Social Science - Sociology Women disaster and conflict assignment

Fourteen-year-old Ali was raised as a boy in a practice known in Afghanistan as bacha posh. Ali's sisters stand behind her in the room they share.

Photograph by Loulou d'Aki, National Geographic

Inside the Lives of Girls Dressed as Boys in Afghanistan

A cultural practice called "bacha posh" encourages parents dress their daughters as sons for a better future. But often, it only makes life harder.

ByNina Strochlic

Photographs byLoulou d'Aki

Published March 2, 2018

There are girls in Afghanistan who enjoy the same freedom as boys.

Throughout history, women have disguised themselves as men to navigate entrenched social roles. They have dressed as men to fight wars , join religious orders, or prosper professionally. In Afghanistan, some families raise their daughters as sons to provide them with a better life.

“When one gender is so important and the other is unwanted, there will always be those who try to pass over to the other side,” says Najia Nasim, the Afghanistan country director for U.S.-based Women for Afghan Women .

1 / 4

<p>Siblings Setar and Ali talk back to the kids who call them names and comment on their appearance outside the schoolgates. "People come up to me and ask why I dress like a boy," says Setar.</p>

Siblings Setar and Ali talk back to the kids who call them names and comment on their appearance outside the schoolgates. "People come up to me and ask why I dress like a boy," says Setar.

Photograph by Loulou d'Aki, National Geographic

In Afghanistan’s patriarchal society, economic dependency on men and social stigma put parents in a difficult spot. Daughters are often considered as a burden, while a son will earn money, carry on the family legacy and stay home to care for their aging parents. To counter this, some reassign their daughter’s gender at birth in a practice known as “ bacha posh .” There’s even a rumor that a bacha posh daughter will lead to a son in the next pregnancy.

“This tradition allows the family to avoid the social stigma associated with not having any male children. [Bacha posh girls] may go outside for shopping alone, bring their sisters from school, get a job, play a sport and play any other roles of a boy in society,” Nasim says. The origins of the practice are still unknown, but it’s become increasingly well-known.

In the summer of 2017, Swedish photographer Loulou d’Aki traveled to Afghanistan to document bacha posh. She had read The Underground Girls of Kabul , a book by journalist Jenny Nordberg about the secretive practice of dressing girls as boys. Nordberg was the first to document it, and d’Aki was fascinated by the dual identities of these girls.

Through a local translator, she met a family in which two of six daughters were being raised as boys. One day after Setareh was born—the third girl in a row—her parents decided to raise her as Setar, a boy. Two years later, Ali was born and she too was raised as a boy. When their first and only brother was born next, both continued life as boys.

Now Setar is a 16-year-old who plays football and has a girlfriend who doesn’t care about gender. Her sister Ali, 14, has a box of love letters written by female admirers. At home, neither get up to help when their sisters and mother make meals and tea.

Setar and her girlfriend Arezou hang out in the living room. The couple’s parents have forbidden them to see each other, but Arezou says she doesn't care if Setar is a girl or a boy.

Photograph by Loulou d'Aki, National Geographic

1