The Kabul Beauty School

When an American thinks about the Taliban or Afghanistan in general, the first thing to come to mind is not typically beauty. In fact many times it is far from that. For Deborah Rodriguez, she felt it was her calling. While other people were using their, to some more useful, tools such as medical skills, she took her degree in Cosmetology to make a difference. Many looked down upon this situation. In Afghanistan, although the Taliban is lifted, men and women have strict roles they are to play. Women are expected to keep their hair and sometimes part of their faces covered. They also are expected to stay home. On the other side on this, men have freedom to do as they please. They can even have more than one wife; it is looked at as normal and typical. The assumptions and views that Americans have about Afghanistan are typically proven to be untrue when compared to the Kabul Beauty School movie, which was in general a cause to help the women of Afghanistan work towards better lives.

Now that the Taliban has been lifted, one would think it would be easy for freedom in Afghanistan. That is not the case. One of the main reasons that Rodriguez went to Afghanistan was to help empower the women there. As was gone through with the freedom of American woman, we know that this process can be a long one, and must be taken one step at a time. The starting of a beauty school was just one step to help women become better, and allow them the capability to have a job that would help support them along with their families. With this step comes another – some women would be making more money than their husbands. To many this may be looked down upon, but to the ones that are going through it, it is a huge relief that is helping them to get by, and make ends meet.

I related the situation of stereotyping with the women of Afghanistan to how Peggy McIntosh described it in her article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack. No, Americans don’t typically the beauty as something important, but that is because it is something we have such an easy access too. It is not in reality the fact that we see it as stereotypes, it is the fact that we choose to overlook, or not see it at all. We do not see why beauty is important to them, especially when they just have to keep it covered up with a burqa. It was proven in the film that beauty is a great deal more than that – it was about feeling powerful and pretty; making them confident about themselves so that they can go out and work towards equality. With the opportunity to attend beauty school, come great possibilities for these women to live great, powerful lives.

Personally, Rodriguez seemed to be trying to show that Americans should use the freedom and abilities that they have to better other peoples’ lives; and in return get theirs changed also. Kabul Beauty School showed Americans new ways to view Afghanistan. Although it took a significant amount of work and hard effort, it still made a great advance towards women empowerment in Afghanistan.