The Beauty Academy of Kabul

Sometimes a perm is empowering, said Stephen Whitty in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. That’s the philosophy of six beauticians who headed to Kabul in 2003 to teach Afghani women to style hair. These women see beauty as a precious human right denied them under the repressive Taliban regime. The idea of founding a beauty school in the ruins of a war-torn country “may sound a little silly at first.” But a woman can learn to style hair without reading textbooks, practice it from home, and best of all, earn a living at it. Whatever you think going into this film, you’re “likely to come out thinking something else,” said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. Director Liz Mermin has created a “nonjudgmental and ultimately quite sympathetic account” of a seemingly misguided adventure. Only a heart of stone wouldn’t be moved by the Afghan women’s embrace of the school, despite the cultural insensitivity of their American teachers. The ugliest American is Indiana native Debbie, said V.A. Musetto in the New York Post. She yells at the women for failing to bring their combs and scissors to class. “You’re stuck in a rut,” she lectures, apparently oblivious to the real challenges facing women in Afghanistan. If another school opens in Kabul, let’s hope its administrators “leave Debbie in Indiana.”

Rating: Unrated

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