Beauty Without Borders
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil -- DEBORAH RODRIGUEZ. Random, $24.95
Kabul is a city of armored compounds and clouds of dust. But for Deborah Rodriquez, author of the big-hearted KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (Random House), its rare and arresting bursts of color that better define the place. It’s fiery –haired, outspoken American and trained beautician, she arrives in Afghanistan as an aid worker only to find her truer calling in helping to found the beauty school for Afghan women (which was in part funded by Vogue). In a country where the sound of female laughter is considered an offense, she teaches everything from business skills to glamour, Afghan- style: a “body weight in eye shadow, false eyelashes the size of sparrows…and clothes with more bling than a Ferris wheel.) In this inspiring work, Rodriquez recalls how she comes to make Afghanistan her home, wed a Mujahid, and bring beauty into a war-torn land.
-- By Megan Conway