Summary Of The Underground Girls Of Kabul By Jenny Nordberg

In her book The Underground Girls of Kabul, Jenny Nordberg discusses the controversial bacha posh system in Afghanistan and its effects on young girls who experience it. Nordberg believes “it can be an empowering experience for a girl to live as a boy…. It can benefit both ambition and self-confidence.” Because this lifestyle can temporarily expand a girl’s freedom and because she can aid her family both financially and socially, this system certainly empowers young girls and benefits the society as a whole.

Afghan society has roots deeply entrenched in the honor of its citizens, and women have very few rights. Men own women, symbolically and nearly literally. Women cannot leave the house alone or show any curvature of their bodies without

Essentially, parents declare a female child a male at birth, and everyone in the community treats her as such, whether they know the truth or not. This made-up son has all the privileges of every other boy; he can play outside alone, escort his sisters, and work outside the home. The only exception to this childhood arrives when she hits puberty, for then she must begin living as a woman and preparing for marriage and childbirth. While none of the activists or researchers Nordberg met while visiting Afghanistan had heard of this phenomenon, the people living this ordeal explained the necessity of such a secret. Having a “son” allowed one of the main characters of the book, Azita, the chance to run for Parliament and become one of the few women in the Afghan government. Her husband and his family often beat and verbally abused her in the years between their marriage and her fifth daughter, who soon became a son. Once she had given birth to this “son,” the family began to respect her and supported her in her campaign for Parliament. She herself lived as a bacha posh for a time, working in her family’s store and attending school past the typical sixth-grade limit set for girls. She claimed “her boy years have helped her all her life” and “have made her stronger.” This need for a son occurs in many families, who need respect and standing to get the father a job, and the extra son to work for spare change. As

Girls have more freedom to express themselves; they have permission to wear pants and speak to older men without invitation. Azita claims that, as a woman, “you must shrink both your physical body and any energy that surrounds it, in speech, movement, and gaze.” She admonishes Nordberg for “looking into people’s faces as it pleases [her],” saying that it looks aggressive and very rude. These bacha posh have the ability to walk in strides, play sports freely, dress how they please (to an extent), and make eye contact with men. Even once they transition back, former bacha posh never seem to lose their “steady gaze;” this look helped Nordberg locate people to interview about their experiences. One such person, Zahra, transitioned back against her will. Her experience as a bacha posh helped her see the inequity in her society and encouraged her to continue living as a man. Although her father forced her into a marriage with a man, Zahra has continued to express herself the way she did before. The way she puts it, “There is a feeling inside that will never