Vina Samadzai

Kabul, Feb. 21: Fashion in Afghanistan usually involves little more than throwing on a burqa before leaving the house. But two Americans are introducing Afghans to western ideas of womanhood by teaching them the finer points of applying lipstick.

The eight-month Beauty Without Borders course run by Debbie Rodriquez and Patricia ’Connor is wildly popular. About 400 women queued around the block to sign up for about 25 places on a programme starting next week.

The pair set up their school because they were dismayed by the beauty regime of Afghan women and to provide a skill for widows and uneducated girls who have no other means of earning a living.

“This educates the women. It gets them off the streets so they can feed their families and we teach them how to operate their own business,’ said Rodriquez, from Michigan. “Women here love make up. All you have to do is go to a wedding to see that.”

Beauty salons are a thriving business in Kabul and can be seen on nearly every street corner, proliferating since the fall of the Taliban, who had closed them.

Opening a salon is also one of the few ways for women to earn an income. Most men will not allow their wives to work in a job that involves contact with other men, so beauty salons are a popular option. Beauticians can earn £85 a month, three times the national average. Rodriquez came to Kabul as a volunteer relief worker with a medical charity, but when she told Afghan women she was a hairdresser she was besieged with requests to cut hair.

She and ’Connor then decided to open the school. Pupils are taught how to colour, create fancy hairstyles for weddings and apply cosmetics. “When I first came to Kabul, I was shocked at what these women did to their hair and faces,” she said. “They would use henna, which is horrible for your hair. The scissors looked like hedge trimmers. They used buckets from nearby wells outside to rinse hair. I asked one of the girls to do my make-up once and I looked like a drag queen.”

Last year, Trina Ahmedi, 25, won the Anna Wintour Award for top student in her graduating class — the prize being a pair of scissors worth £265, or nine months’ average income in Afghanistan. She said the programme was not always well received by Afghans who were uneasy at the westernisation of their culture

Last year, Vina Samadzai became the first Afghan woman in three decades to take part in a beauty contest in Manila. She won the beauty for a cause award.

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