The next meeting of Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, October 25 at 10:30 am in the library’s Community Room. Pat Kennedy-Grant, Readers’ Services Coordinator for the library, will lead the discussion of Kabul Beauty School; An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (2007) by Deborah Rodriguez. [The author will not be present.]
The book describes how, soon after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, author Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known, she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons.
With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well-meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.
Deborah Rodriguez has been as a hairdresser since 1979, except for one brief stint when she worked as a corrections officer in her hometown of Holland, Michigan. She opened and directed the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan, as well as the Oasis Salon and the Cabul Coffee House. Not long after her book was published, she had to flee Afghanistan and she currently lives in California.
There is no charge and no sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.
The book describes how, soon after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, author Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering humanitarian aid to this war-torn nation. Surrounded by men and women whose skills–as doctors, nurses, and therapists–seemed eminently more practical than her own, Rodriguez, a hairdresser and mother of two from Michigan, despaired of being of any real use. Yet she soon found she had a gift for befriending Afghans, and once her profession became known, she was eagerly sought out by Westerners desperate for a good haircut and by Afghan women, who have a long and proud tradition of running their own beauty salons.
With the help of corporate and international sponsors, the Kabul Beauty School welcomed its first class in 2003. Well-meaning but sometimes brazen, Rodriguez stumbled through language barriers, overstepped cultural customs, and constantly juggled the challenges of a postwar nation even as she learned how to empower her students to become their families’ breadwinners by learning the fundamentals of coloring techniques, haircutting, and makeup.
Deborah Rodriguez has been as a hairdresser since 1979, except for one brief stint when she worked as a corrections officer in her hometown of Holland, Michigan. She opened and directed the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan, as well as the Oasis Salon and the Cabul Coffee House. Not long after her book was published, she had to flee Afghanistan and she currently lives in California.
There is no charge and no sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.
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