Gender Dysphoria in the Bacha Posh Community

In Afghanistan, the more sons you have in your family, the more powerful you are.  In families that have only daughters, it is not uncommon for parents to choose to dress and name their newborn female infant as a boy.  These families will go so far as to send their “son” to all-male schools, where they are often targets of physical and mental abuse.  This methodology is called “bacha posh” in Persian-- bacha translating to boy, and posh translating to clothes--and is still in practice to this day.  These girls are told at home that they are not men, but in fact women, yet in front of non-family members they must act like men.  The daughters chosen to be the “bacha posh” of the family gets to go out in public with their fathers, uncles, etc.--something that their sisters would never be allowed to do.  

The practice of this gender-swap was not well known until Jenny Nordberg--who also wrote the novel The Underground Girls of Kabul-- wrote an article about bacha poshes in 2010 for the New York Times.  There are still not many statistics on the subject, aside from the interviews Nordberg conducted.  One of the girls she interviewed named Faheem was quoted saying, “My turning point was when I started thinking about being a woman. Why should I need to hide? Could I not have the same pride, and the same abilities, as a girl? Why did only my male self have that strength? I had been so proud to be a boy, in that I had figured it out and outsmarted everyone. That I had won. But I began feeling more and more angry. I was like, ‘How long will I have to do this?’”

Between being a girl at home and a boy at school, many bacha poshes develop an intense form of gender dysphoria syndrome, or Gender Identity Disorder.  This syndrome affects the girls negatively, confusing their idea of their own gender and genitalia, and often leading to depression and isolation.  Often, girls have a hard time transitioning back from being male, and don’t know how to restart their lives.

When the girls turn 13-15, they often transition back to female, because getting their period is considered a good time to switch.  However, if the family chooses to not switch them over then, they will sometimes wait until they are at marriage age, and go from one day living as a boy to the next day living as a wife.  In Afghanistan, 43.6% of women complete their education, compared to 89% of men.  The EPDC published the data that “in 2011, the literacy rate of youth aged 15-24 was 61.9% for male and only 29.9% for female, suggesting that young men are twice as likely to be literate compared to young females.”  So in a society where women have less of a chance of a real education, parents will decide that they should be raised as men.

In patriarchal societies, such as Afghanistan, male’s contributions are considered much more worthy than women’s.  This results in discrimination around women, and the need for more feminism.  bacha poshes’ are no different.  These girls are being told they are two different genders, confusing and reinforcing the idea that men are more important than women into their young brains.  To be “worthy” in the public eye, they must pretend to be something and someone that they are not.  The problems with the bacha posh community is greater than we think.  It stems from the opinion that male’s are worth more in society, and commands kids during the hardest times of their lives to abide by that same way of thinking.


Citations:
Nordberg, Jenny. "The Afghan girls raised as boys." The Guardian. September 22, 2014. Accessed April 9, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/22/girls-boys-afghanistan-daughters-raised-as-sons-puberty-bacha-posh.

EPDC Spotlight on Afghanistan. (2012). Retrieved April 12, 2017, from http://www.epdc.org/epdc-data-points/epdc-spotlight-afghanistan

Nordberg, Jenny. "Afghan Boys Are Prized, So Girls Live the Part." The New York Times. September 20, 2010. Accessed April 12, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/asia/21gender.html.