Agawam Pageturners Book Club's Discussion of Kabul Beauty School

The group had a lively discussion about Kabul Beauty School. It is a true story of an American woman who goes to Afghanistan to found a beauty school, so the Afghani women might learn a trade and have a means of support. Some people were impressed with Deborah, saying she did not give weighty analysis to her proposition. She just went over the pass and did it. Some called her Crazy Deb and a dingbat. Some wondered if she was going over there for altruistic reasons or to escape her own life. Some called her flighty, especially marrying an Afghani man after twenty days and not realizing he already had one wife. The group also pointed out that she was careless in the market place, and with her dangerous neighbors. She put other people in jeopardy. Another women pointed out what was going to happen to the bride that was not a virgin that she wrote about. She did help the bride hide this fact from her family and her husband, but one member was concerned since this book has been published, couldn't the bride somehow be found out, and her life jeopardized? The positive thing people felt about Deborah was that she planted a seed of equality for women in Afghanistan. The women who graduated from the beauty school were able to give money to their husbands, in a way that did not diminish their husbands self-esteem. Everyone in the group was grateful that they live in the United States and not Afghanistan. Overall a thought provoking discussion.