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    The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
    Unavailable
    The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
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    The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan

    Written by Jenny Nordberg

    Narrated by Kirsten Potter

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An investigative journalist uncovers a hidden custom that will transform your understanding of what it means to grow up as a girl

    In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as "dressed up like a boy") is a third kind of child - a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.

    The Underground Girls of Kabul is anchored by vivid characters who bring this remarkable story to life: Azita, a female parliamentarian who sees no other choice but to turn her fourth daughter Mehran into a boy; Zahra, the tomboy teenager who struggles with puberty and refuses her parents' attempts to turn her back into a girl; Shukria, now a married mother of three after living for twenty years as a man; and Nader, who prays with Shahed, the undercover female police officer, as they both remain in male disguise as adults.

    At the heart of this emotional narrative is a new perspective on the extreme sacrifices of Afghan women and girls against the violent backdrop of America's longest war. Divided into four parts, the book follows those born as the unwanted sex in Afghanistan, but who live as the socially favored gender through childhood and puberty, only to later be forced into marriage and childbirth. The Underground Girls of Kabul charts their dramatic life cycles, while examining our own history and the parallels to subversive actions of people who live under oppression everywhere.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 16, 2014
    ISBN9780804166317
    Unavailable
    The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan

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    Reviews for The Underground Girls of Kabul

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    • 4/5
      This book was a truly fantastic example of narrative nonfiction. The stories the author shared were riveting. I loved hearing about the many different experiences of these girls treated as boys and couldn't wait to find out what happened to each of them. The interviews conducted with each girl or woman were interesting and moving. I also enjoyed the history of women's rights in Afghanistan and the discussions of social mores the author worked into the stories of individuals. The organization of the book was very clever, first discussing children then teenagers then the few adult women still living as men. It made me feel that I got a complete story even though the book couldn't reasonably follow one woman for her entire life.

      In a way, I wish that this had been fiction. I loved reading these stories, but unlike The War on Women in Israel, this book didn't leave me with a whole lot of hope that things are going to get better anytime soon. Religious and economic factors in Afghanistan are complicated and foreign powers interfering in the region hasn't helped. Women's rights efforts are often not a priority among outsiders trying to affect change in Afghanistan and even when they are, the change only lasts as long as foreign power supports it. If you want to learn more about these girls raised as boys (known as bacha posh) you can read about them at the author's website. Overall, this was an enjoyable story to read, but it was depressing that it's true.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey.
    • 3/5
      An engrossing and often depressing look at the girls who are raised as boys until they hit puberty.
    • 5/5
      [The Underground Girls of Kabul: in Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan] by [[Jenny Nordberg]]It was the "hidden resistance" phrase that attracted me to this book. I've been realizing more and more in the last few year that there is much more resistance worldwide from women to their oppression, than I see in the media. Nordberg, who has contributed to a Pulitzer winning series in the NYT, and was also awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism for her documentary about Afghan women, seemed like an excellent source to address this topic.While in Kabul, Norderg learned about a phenomenon known as bacha posh, the practice of Afghan girls living as boys. These girls dress as boys, take on the mannerisms and posture of boys, and talk and behave like Afghan boys. Perhaps most importantly, they are allowed outside the home, unlike most girls.Poverty is one reason some parents choose to have a daughter live as a son. Boys can work, whereas girls cannot, so this "fake" boy can increase the household income. Another cause of bacha posh is an old belief that if a woman has not been able to have a male child, having one of her daughters live as a boy increases the woman's chance of birthing a son. Additionally, there are some parents who simply want their girls to have the increased opportunities that come with living as bacha posh. They are not only allowed to work, but also to attend school, to play outdoors, including sports, and to learn to behave in the more assertive and aggressive manner expected of males.When puberty approaches, it is time for the girls to return to their female role. They simply begin to start dressing and behaving as a girl, and although people are aware of it, they simply do not speak of it. It is always a concern that if they wait too long there will be much difficulty in making this transition. Some girls are reluctant to give up the freedom that has accompanied this period. They must learn to walk like a female, talk like a female, etc. It could be difficult to find a husband for such an assertive woman. Alternatively, more educated men may prefer an educated wife so it can be a positive this way.It was in this group of people that Nordberg found resistance by women to sexism. This resistance has grown. As these women who have lived as males mature, some of them have become active politically and in their communities, contributing to this resistance movement.This is a fascinating study and a well written and intriguing read. Five stars.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book, enjoyed reading about woman in Afghanistan. And being happy living in USA. Jenny Nordberg visited a lot of different woman and I am Shure that was dangerous and not easy. I did not know about the girls dressing up as boys, and I found this book a very important piece of coping with tabus in a society. You don't have to go as far as Afghanistan to find this.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book, it was an interesting topic told from an interesting perspective. The narrator butchered some terms, it wouldn't hurt to google how to say them first. I'm not expecting native-like pronunciation, but some of the terms and names (like Nietzsche, which should be familiar to English speakers) could have been googled on 'how to pronounce' first.
    • 5/5
      Horrifying and fascinating. I am grateful to have been born in a time and place where I am privileged to enjoy relative safety and freedom. I am heartbroken that it is a luxury and not a standard. I don't know if I believe in any sort of god, but I pray for these people regardless.
    • 4/5
      I gave this four stars because the author took me into the lives of these women in a way I did not expect. When I finished it and closed the book, I experienced an immediate, undeniably fierce and physical awareness of my own freedom, the freedom of my body and the freedom of my life, as a woman and as a human being.

