Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
reviewed on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8


Debbie Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as an aid worker. She went because she has a big heart and also to escape from her abusive husband. She is a hairdresser and at first feels like she cannot contribute much as everyone else on her aid team is trained in the medical field. She eventually learns that the Taliban closed all of the hair salons because they thought they were immoral. Debbie ends up going back to Afghanistan to open up a school as being a hairdresser is one of the few jobs open to women. She also ends up in an arranged marriage to an Afghani man - and they don't even speak each other's language when the first get married!! The book is basically a series of stories about the people she encountered in her life in Kabul. Some of the stories were horrifying, some of them were amusing. It gave me a glimpse into the life of an Afghani woman ... and made me very glad that I live here in the USA, not in Afghanistan!