wrong I was. Since being a beautician is one of the few jobs that only a woman can do, (you obviously can't have a man looking at all those unveiled women and actually touching their hair...) it's a good way for women to make money and raise their status in their family so they won't get beaten as often, or married off as early.
The author sometimes came off as a rather naive, culturally-insensitive American, but her heart was always in the right place. Although she always seemed to be right on the brink of some crisis or another she always made it out somehow. This book was very inspiring, but also depressing at the same time. You get to see how far Afghan women have come, but also how far they still have to go, which is a long, long way.
Quote: "I know how the lives of the women who have come to the school have changed. Whereas they were once dependant on men for money, they are now earning and sharing their wages, whereas once they were househould slaves, now they are respected decision makers. Not all of them, not all the time. But enough to give them and so many other women hope."
The Kabul Beauty School
Rating: ☆☆☆Title: The Kabul Beauty School
Author: Deborah Rodriguez
Genre: NF / Middle East / Memoir
Read: 29th May 2007
Comments: I had read about this school a few years back in some women's magazine or other, and I remembered being very skeptical; thinking "Why start a beauty school in such a war-torn country?, Why not do something more worthwhile?"
After reading this though, I realized how wrong I was. Since being a beautician is one of the few jobs that only a woman can do, (you obviously can't have a man looking at all those unveiled women and actually touching their hair...) it's a good way for women to make money and raise their status in their family so they won't get beaten as often, or married off as early.
The author sometimes came off as a rather naive, culturally-insensitive American, but her heart was always in the right place. Although she always seemed to be right on the brink of some crisis or another she always made it out somehow. This book was very inspiring, but also depressing at the same time. You get to see how far Afghan women have come, but also how far they still have to go, which is a long, long way.
Quote: "I know how the lives of the women who have come to the school have changed. Whereas they were once dependant on men for money, they are now earning and sharing their wages, whereas once they were househould slaves, now they are respected decision makers. Not all of them, not all the time. But enough to give them and so many other women hope."
posted by Becki at 11:49 AM
2 comments