      I was also surprised to find myself forced into an inner dialogue about the meaning of gender and its politics, as I read this book.

      A full understanding of the complexity of these women's lives will not come from one book. But Jenny Nordberg is passionate and convincing in her attempt, and I feel privileged to have been allowed to be there with her. I appreciate her feminist perspective and her understanding of the origins and real-life implications of patriarchal systems. This is a requirement if an honest look is to be taken.

      Although I thought I "knew" how the women in Afghanistan live, reading this book was shocking to me, in the way it pulled me into their lives, as if into the very clothes they wear. Imagining myself veiled from head to toe, looking through a small mesh "window" over my eyes (making my chaperoned excursions outside almost dangerous from my literal lack of perspective and peripheral vision), imagining that my skin is a purely sexual covering, imagining myself peeking through the curtains of my prison/home to catch a glimpse of life outdoors, and imagining a lifetime of dim lighting in perpetually darkened rooms, this book gave me chills.

      This book will be unforgettable to me. Thank you, Ms. Nordberg.
    • 5/5
      The author of this book risked her life many times to bring us what is an important and insightful revelation. This book is larger than its parts and stories. Ultimately, it's about the role and effect of females in every culture.

      The practice of bacha posh in Afghanistan is the focus of the book, however, this phenomenon has been in existence in many countries for many centuries. To the modern world of educated peoples, technology, and freedoms, dressing girls like boys and treating them as such may sound bizarre. There are, sadly, sound reasons for this practice where it exists, and the girls and their families cope with the dangerous and backward societies in which they live as well as they can. They're trapped, all of them, even the males who mistreat women and perpetuate the overpowering male dominance of society, however uneducated.

      Readers who don't live in these countries will find the book eye-opening, educational, and thoughtful. Several stories bring us down to a personal level and inside families. It's an amazing achievement in such a country at this unstable time in history. An intelligent report on little-known activities and a closed culture, with ramifications for all of us, I hope the book will be widely read and more widely considered.

