Beauty Academy of Kabul

The Beauty Academy of Kabul is a documentary about the opening and operating of the first beauty school in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.

The instructors are all women, and they come from America, England, or are ex-pats from Afghanistan, themselves.

This is not a movie about young Afghani women trying to create a career for themselves after years of oppression.
It is about older (and a couple of youngish) women, who were secretly doing hair and make-up for a living during the Taliban regime, getting an official certificate from a reputable school.


Each day, the students come to the beauty school, which is essentially one room in a small building. It is clear that the whole operation-regardless of the diligent planning--feels totally thrown together. Supplies are late arriving, teachers arrive in Kabul at different times, and most importantly, the country itself is in such horrible shambles that its a wonder the school can exist in the first place. Buildings all around are bombed-out. Men walk around the streets with guns. In one funny scene, an instructor says to a man standing in the room, "What is that noise? Is that a helicopter? What's going on outside?"
The man replies, "Its security"
The instructor, "For what?"
The man, "for YOU"
The instructor, "Well, GOOD!"

The instructors are on a mission: to create a modern class of beauticians that will shape the trends of Kabul for years to come.

The female students in the movie are absolutely intriguing. Each has her own story, of course, but common themes run throughout each of their lives:
1) most of the men in their lives are physically abusive/oppressive
2) it is not acceptable to attempt a "love marriage"- marriages are arranged by family
3) most of them are married (and have had children with) to cousins or other male relatives
and
4) all of them are brave, revolutionary, strong, and smart

Sounds like a pretty intense movie, huh?

In fact, its suprisingly light-hearted and silly. The filmmakers did make an effort to enhance this lightheartedness, but only on top of what was naturally, and undeniably there to begin with. What I'm referring to is the fact that the students themselves had a sort of cheerful attitude about all of the atrocities they had witnessed.
One student, when being interviewed by the filmmakers giggles and smiles when she retells how she witnessed three women in burkas being burned alive by the Taliban.
Her laugh isn't happy or satisfied, though- its a laugh of emotional resignation.

Think about what makes you angry: violence, exploitation, injustice.
When we talk about those things as Americans, we talk about them in an angry or serious way, because we believe that they should not exist-- and that something should and can be done about them. And furthermore, our powerful government supports us in that belief. In some way, we feel that by being angry about something, we can affect change.
The Afghani women in this film obviously do not feel that they can affect change- and at this point, they are probably right.
Watching them, you grow to trust their judgment. They are not naive, they are not weak or passive. These are women who stood up against their abusive husbands and brothers, insisted that they open a beauty parlor in their house despite a very real threat from the Taliban, and who were making more money in one day then their husbands make in a month.
They are fearless.
So when they say that "Driving a car is not a good idea for me right now, here in Afghanistan," you take it seriously.

Well, at least, the viewers do. Not so much the instructors. This little fact upstages, comedically, almost every other element in the movie.

These poor western beauty instructors are so blind, so flaky, so spoiled, that they completely fail to see the reality that these students live. In scene after scene, the audience burst into laugher at their absolutely childlike presumptuousness.
One instructor has been there for days, and has not yet learned that the husbands are all abusive. At one point, she is told by two women indirectly that regarding some matters, the students cannot control their own lives, because the husbands are abusive. She still doesn't get it. She says in a snippy way, "What is that supposed to mean, are they like, verbally abusive or something?"
Okay, we can give her some credit for going over there in the first place, trying to help these women improve their lives, etc.
But come on! How can you not know about this very well-known feature of the culture? And moreover, why be so presumptuous that things are the same in Afghanistan as in the U.S.?

The ignorance can be forgiven in light of their efforts. What cannot be forgiven is that even after they learn about the students' lives, they still insist on trying to bring a very western ideal to Kabul. Some scenes where this happens are uncomfortable and embarrassing. Others are hilarious.

In one scene, an overweight, (fake) red-head instructor from New York decides that she is going to break the custom/law by driving around town, and she takes a handful of students with her. She wants nothing more than to cause a major scene. It is totally embarrassing. Some of the student passengers seem delighted by her driving- and the reactions of the people on the street- but you almost feel like they are giggling and encouraging her just to be polite. Clearly they do not agree that it is smart to piss off violent men. In an informal chat afterwards, the women agree that none of them would ever drive in Kabul.
But sadly, that crazy Yankee instructor fancies herself as a "revolutionary" in her words, and she truly believes that she is there to spread the word about women's lib.
She is so misguided, that is makes the viewer a little sad, almost. She never acknowledges that she, herself, has NO experience with oppression, violence, or genocide. And that the women she is trying to "empower" are far more powerful than she is.
The lesson here: women who are truly powerful do not get that way by the grace of their government granting them those powers. They get that way by finding it in their hearts and using it to inspire personal bravery.

And perhaps the powerful Afghani women are that way out of necessity, but so be it! That makes the power even more real and respectable.
American women don't develop personal power. And if they do, it is a different brand of power altogether.
What I mean is this: we take for granted being able to drive, wear pants, go to college, and marry who we want. Its just a given. It would seem silly to march around "enforcing" our right to go to job interviews or order pizza instead of cooking, wouldn't it? We are unaware of the brightness of empowerment, because our society is awash in it. We do not separate our personal power from anything else. Afghani women do.

Yet, somehow these strong, powerful, brave women use SUCH politeness and respect for their instructors that they are viewed as passive and ignorant- at least, that is how the instructors treat them, despite their good intentions.

The wonderful thing is that you feel their amazing power and strength from the beginning-- and you see right through the false power and strength of the western instructors, despite their bombastic show-off style of women's lib.

I recommend seeing The Beauty Academy of Kabul. It is short (1 hour), delightful, insightful, and ironic.

Here is an interesting link to an article on CNN about a 14 year old Kabul girl who is learning to drive from her brave and modern father:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/01/afghanistan.drivers.ap/index.html


-Shorty