The Belmont Book Club’s next meeting is on Wednesday, September 1st at 7pm in the Clubhouse. They will discuss Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez.
Deborah Rodriguez will be in Mexico but has expressed that she would love to join us at our meeting via Skype so we're working to get that set up. Her son, Zack, will make himself available to answer questions as he was also in Afghanistan during this time.
Here's a little bit about the book from School Library Journal:
In 2002, just months after the Taliban had been driven out of Afghanistan, Rodriguez, a hairdresser from Holland, MI, joined a small nongovernmental aid organization on a mission to the war-torn nation. That visit changed her life. In Kabul, she chronicles her efforts to help establish the country's first modern beauty school and training salon; along with music and kite-flying, hairdressing had been banned under the previous regime. This memoir offers a glimpse into a world Westerners seldom see–life behind the veil. Rodriguez was entranced with the delightful personalities that emerged when her students removed their burqas behind closed doors, but her book is also a tale of empowerment–both for her and the women. In a city with no mail service, she went door-to-door to recruit students from clandestine beauty shops, and there were constant efforts to shut her down. She had to convince Afghan men to work side by side with her to unpack cartons of supplies donated from the U.S. The students, however, are the heroines of this memoir. Women denied education and seldom allowed to leave their homes found they were able to support themselves and their families. Rodriguez's experiences will delight readers as she recounts such tales as two friends acting as parents and negotiating a dowry for her marriage to an Afghan man or her students puzzling over a donation of a carton of thongs. Most of all, they will share her admiration for Afghan women's survival and triumph in chaotic times.–Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Future meeting dates and book choices:
- October 6th: The First Family by David Baldacci
- November 3rd: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
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