      This book came to me by way of Goodreads Giveaways.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg offered a fascinating look at a custom that has apparently been a somewhat open-secret in various parts of the world: dressing young girls as boys to protect families and/or encourage the birth of a true son.The personal stories of girls and women that have experienced being a "bacha posh" and the difficulties that they face as they transition back to being a woman (or choose not to)were both captivating and heartbreaking.The latter part of the book focused on putting this practice into historical, religious and cultural context. Although the writing here was less compelling, it was necessary to assist outsiders to understand how this practice may have developed. The author also offered a good explanation for why women so often participate in the subjugation of other women.The author did make a good effort to remain balanced and non-judgmental with those she interviewed, but her cultural background and bias were still pretty evident. However, she did point out something incredibly important. Any real change has to come from asking those inside Afghanistan (and elsewhere) what they need and want. Further, the changes have to be encouraged not just on one side (teaching women to be more assertive) but including those who would suppress them (teaching men to be supportive of women’s a.k.a. human rights.)
    • 5/5
      An incredible look into the lives of girls in Afghanistan, and the hidden and historical process of "bacha posh" where a girl child is named as a boy, treated as a boy, dressed as a boy, in order to help the family or fulfill a superstition that boys will be born to the family after a "bacha posh" is in their household. But, what happens when these boy children are told they are hitting puberty and must become a girl with no rights, who can't leave the house uncovered or unsupervised by a male, and must prepare for an arranged marriage. A very powerful look at life for girls and women in Afghanistan and how some rebel and refuse to become a female figure after being "bacha posh" for so long.
    • 5/5
      I feel like I've been meaning to read this book for a long time, but it was only released last year. It was a really interesting and captivating piece of investigative journalism, a story well told. In that way, it reminded me a little bit of the podcast 'Serial'. Nordberg looks into the lives of many females in Afghanistan who dress, and pass, as males - thereby gaining a degree of freedom not available to females. There's a lot more to it than this, and Nordberg answers a lot of different questions, and seems to do a great job of providing the reasons and history behind the practice. I'm not a scholar of Islam, or Afghanistan, and so I don't know if there are points in the book that would make scholars wail and say "No, no! That's wrong!", but it felt well researched and well rounded. I was fascinated, and look forward to more non-fiction!
    • 4/5
      I had not heard of "bacha posh" before reading this book. But it makes all kinds of sense, as a practical matter in the family, given societal limitations of the female gender. Excellent look at a different social norm.
    • 4/5
      A compelling and shocking book that interrogates social constructs of gender identity and opens a new chronicle in Afghan history. Women's rights are human rights, and this should not be side-stepped or debated. Nordberg is a deft writer who brings individuals and her own experiences to life.
    • 5/5
      An amazing, eye-opening look at an "unknown" Afghanistan. Nordberg uncovers what is behind a custom that has an unspoken understanding & magic that has been a Hidden Resistance not just in Afghanistan.
    • 5/5
      This was a stunning work of investigative journalism about the life of women in Afghanistan through the eyes of bacha posh - girls disguised as boys. It took me a lot longer to read it than I expected, partly because it made me so sad.I was sad that baby girls come into this world already a disappointment to their families. I was sad that new mothers feel a sense of shame when they give birth to a baby girl. I was sad that girls are sold off like property to marriage. I was sad that a girl's purpose in a household is only to breed and breed and breed for sons. I was sad for the bacha posh girls who got a taste of what it's like to have an ounce of freedom, only to have it stripped away once they hit puberty. I was sad for the women who must live their lives cooped up inside houses, feeling like they are worthwhile only when they disappear completely in silence and from view, trading gossip about supposed indiscretion like it's currency. I was sad for the young boys who are kept as "travel companions" to older men. I was sad for the men who continue to allow their children to suffer so. I wanted to shake them awake.Not only does this book open our eyes to the extreme injustice towards women, but it also makes us reconsider ideas of gender. Being a boy or girl is so much more than the bodies we inhabit. It's a frame of mind, a manner of speaking, and having personal freedom [or not]. "'Birth sex is a reality; gender and freedom are ideas'" (211).I recommended this book to several people as I read it, and I will continue to do so. This is such a powerful story worth sharing.
    • 5/5
      The United Nations calls Afghanistan the most dangerous country on Earth to be a woman. This book presents, through compelling individual portraits, a fascinating, revealing look at the bacha posh, the rejection of and resistance to the extreme oppressive patriarchy in this country. Remarkable and powerful.
    • 3/5
      Bacha posh - girls dressed as boys in Afghanistan.This is a hugely interesting subject, particularly given that the girls dressed as boys were in Afghanistan, where the segregation between men and women is so extreme. How then, is it possible for girls to pretend to be boys for many years, enjoying the same freedoms that boys enjoy? How is it that people who know the families and the children involved, just go along with the charade until the parents deem that the time is right for the girl to reappear?The reasons for this pretense are varied. In poorer communities it could be that the family has no male member to operate outside the house; no-one to shop, or escort the daughters if they need to go out. Sometimes it is due to the belief that once a male child is born, others will follow, so a female child is dressed as a boy to help this 'magic' along. In one instance in the book, the child is a daughter of a female politician who has only daughters and who is more respected now that she has a 'boy'.Then there is the question of how the girls are affected, both in the short term and longer. Having experienced the freedoms of being a boy and running unchecked through the streets, how difficult must it be to suddenly revert to being a demure young girl who looks no-one in the eye and rarely speaks? Mostly this change occurs around or before puberty, but sometimes it can go on into adulthood.This book answers many of these questions and raises many more, but it did struggle to hold my interest, as it was a bit dry and long-winded, particularly towards the end where the author discusses the concept in the context of other cultures and periods of history and it started to feel more like a thesis.For readers interested in the subject presented in a novel, I suggest The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi (3.5 stars from me).
    • 5/5
