When I saw Jenny Nordberg on the Daily Show talking about this phenomenon, I knew I had to check out her book, The Underground Girls of Kabul. In one of the most sex-segregated cultures on earth, there are young girls who go out in boy's clothes and are treated as boys, even when their neighbors and schoolmates know she's biologically female.
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Nordberg started off investigating issues related to women in Afghanistan around 2011. When she asked men about the difference between men and women, she got a variety of answers: women were softer, more nurturing, less logical, etc. When she asked women, she got the same answer over and over: freedom. Men had it, women didn't. In some parts of Afghanistan, women still live under conditions of house arrest, and even in the cities, they're not supposed to go out without a male relative.
So perhaps it's not wholly surprising that she learned of the existence of bacha posh (literally, "dressed like a boy"). They're not exactly common, but everybody seemed to know of one. They are given male names and live as boys, socializing with boys in ways that would be scandalous for a girl, playing on sports teams, and getting privileges such as eating before their sisters do. They get into the role to the point where they're policing their sisters' modesty, making sure they don't go near boys they way the bacha posh does.
Nordberg connects the bacha posh with examples from other cultures of biological women, both legendary and real, who lived as men in order to fill a role forbidden to women. It's impossible to know how many of those really identified as men, and how many simply lived in disguise in order to travel unmolested, have a career, live as married with another woman, or fight in a war. But in the case of bacha posh, there's a difference: they're chosen in childhood by their parents, for reasons that have to do with the family's circumstances, not the individual child.
For an impoverished family, a bacha posh can get a job to help support them. For a family where the father is away or dead, the bacha posh can escort female relatives out in public. One of Nordberg's interviewees was a more elite woman, showcased as one of the female politicians in the new government, who found that she was viewed as more respectable if one of her four daughters appeared to be a son. The most common reason cited, however, was a folk belief that dressing and treating one daughter as a son would cause the next child to be born biologically male.
When the bacha posh get close to puberty, they are put back into a female role, sometimes quite abruptly. While Nordberg's sample was too small to generalize much, she found that among those who returned to the female role while still young, they generally viewed being a bacha posh as a positive experience. They spoke of how it gave them confidence and strength. In fact, Nordberg correctly spotted a former bacha posh in a random encounter because the woman made eye contact and initiated conversation with her, something most Afghan women wouldn't do with a foreign stranger.
Those who remained bacha posh through puberty or later were more inclined to fight any attempt to make them change back. After being allowed to go outside, play actively, hold any kind of job, and speak their minds, the thought of retreating into a burqua and an arranged marriage was unbearable to some. Nordberg found a few who continued to live as men in adulthood, including one who was a police officer.
Among the adolescent and older bacha posh, Nordberg didn't find any who formed romantic relationships with either gender. Of course, in Afghanistan, the very notion of sexuality for women is taboo: a woman could be deemed slutty even for admitting to enjoying sex with her husband. On two occasions, Afghan women asked Nordberg if the rumor about Western women was true: did they really have "relations" with a thousand men apiece?
What stood out the most for me was how often the role was an "open secret," and neighbors just went along with it. Not always: there were examples of bacha posh being ridiculed by their schoolmates and even teachers. There was one instance where a group of men (Taliban, I think) showed up at one family's door because they'd heard one of the sons was really a girl. The father tried to stall them, but finally the bacha posh stepped forward and said, "I am the person you are looking for." They looked "him" over (I am really getting stuck around pronouns here), and decided "he" did indeed look like a real boy. And in the most gender-obsessed society on earth, somehow that was enough for them, and they left.
On to Top Comments:
From Ed Tracey:
In the front-page story about the latest conspiracy theories emanating from the Jade Helm 15 affair - a rather industrious DesAnatine reads right-wing websites ....... so we don't have to.
From
your humble (if antisocial) diarist:
Steven Payne's diary My husband and I are being sued for being homosexuals is still generating gold in the comments. Here's Mopshell's top comma-ent. Gwennedd had a suggestion for the person filing the suit, and Railfan pointed out the problem with that.
And in Hunter's diary America's dumbest Congressman weighs in on Jade Helm (was there ever a more Hunteriffic title?), journeyman offers a new metric, and hulibow speculates on the next training exercise. Annieli offers an artist's rendition.
Top mojo, courtesy of mik:
1) I had no idea that Orly Taitz was doing pro bono by GeorgeBurnsWasRight +152
2) Judge to Sylvia: Sylvia, it's gonna take a lot of by ZedMont +140
3) Like FDR said, you have nothing to fear... by JeffW +132
4) Remedial grammar is also in order. by The Marti +114
4) While she doesn't have by gchaucer2 +114
6) I hope someday soon... by Jay Elias +94
7) So, the dismissal: with or without prejudice? by Railfan +88
8) "Honey, don't forget your lunch, your homework, by OregonWetDog +87
9) I wonder what % of people out there by pat of butter in a sea of grits +84
10) Jesus H. Christ, There is a Situation That Needs by Gooserock +83
11) The only kind of relief she requires is not in by The Marti +81
11) Jesus said exactly two words about homosexuality.. by quiet in NC +81
13) I want the franchise for serving all defendants. by Otteray Scribe +79
14) Help Kansas by Pule4Puna +77
15) I like your optimism... by katy6170 +70
15) I missed that part in the Gospels by gizmo59 +70
17) Arrogant by pat of butter in a sea of grits +69
18) Of all of the deaths in recent months, Tamir Rice by flitedocnm +67
19) How about a couple of guys with butterfly by Throw The Bums Out +66
20) When do the people of Kansas... by Bakakiba +65
20) If you don't talk about it... by RichM +65
20) the problem is not lack of sex ed, there is the by merrywidow +65
23) without prejudice but for claim or process by patbahn +64
24) "To prove a point." by Matt Z +60
25) sex-ed shouldn't be taught in H.S. by FoundingFatherDAR +59
25) Five days without water? by Pi Li +59
27) And if we can get beltway pundits (RE: idiots) by markthshark +55
28) Honey -- by gchaucer2 +53
29) Around 28% I would warrant. by gchaucer2 +52
30) It's spelled with only one L. by Gordon20024 +51
30) Punishment is only reserved for drug users by 420 forever +51
30) An she wants to be by Steven Payne +51
30) Outrageous and infuriating. by nancyjones +51
Picture quilt remains borked. I'm sure that's part of somebody's evil plan. Jotter is currently on a top-secret mission to rescue it from Jade Helm. Don't tell anybody.