With the enigmatic and alluring Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt as her mystical muse, Lebanese British journalist Zahra Hankir invites readers on an intriguing journey through time and across continents in Eyeliner: A Cultural History. Hankir, comparing her subject matter to "ink itself," examines how eyeliner helps us deliver messages about ourselves to the world, and its use as a transformative marker of maturity, drama, seduction, sexuality, strength, and rebelliousness that is surprisingly aligned across subcultures and eras.
Hankir (editor of Our Women on the Ground) introduces multiple varieties of eyeliner, including kohl, a word derived from the Arabic, which is used for spiritual and healing purposes as well as for beautification and to repel the sun. Eyeliner opens with the story of Queen Nefertiti and describes how her kohl-rimmed influence reigns supreme across a vast cultural landscape that includes Instagram influencers, drag queens, Mexican American cholas, Japanese geisha, Iranian activists, and celebrities such as Beyoncé.
The author travels far in pursuit of her research, expressing a contagious wonder at the layers of common ground a simple object like eyeliner offers people of diverse backgrounds. To the Bedouin community she meets in Jordan, kohl is a symbol of belonging, while performers in India wear it so they can "dance with their eyes."
Eyeliner features a particularly dazzling chapter on the late Amy Winehouse and the hypnotic, disarming gaze of her heavily lined eyes. Reading Hankir's well-written, absorbing debut, one can't help but admire the versatility and influence of this humble beauty staple, speaking as it does "a universal language of transformation." --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer