Between two worlds
She is the woman to whom celebrities like Nazan Eckes, Franziska Knuppe and Liz Mohn entrust their beauty and have relied on her beauty and fashion sense for many years. Laila Hamidi doesn‘t like to talk about her celebrity clientele. Styling means discretion. As a self-employed beauty artist, she handled numerous glamorous events and travelled around the world, to the Cannes Film Festival, the Bambi awards, the parties surrounding the Oscars in Hollywood, Fashion Week in Berlin or the Rose Ball in Monaco. All that changed with the outbreak of the pandemic: during the times of COVID-19, the stars stayed at home and the previously successful business concept lost its very foundations overnight. But Laila Hamidi soon devised a new plan. We meet her in the Steigenberger Parkhotel on Königsallee, an environment in which the Afghan feels at home today.
Your glitzy and glamourous life has two sides that couldn’t be any more contrasting. On the one hand, you are in close contact with celebrity stars, on the other hand, you are a patron of the women of the Hindu Kush. Since the TV station BBC Persian reported on your work in Germany, you have been celebrated as an influencer by Afghan women all over the world on social networks. You have a six-figure following on Instagram. In 2020 you braved an experiment, what did you want to “give back” to your old homeland?
I developed my first own beauty products, lipsticks and brushes, presented them in a perfumery in Kabul (without a headscarf) - even before you could buy them in the online shop at Douglas. It was a complete success, because I am the first Afghan woman with my own product line. The biggest private TV station, Tolo TV, did interviews with me - all without a headscarf. We even planned a casting show “Laila Hamidi’s Beauty Face”, inspired by Heidi Klum’s “Germany’s Next Topmodel”. The difference is: my show was specifically aimed at an Afghan audience, whether they live in Afghanistan, in Europe or somewhere else in the world.
Where did the models come from?
After a call on Instagram, more than a thousand girls signed up for the casting in less than 24 hours. For the first shoot in Hamburg, 300 young women from all over Europe showed up. Many of them were completely overdressed, with artificial eyelashes, some even with injected lips and extensions à la Kim Kardashian. Oriental women just always do too much, and I want to show them that a natural look is key. I want to encourage women to feel comfortable in their skin.
„I want to encourage women to feel comfortable in their skin.“
But what is the point of a show that revolves around beauty and fashion in a country where women are not allowed to show skin?
It’s a project for women, by women: I want to make it clear to them that they don’t have to hide. They should become visible and self-confident. My goal was to present women as businesswomen. I wanted to show the young women looking classy and confident and open a door for them in this industry. Because in Afghan society there is still the idea that women over 30 are old and worn out. Typically, they get married at 15 and then have seven or eight children. In conversations I always hear: my time is up. From an early age, I have fought against this and against the prevailing male-dominated opinion that a woman who works and makes herself look pretty is not a good woman. I am married and 40, I have a teenage son, I still work and I style myself the way I look. I am convinced that clothes and make-up can give you self-confidence. That’s why many Afghan women see me as a kind of role model.
You produced the six-part show at your own expense and with the help of sponsors. As an autodidact, you even directed and managed the production. In the end, however, the resurgence of the Taliban torpedoed the planned broadcast on television. And now?
That hit me hard, I was stunned - all the dedication and effort. But much worse is what is currently happening in the country. It is terrible, everything we have tried to build is being destroyed. (Laila Hamidi has been supporting the organisation “Hofa”, which works for children and women in her home country, for 15 years).
You still want to keep fighting?
Absolutely. The finished episodes can be seen on YouTube. The second season is planned, talks with Netflix are underway. I want to make a difference, give something back, because change is possible, I’m convinced of that. I have been very lucky and am grateful for my life in Düsseldorf. The city is my lucky charm, I have achieved so much here.
Everything is doable - says the woman who knew nothing but war as a child. Your story is one of flight and refuge, war and misery - and integration. And now the war in Ukraine, how does that affect you?
I am scared, sad and deeply moved when I see the people in the cellars and underground stations, all the images of destruction and flight. Then my memories come flooding back: when I was a child, there was a front line right outside our front door. We had no electricity, only oil lamps. Mattresses were piled up in front of the windows to protect us from shell splinters. Today I know that what I experienced back then made me strong.
”I don’t want the women of my home country to forget what it means to live a self-determined life without having to cover up.”
What are your plans for the near future?
I will travel again, work with high luxury brands and open my styling lounges at big events. I will continue to expand my own line of beauty tools. The goal is to run my own brand and consulting agency. And of course, the casting show should be produced every year from now on. I don’t want the women of my home country to forget what it means to live a self-determined life without having to cover up. •
About Laila Hamidi
Laila Hamidi was born in 1981 in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the youngest of four children. Her mother worked as a school headmaster, her father was a police general. In the middle of the war, she fled with her family to Rotterdam in 1997, took her A-levels in Dutch and began studying economics. For love, Laila Hamidi moved to Munich and Düsseldorf. Today, the mother of a 17-year-old son speaks fluent German in addition to Dari and Farsi, English and Dutch. The 40-year-old is considered one of the best beauty artists in Germany. Her speciality is red carpet appearances, which means she styles and does the make-up for the stars, knows their fashion preferences and procures the appropriate selection of dresses, accessories and jewellery from the luxury fashion brands. In 2017, she was awarded the Golden Mask for make-up artistry at the beauty trade show in Düsseldorf for her creativity and expertise. As a native of Afghanistan, she remains committed to helping women in her home country.
Words Dagmar Haas-Pilwat
Pictures Streetsyleshooters, Isa Foltin & Franziska Krug