Hässlichkeit

From seeing and being seen, from self-images and self-doubts – Moshtari Hilal writes about ugliness.

Thick body hair, brown teeth, large noses: Moshtari Hilal questions ideas of ugliness. In her unique book, she writes about beauty salons in Kabul as part of the US invasion, about Darwin's theory of evolution, about Kim Kardashian, and about a utopian place in the shadow of the nose. Her explorations, analyses, and memories, her visual quotes and original drawings lead into that innermost realm where every self-understanding is put to the test. Why are we afraid of the ugly? Poetically and movingly, intimately and highly politically, Moshtari Hilal tells the story of all of us as she discusses the norms with which we treat ourselves.