Book Review: Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

Deborah Rodriguez became a beautician, in part, because of her mother but she never intended to make it a career as her mother had. Instead, she hoped that it would be a temporary stint whose financial fruits would help to pay for college. And, it did--even if only for a short time. But two kids and two bad marriages later, she was a college drop-out and a full-time hairdresser in native Michigan. So, to avoid bad marriage #2, Rodriguez signed on with a humanitarian group headed for Kabul. Once she arrives in Afghanistan, she realizes that her skills as a beautician were more valuable to the locals and, especially, foreigners than her ability to bandage a wound or check blood pressure. Rodriguez also realized that a career in beauty was something reasonably acceptable that would tremendously improve the lives of Afghan women. So, she opens the Kabul Beauty School. Of course, there's much more to the story--suspicion, corruption, happiness, abuse, success, terrorists, love, failure, and good old fashioned American bullying--but you had to read it for yourself.