Freedom is Beauty, and sometimes, Beauty is Freedom...

Beauty is part of every culture. The power in feeling beautiful is immeasurable.   There are some great stories in Kabul that nurture the beauty of a person inside and out thereby building self esteem and making them feel good. That feeling is liberating, something that cannot be quantified but has a deep impact in the moment and beyond...

I recently met a woman who is running for the Parliamentary Elections in September. During the Taleban Regime, she saved her money and bought one treadmill which she planted in her house. She spent hours each day motivating her women friends to come over and exercise on the treadmill, they lost weight, felt beautiful and it shook off the depression that inflicts so many in warzones. She said she was able to save a few lives. Suicidal rate is high among women suffering from violence in Afghanistan (domestic violence and effects of the war).

Seattle Times Article :Two Afghan women work on mannequins in the docu-mentary "The Beauty Academy of Kabul."

In 2001, a group of American hairdressers came to post taliban kabul to set up the first beauty school. http://www.beautyacademyofkabul.com/  The idea that the pusuit of beauty is an element of democracy and nation building made the school an attractive prospect for beauty industry philanthropists.

Charity Fashion Show -Kabul

Last friday, I participated in a charity fashion show. The founder of a girls school designs clothes that she sells and the proceeds go back to the school. My friends  (English, Korean, American, Kenyan) , an Afghan girl and I participated in the fashion show. The Afghan girl only agreed if she were allowed to keep the hijab on. I admired her courage in stepping out of her comfort zone to participate, yet holding the respect for her culture and traditions instead of defying and rejecting her legacy. It showed her sensibility, maturity and pragmatism.

Charity fashion show

 

The evening was spectacular. In minutes we felt like supermodels,  feeling beautiful as we were watched strutting around like peacocks. The show stopper in my eyes was the Afghan girl. She danced on the ramp, connected with the audience with her eyes and expressed her feminity with reckless abandon, her spirit bursting through the seams of her veil.

Thank you Afghanistan for these moments. This day made me feel beautiful, it made me feel free, empowered, feminine and liberated in the midst of the war. It made me realise it can be done by respecting, not defying local tradition. It was a reminder of the things that make us human. Things that don't matter much, in the larger scheme of things, but empower us beyond measure and loom large when taken away. Things we all have in common...

Charity Fashion Show: Afghan dress with headscarves