Deborah Rodriguez

Deborah "Debbie" Rodriguez is an American writer, hairdresser, and humanitarian. She is noted for creating safe spaces that provide women with a way out of domestic violence and chaotic circumstances.

Biography In 2001, Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan as part of a group offering aid after the fall of the Taliban. There, she helped found a beauty school that trained 200 women in the art of hairdressing, many of whom went on to run their own salons, giving them the opportunity to start their own business and provide for their families. She later opened a coffee shop in Kabul.

In 2002, Rodriguez married an Afghan, Samer (Sam) Mohammad Abdul Khan, who worked for Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. At the time he had a wife in Saudi Arabia, who became pregnant with his eighth child while he was married to Rodriguez. The marriage with Rodriguez was reported as a happy one as late as April 2007, but soon after, she had to flee Afghanistan. At one point, Kabul Beauty School was slated to become a movie, with Sandra Bullock playing the lead. Her other books include the novels The Zanzibar Wife, and The Moroccan Daughter.

As of 2021, Rodriguez has been working to help 130 Afghans, including former staff and beauty school students, leave Afghanistan. As the president of the non-profit Oasis Rescue, she is raising money to support efforts for Afghans who are seeking to leave the country, as well as those who have left and find themselves in need.

Some controversy followed the publishing of Kabul Beauty School. Other women who were also involved at the founding of the Kabul Beauty School say the book is filled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies, that events did not unfold the way Rodriguez depicts them. Though it was acknowledged that some personal, place and organization names were changed in the book, and some chronological details adjusted. Some of the women who worked at the beauty school said that, because of the publication of the book and the details it revealed about them, their lives had been put in danger. Some also claimed that Rodriguez had not made good on promises for financial support and other help.

Farewell to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul was longlisted in 2025 for the International Dublin Literary Award.

Publications

Non-fiction Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil (1 January 2007, Hodder: ) Margarita Wednesdays: Making a New Life by the Mexican Sea (10 June 2014, Gallery Books: ) (published as The House on Carnaval Street in some countries)

Fiction The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul (2012, Sphere: ) Return to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul (2016, Sphere: ) The Zanzibar Wife (2018, Sphere: ) Island on the Edge of the World (2019, Sphere: ) The Moroccan Daughter (2021, Bantam: ) Farewell to the Little Coffee Shop of Kabul (2023, Sphere, )