The American hairdressers add a slightly bizarre twist to this film. It is hard not to be startled by some of their remarks as they grapple with just how different life is for Afghan women. Their slightly judgmental, dumbfounded reactions to local rites and mores, such as arranged marriages, bans on pre-marital intimacy and rules against showing skin or wearing makeup in public, left me wondering whether any of them had picked up a newspaper in the last 30 years, let alone looked at a map to see where Afghanistan is.

The full blog post, on Liz Mermin’s documentary “The Beauty Academy of Kabul, is at INTELLIGENT LIFE