"A sweeping meditation on a subject rarely addressed . . . Hilal takes on our
beauty-worshipping celebrity culture and the beauty industry for . . . keeping women in an
expensive prison of self-doubt . . . Ugliness makes a 'big picture' argument panning outward
from one young woman's life to some of the largest issues we confront globally—hence to all of
our lives."—Rhonda Garelick in The New York Times How do power and beauty join forces to
determine who is considered ugly? What role does that ugliness play in fomenting hatred?
Moshtari Hilal an Afghan-born author and artist who lives in Germany has written a touching
intimate and highly political book. Dense body hair crooked teeth and big noses: Hilal uses
a broad cultural lens to question norms of appearance—ostensibly her own but in fact
everyone's. She writes about beauty salons in Kabul as a backdrop to the U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan Darwin's theory of evolution Kim Kardashian and a utopian place in the shadow of
her nose. With a profound mix of essay poetry her own drawings and cultural and social
history of the body Hilal explores notions of repulsion and attraction taking the reader into
the most personal of realms to put self-image to the test. Why are we afraid of ugliness?
