Analysis Of The Beauty Academy Of Kabul

On November 7th at the Indiana University Cinema, I had the opportunity to watch an intriguing documentary called The Beauty Academy of Kabul, which was eye opening in terms of gender oppression. The main purpose of the film was to portray the role that beauty has in these women’s lives who live in Kabul and how it empowers them and allows them to be independent in a certain aspect of their lives. In the documentary, women from America travel to Kabul and create a school where they rigorously teach Afghan women the techniques that are found in beauty parlors. Throughout the documentary, several interviews take place where the audience learns just how unequal men and women are treated in the city of Kabul. Overall, the documentary showed me how women are treated in that culture, how it is different from our culture although we still face some of the same issues, and how something like the beauty school helps the women to feel empowered and how it gives them a sense of purpose.

To many it may seem pointless, but what some may not realize is that the school is meant to empower these women and provide purpose for them in their oppressed lives. During the documentary, one of the American women says something that is very significant to the overall meaning of the school. She stated, “education is the key to empowering people.” This is important, because like what we learned, many women do not have the opportunity to receive a higher education, and this school provides them with this opportunity. It was especially surprising to learn while watching the documentary, that many of the Afghan women in the documentary are secretly hairdressers and earn more money than their husbands do. This is an example that a beauty school, like the one bui;t in Kabul, can be a great step towards gender equality in a place such as