The Underground Girls of Kabul
by Jenny Nordberg
In Afghanistan, being born a girl is not a birth that is
celebrated. This is a society of boys
and men. Girls are good for one
thing. Actually, more than one
thing. They are used as a means to
birthing boys, they are used as currency and they are used as pawns in
upholding the honor of families. In
their own right they have no rights.
But what happens when a wife gives birth to only girls? Boys bring honor to the family. A family with no boys is looked on with
suspicion and pity and held in less esteem. In this society, there is a secret. Often a family will appoint one of the younger
daughters to become a boy. She will be
given a boy’s name, clothes and freedom.
She will be allowed outside to run and play and go to school and work to
help support the family, to be a guardian to the other girls in the family, to
be a comfort. She will be given freedom. All this until she enters
puberty and then she is turned back into a girl. She will be sold off in marriage to maybe
someone near her age or maybe as a second wife to an older man wanting
sons.
From this point she will live her life as her husband
wants. If he is liberal he might let her
work. If not, she will be a prisoner in
her home for the rest of her life giving birth to, hopefully, some boys sprinkled in amongst the
girls.
Author Jenny Nordberg uncovered a secret no one knew
about. She travelled with interpreters
and met women who became bacha
posh, meaning literally,
dressed like a boy. Some were boys for a
few years, some refused to change back to women when the time came, one was a
boy/man for 20 years and is now the mother of three working as a nurse.
Fascinating is a small word for this story. This truth.
Another truth: we live very
sheltered lives.
This book was a review copy from Blogging for Books
