Deborah Rodriguez Biography
Deborah Rodriguez has worked as a hairdresser since 1979, except for a brief
time when she was a corrections officer in her hometown of Holland,
Michigan. She used to direct the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty
academy and training salon in Afghanistan where she lived with her Afghan
husband.
According to the
New York Times (April 2007), six women also involved in the beauty school in
Afghanistan dispute parts of her memoir, particularly concerning the Beauty
School's founding, how she won control of the school and why, and her stories
about several Afghani women. The author and publisher say that in the future,
they will make it clear Rodriguez didn't found the school and that the Afghani
women's identities needed to be protected.
Rodriguez left Afghanistan in April 2007 after returning to Kabul from a book
tour to find that her husband, Haji Sher Mohammed, had been sexually harassing
salon girls and planning to steal her money. After being warned that she
would be kidnapped if she stayed, she fled. The Kabul Beauty School
caused outrage in Afghanistan, where websites revealed the salon girls’
true identities. They have been denounced as prostitutes who have soiled the
reputation of Afghan women.
Rodriguez, who has been accused of abandoning the women, says that she is waiting to sign a detailed contract which would release her $1m. According to the
New York Times (Nov 2007) she wrote to one of the women, "If the movie money comes, you will have enough money to help yourself." She says that the women are being misled by people saying that she has money to give them, "I’ve
given them all my money and now I’ve only $2,200 left. I feel horrible. I don’t
know how to get them a visa. I had a good opportunity to get them into Brazil but they didn’t want to go."
Rodriguez's first novel, A Cup of Friendship, was published in January 2011.
This biography was last updated on 01/09/2011.
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