Taste Life Twice

Just finished reading Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez. It was a fascinating look at how a hairdresser from Michigan ended up starting a school for Afghani women to learn to be beauticians, and ended up in an arranged marriage to an Afghan man. It was thoroughly enjoyable but I did find myself wondering about some of the situations she was describing in vivid detail, given the way women are still treated in Afghanistan today.

Turns out I was right to wonder, as I found in a news article. Apparently the women she describes in the book - even though she changed names and details - are now fearful they will be ostracized or worse. One woman actually believes she will be killed because of the details in the book. Very scary.

Seems Rodriguez left Afghanistan after the book was published, even though in the book it is made quite clear she considers Kabul her home and it doesn't sound like she has plans to leave. There is a movie in the works out of the book, and the book itself is on the NY Times bestseller list. But it sounds like there is quite a bit of speculation about the appropriateness of Rodriguez's choices and decisions. Really a shame, if what is being suggested is true - that she went there with a good heart and wanting to help but now is more interested in making a name (and a bank account) for herself, at the expense of those she purported to help.