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Video: Afghan Bacha Posh Tradition: How Daughters Are Transformed into Sons
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Afghanistan is a very dangerous country for those who were born as girls. Born a girl does not have any freedoms and opportunities: they do not go to school, cannot play sports, cannot travel and get a job. And parents who have only girls fall into the disgrace of society. Therefore, in an effort to improve their social status, such families make one of their daughters "bacha posh". From that moment on, she wears only men's clothes, and they bring her up as a boy.
The orthodox structure of Afghan society presupposes the exaltation of the role of men and their dominant position, therefore the birth of a son in any family is considered a holiday. The appearance of a girl may even upset the parents. Until the husband acquires an heir, his wife, as well as himself, will be subjected to humiliating ridicule. In order to somehow protect themselves and their family, parents take measures that are wild for Westerners - they make a boy out of their daughter.
Even before the onset of puberty, a little girl begins to be raised as a guy: she is dressed in men's clothes, she has a short haircut, and is treated more respectfully than other children (if she is not the only daughter in the family). Superstitious parents even believe that it will help their wife to conceive a boy next time.
For obedience and consent to become bacha-posh (and in fact, the girl has no choice) - she receives some rights and freedoms. So, now she is allowed to walk the streets on her own, go to shops, approach real boys, even play football with them. In the company of boys, they keep on an equal footing, and many boys do not even know that there is one or more bacha posh among them.
Difficulties of transformation: from a girl to a boy and back
However, someone does it well to get used to the role and practically stop feeling like a woman. The sweet taste of freedom has a strong influence on the matured bacha-posh, which is expressed in the unwillingness to return to the girl's "skin" back.
Many disguised girls attend school on an equal basis with boys, since only the latter have the right to education. Teenagers may contemptuously call bacha-posh transvestites, but there is another term for this in Afghanistan - bacha-bazi. Only he is already connected by dressing boys in girls and has a sexual connotation. In this case, the girl is rather a hostage of the patriarchal tradition.
By the way, many bacha posh do not like dressing up as a boy, as they feel that they are losing their own identity. Yes, and I don’t want to endure ridicule all my youth. And if in modern shopping centers of the capital no one pays attention to a person's gender identity, then in ordinary bazaars it becomes an object of increased interest. Even just buying clothes becomes torture, not to mention the impossibility of trying them on on the spot.
When puberty sets in, further camouflage is difficult. In such cases, parents dress their next oldest daughter in pants, and try to marry the eldest. As a rule, for some kind of relative. However, this is very difficult to do, since over time the girl has lost most of the skills that a woman needs: fear of a man (and bacha-posh is allowed to go in for combat sports, like all boys), and the ability to stand in the kitchen, and much more. Therefore, bacha posh are considered bad wives.
In conclusion…
The complexity of the situation lies in the almost irreversible consequences for the girl herself. There are even known cases when girls themselves dressed up in men's attire in order to be able to live more freely.
Officially, bacha posh is not recognized by the state, their rights are not regulated by law, but this does not mean that bacha posh does not exist: in modern Afghanistan this practice is still valid.
And in continuation of the theme 30 photographs of Afghanistan and its inhabitants from the 1960s - 1970s.
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