Civilian Interviewees Disapprove of my boring clothes and lack of makeup

I went to interview one family today who had lost the head of the household in 2001 during an aerial bombardment by the international forces. It was a large house with many different family units living together. It was also strictly segregated between men and women. I first spoke with the men in one room, but was then asked to say hello to the women in the other section of the house. This was not a shy and retiring group of women!! They immediately grabbed me when I walked through the door and sat me down on some cushions. Children became dive-bombing into me (there must have been at least 25 children running around).
I hadn’t been sitting long before my lack of makeup began causing general confusion and dismay. Out came the eyeliners, bright lipsticks and rainbow-bright eyeshadows. Then my hair was scraped back, my nasty boring scarf tossed to one side…. THEN the women had a great idea that they were going to change me entirely and dress me up in their party clothes. So I was forced to change into a sexy 1001-nights outfit, complete with a beaded head-piece. This was causing great amusement and pleasure amongst everyone in the house – especially when I was pushed into the men’s quarters again (I really wasn’t sure about the dynamics here and was not comfortable at all.. but the women were pretty insistent!) Oh…. The things I do for my job!

(the photos show me before.. and then after my makeover! You can see all the children that were throwing themselves at me in the "before" photo!)

Make-Up, Afghan Style…

ACAP likes to help civilians by giving them vocational training. But training women in particular can be difficult because they have fewer options to leave the home. Make-up artist training has proved to be an effective way to help…. Because Afghans certainly love their make-up whenever they attend parties and social events!!
Erica and I decided to allow one of ACAP’s clients to give us a “make-over”…. It was a widow whose husband had been killed by a suicide bomber. She had just opened a beauty parlour so that she could make money to support her children.
I have attended a couple of weddings here, so I knew that the make-up would be colourful and not so natural… and this make-up certainly lived up to expectations!Erica went first… and the beautician started by ‘threading’ her face. “Threading” is common in Egypt (where I live at the moment) and also here – it involves taking two pieces of thread and running them up and down so that they remove all the hair…. But I didn’t realize that the hair on the face was something that had to go!
Then Erica had her eyebrows darkened and made into one sexy unibrow… then thick white foundation; shiny, shiny eyeshadow; fake eyelashes and bright lipstick with heavy lipliner.
I went through a similar process, though I also had my hair done (don’t ask me why!!). My hair was scraped back, gelled into submission and then I had glitter put everywhere… the shinier the better in Afghanistan!
This make-over was not a natural look. To be honest, we looked like drag-queens. We were heading to the Italian PRT straight from the salon and the first thing we did was go to the toilets and attempt to remove as much as we could of the gunge on our face!!