Product Description AN ARRESTING & OPTIMISTIC PORTRAIT OF POST-TALIBAN AFGHANISTAN, THIS CAPTURES THE WONDERFULLY ODD CICUMSTANCES THAT BRING AFGHAN & AMERICAN WOMEN TOGETHER IN PURSUIT OF PHYSICAL BEAUTY & MUCH MORE. .com When "liberators" don't understand the country they're trying to help, the end result can be well meaning, but diluted. In the documentary The Beauty Academy of Kabul, filmmaker Liz Mermin focuses on a group of American hair stylists who travel to post-Taliban Afghanistan to teach local women how to beautify themselves and their customers. Though well-intentioned and enthusiastic, many of the Westerners come across as clueless and thoughtless. Looking at a group of women eager to pick up some styling tips, an Indiana hairdresser admonishes them for looking plain and demands to know why they're not wearing makeup. She seems to have no idea that until recently, these women were covered head to toe in burkas. Another American stylist says to her translator, "It seems to me some of these women are fearful of their husbands. Why?" And yet another seems disappointed when her class makes no notice of her declaration that Frederic Fekkai--the famed hairdresser to the stars--personally donated the scissors they're using. Mermin would've done better to focus less on the Americans and more on the Afghani women, many of whom have heartbreaking stories to tell. One, who got married at 14, notes, "Men and women should be equal." Another young student likes the idea of marrying a man she falls in love with, but pragmatically points out, "If a guy can fall in love with you, he can fall in love with someone else, too." It is these women who carry the story. And it is these women whose stories should've been delved into more. --Jae-Ha Kim
T**R
Great film!
I have not read the book, but I loved the film, and I use it in my 9th grade English/Humanities class when we study the Middle Eastern cultures. The film follows several beauticians who come to help and the stories of several women who attend the beauty school. My students loved watching it and learning about culture through an interesting story. I highly recommend!
P**.
Good!
It was enlightening and good. Recommended.
A**R
Broken Dvd
I brought this dvd and it arrived cracked. And look like it was covered over with tape. Was a gift for my daughter in africa. It came day before my flight so I didnt . Open it till I got there. What a disappointment to not be able to watch it.
L**L
The Beauty Academy of Kabul DVD
It is a short documentary on the beauty school. I was using it to supplement Deborah Rodriquez books of Kabul..The video did give insight on the female life in Kabul...but just not quite what I expected...I would recommend the DVD for those that want to see some of the conditions that they live in in Kabul though...
J**G
worth viewing
Not withstanding the vanity of the western women, this is a poignant, agenda-less film that documents the gap between the east and west, and the modest aspirations of Afghani women to show their visage in public.This movie is certainly interesting in demonstrating the chasm between between eastern and western feminine mores. Nothing like a bunch of dead family members to cement a reluctance to adopt western fashion. Certainly the chasm is so substantial that its hard to fathom that a term such as "love marriage" exists on this planet, but there it is. And the flakiness that is celebrated in the west as "diversity" and "enlightenment" is exposed in this film for its weirdness. Afghani society is not so tolerant of behavior that is outside the lines.If nothing else, we have a misinterpretation of gaps; we have westerners hoping to cross decades of difference when the gap is centuries. And yet the resilient women of Kabul, some who have never known peace know that they are right and that the battle is not a matter how but when. This is not a story with dramatic twists or stunning turns, but a modest story of cowed women taking modest steps to assert themselves in a society that suddenly stopped caring what women had to say and only now minimally willing to consider their contribution. It is a moving story of small acts of courage in the face of cultural retardation.
J**S
I shall be released
This short documentary works for me on several levels.Taking it at face value, an international group of hairdressers, American, British and Afghani establish a Beauty School in Kabul, to restore an institution which had been targeted for destruction and outlawed by the Taliban regime. It is a story which can be construed as amerikan imperialism, introducing a capitalistic, secular business in the capital city of Kabul a feat which is only possible because of the security of NATO troops in the city. However, it becomes clear from some of the cameos of the students that hairstyling and makeup were underground activities that many women were demanding even under the threat of beheadings and the more extreme punishments available under Sharia. Throughout the film there is the juxtaposition of images of beauty and sisterhood with those of armed men looking on with considerable bemusement.On another level though, the film raises as many questions as answers. One is struck by the admission of one refugee to America of her feelings of guilt after leaving her homeland, that she did nothing to help her abandoned Afghani "sisters" in the series of struggles which beset her native country. What sort of society did exist in Afghanistan before the Russian invasion? We know that there was some sort of monarchy which, following a coup, became some sort of republic. Did it meet the George Bush Jr. test of a democracy? Then came the Russian invasion and the establishment of the jihadist movement, finance and armed by the US and led by one Osama bin Laden. Did the CIA know or even suspect that this would lead to the establishment of a particular type of an Islamic Republic led by the Taliban?On a human level, it is clear from the level of interest of ordinary Afghan women that beauty and makeup are things that they are interested in but they must bow to the wishes of their husbands and families who may not approve of their use of make up or different hair styles. While not wishing to tread in or on the footsteps of feminists here, I for one, believe that it is an inalienable right of every person to have self-determination.This little film deserves much wider attention than it has received. I heartily recommend it to everyone.
D**N
feminist liberation or cultural imperialism?
In 2003 six American hairdressers opened a beauty school in the bombed out ruins of post-Taliban Kabul. Director Liz Mermin follows this venture from the grand opening and selection of the first class to the graduation dinner three months later. Two of the volunteers, Sima and Shaima, had emigrated from Afghanistan to the United States more than twenty years earlier, and their cultural reconnection is emotionally powerful. "It's been twenty years since I was here," observes Sima, "but the country has regressed a hundred years." Two other volunteers are positively obnoxious; they cannot understand why these Afghan women would not wear makeup, drive, or anger their husbands. One of them begins classes with yoga meditation as the Afghan women giggle. Another gushes that their project is not just about hair and makeup but about "healing the country." The real heroes that make this film worth watching, though, are the Afghan women. "Our men have backwards mentalities," one of them laments. I found the symbolism of a beauty parlor run by culturally insensitive American do-gooders in a conservative Muslim country rich with paradox. Was this project one of genuine feminist liberation or self-congratulatory cultural imperialism? A little of both, I thought. In English and Afghan.
R**I
not bad
as a background tasks it's not bad - has some interesting scenes and dialogues - I didn't like the fat American woman trying to convert the Afghans into her culture but I am fully for women rights.
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