Despite all the problems occurring in Afghanistan it appears that many people are looking to get some plastic surgery carried out. In short, it is a growing market.

Moreover, it isn’t just women who traditionally, whatever the culture they live in, perceive beauty as something to aspire to; more and more men are also going under the knife.

The main surgical treatments that appear to be popular are nose jobs, face lifts and tummy tucks. One Afghan woman even went s far as getting her nose altered to look like that of the Hollywood star, Angelina Jolie. She even saved money over a 6 month period to get the work done.

On a more serious note many of the women who have had work done are in their 20’s. They also fled abusive marriages. On the other hand a number of women have been forced by their husbands to get plastic surgery.

More worryingly though is the statistic that a growing number of people who are booking into cosmetic surgery clinics do so in order to hide their ethnicity.

Internationally, cosmetic surgery is now a massive and growing business – in the billions of pounds. And while most operations are still of the nip and tuck variety, growing numbers of people are now asking for a variety of procedures including cosmetic dental work.

This begs the question. Why?

While some have argued that having cosmetic surgery of any sort indicates that beautification is perhaps now expected, others believe it has more to do with people’s self perception and lack of confidence.

Whatever the reason, it is an industry that doesn’t appear to slowing down. Rather, the opposite seems to be the case, and it’s spreading to war torn areas of the world like Afghanistan as well as more stable countries.