In Afghanistan girls are not supposed to receive a higher education, they are not supposed to work outside the family home and they are not supposed to leave the house without male accompaniment. This is a considered both a burden for women and ultimately, a burden for the Afghan family who have daughters, but no sons. So as a solution, parents will often choose one of their daughters to disguise as a boy, not just so they can do everything a boy would do, but also to help their family not be the victims of pity and contempt from others. The daughter who is dressed as a son is referred to - by those who know - as a 'bacha posh', which literally translates to “dressed up as a boy” in Dari, and she will identify as a boy until puberty, or until she is married off.

In the gallery above are photos of Mehran, who is a 6-year-old girl. With her short haircut in tow, she is dressed everyday to look like a boy, by her mother, an Afghan member of parliament who also masqueraded as a boy when she was a child. In a society where segregation of the sexes is so distinct, this is actually quiet a common practice with most people knowing someone who has raised a bacha posh.

An article from the New York Times spoke to some families who have daughters who identify as boys. One 15-year-old girl was interviewed and although her story is rare, I found it really interesting, so here is an excerpt…

She said she had been dressing and acting like a boy for as long as she could remember. If it were up to her, she would never go back. “Nothing in me feels like a girl,” she said with a shrug.

Her mother, Laila, said she had tried to suggest a change toward a more feminine look several times, but Zahra has refused. “For always, I want to be a boy and a boy and a boy,” she said with emphasis.

Zahra attends a girls’ school in the mornings, wearing her suit and a head scarf. As soon as she is out on the steps after class, she tucks her scarf into her backpack, and continues her day as a young man. She plays football and cricket, and rides a bike. She used to practice tae kwon do, in a group of boys where only the teacher knew she was not one of them.

Most of the neighbors know of her change, but otherwise, she is taken for a young man wherever she goes, her mother said. Her father, a pilot in the Afghan military, was supportive. “It’s a privilege for me, that she is in boys’ clothing,” he said. “It’s a help for me, with the shopping. And she can go in and out of the house without a problem.”
Both parents insisted it was Zahra’s own choice to look like a boy. “I liked it, since we didn’t have a boy,” her mother said, but added, “Now, we don’t really know.”

Zahra, who plans on becoming a journalist, and possibly a politician after that, offered her own reasons for not wanting to be an Afghan woman. They are looked down upon and harassed, she said.

“People use bad words for girls,” she said. “They scream at them on the streets. When I see that, I don’t want to be a girl. When I am a boy, they don’t speak to me like that.”

Zahra said she had never run into any trouble when posing as a young man, although she was occasionally challenged about her gender. “I’ve been in fights with boys,” she said. “If they tell me two bad words, I will tell them three. If they slap me once, I will slap them twice.”

Zahra’s story is brutally honest. She obviously has high hopes for herself as a person and at 15 believes the only way to succeed in society is to dress, behave and live like a boy. It will be interesting, no doubt, to follow Zahra’s journey.

To disguise oneself as a man is a practice that dates far back in Afghanistan’s history. There is one photo in the gallery above from the early 1900s, of women dressed as male guards protecting the harem of the King of the Afghan royal family. The reason for this was that the harem’s women could not be protected by men, as they may potentially pose a threat to women, but they could not be guarded by traditionally dressed women either so the women were made to dress as men.

The fact that Afghan society believes that a solution is to simply disguise a girl as a boy, provides evidence of how ludicrous the concept of gender hierarchy is, and how archaic the views on women are.

This cultural practice seems short-sighted in its approach and ironically, the actions in which they believe will create acceptance of their family, are blanketing change in societal views and feeding the cycle of gender oppression.


To watch video and read the amazing article by Jenny Nordberg, click here.

Majority of photos above are from Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

Although not completely related, today I watched this video by Girl Effect – an organisation helping the 50 million young girls living in poverty to receive an education and live fuller, healthier lives. Help spread the word.


Written by Mia Muse