      Wow. It's taken me a few days to wrap my head around what I want to say about The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan. It's such a powerful book about the underground movement of Afghanistani girls who pose as boys for many reasons. To learn about the strictures placed on society at large by Islamic extremists (e. g. the Taliban) gave me a new perspective on the issues faced by women in Afghanistan.These strictures are contradictory, often causing harm to the very people they are meant to help. And since illiteracy rates are high, those preaching extremism have no true idea of what the Q'uran says. Followers are impoverished and illiterate and believe things like it's a woman's responsibility for not tempting a man into lust.The girls and women Jenny Nordberg writes of are placed in unforgivable situations requiring a wink and a nod in order to survive. The reasons for posing as a boy are varied, from providing needed help outside the home to invoking a magical belief that the substitute boy will spur the birth of a "real" boy. Boys maintain honor and status for a family. Women who do not bear boys become less than nothing in the society around them.Also interesting was the stories of how aid programs entering the region with an agenda of education programs regarding women's, and children's rights, fail. It's not that women don't understand things could be better for them, but how can that be achieved when poverty and illiteracy run so high. Is it better to be concealed in a burqua in order to run errands such as food shopping for the family, or to be able to dress as one pleases while being ridiculed and dishonoring the family?There's really a lot to think about in The Underground Girls of Kabul, and makes me think that my advocacy for women's rights in the Western world makes me look like a dilettante where the rest of the world is concerned. Equality is a much more complex issue than just teaching girls and women they have the right to say, "no."
    • 5/5
      Author Jenny Nordberg began to hear hints of something hidden in Afghanistan. Hidden within a culture that values men over women, and the birth of a baby boy is something to celebrate while the birth of a baby girl can lead to shame and public ridicule, there is a hidden tradition carried out by some families, whereby young girls are raised as boys. These girls are referred to as bacha posh.There are different motivations for having a daughter live as a bacha posh. Some do it in order to improve their reputation and standing after having only daughters, while others do it for the convenience of having a "son" to assist with things like running errands and escorting the other daughters in the family (in a society that forbids women and young girls to go out unsupervised without a male present). And yet others do it for the benefit of the girl, in order to allow her to have the experience and confidence that comes with living as a boy. They are entitled to sit with their father and his friends, to work, to play in the street. There are special benefits allowed young boys that girl's are not permitted.There have been attempts in the past to change the culture surrounding the subjugation of women. The royal couple Amanollah Khan and his queen Soraya in the '20s fought for women's rights, pushing for their education and banning their sale into marriage. However amid a backlash and the threat of a coup, Amanollah Khan had to abdicate in 1929.Here in America we tend to oversimplify this issue. We think Afghanistan simply needs to change their culture of making women second-class citizens who live at the whim of the men in their lives. However we don't understand the complexity of the issue, in a society that views the years before puberty of both men and women as simply "preparation for procreation". Their economy is essentially based heavily on the ability to sell daughters into marriage and to form tribal alliances.At one point, the author asks people about the differences between men and women. Men give a list of varied responses, such as women are more "sensitive" or more "emotional". But the majority of the women give the same answer: freedom.Which led me to think: In the West, we focus on things like women being forced to cover their heads. However it is so much simpler than that. The women would happily cover their heads as an expression of their faith, if only they could have freedom: the freedom to choose to leave the house, to travel, to go to school, to choose whether or not to marry and whom to marry, whether or not to have children. This is why every Afghan woman wishes she were a man. Men have freedom; women do not.My final word: I absolutely loved this book! It made me realize how complicated this issue is. You can't just say, "Women should be treated equally..." and expect that is it. This is a cultural issue that has developed over thousands of years, and has economical implications as well as many other things. It is something that needs to be slowly changed, and it is something that needs to be changed from within the Afghan people and culture, and not from the outside from the West. The author uses the stories of multiple girls who have lived as bacha posh to illustrate the benefits and downfall of this practice. The book was well done, although the transition between subjects was sometimes difficult to follow, and you'd have to try and figure out who was being written about now. And while Afghanistan is a hard world for a woman to exist, it isn't much better for the men of Afghanistan.This was an unquestionably fascinating read, and a favorite of 2014!
    • 5/5
      This overwhelming book is about women in the Afghanistan viewed through the lens of daughters who are raised as sons, because only sons matter. Whether the country was under the communist rule of Russia or the democratic one of the US didn't seem to matter. Both were good for women because there was a system of laws in place. It's the lawlessness of tribal conflict that leads to the total suppression of the women, so there's not much good to look for there in the coming years. Nordberg refers often to Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson to examine how the treatment of women effects politics around the world. She states that the way women in a country are treated determines how violent and warlike a country is with more oppression leading to more over all violence. I had a lovely coupon to get any e-book from Barnes and Nobel for $6.99, so I snapped that one right up too.
    • 5/5
      Unforgettable, and please remind me of this book if I ever complain about anything ever again. This is an in depth look at the utter misery of everyone's lives in Afghanistan, with the focus where it should be, on women. The tribal systems, predating Islam, treat women solely as wombs for germinating boys. The gossip mongers, so prevalent in a society where nothing else functions, serve to ruin the lives of anyone who acts "immoral". Married teenaged women are killed or replaced by additional wives for not bearing sons. And so, the remedy for those families is to turn one of their girls into a boy until they reach puberty, by dressing her in pants, cutting her hair, and making her work. This turns out to be the best for these children because of the freedom (albeit limited) entailed. But how can you keep them down as women when they've been exaltedly privileged as males? And what happens when you force them to change back? The author spends time with the "bacha posh" (literally "dressed as a boy") and their families to learn the ramifications. I recently spent time with Regina Calcaterra, author of Etched In Sand, a memoir of a childhood of violence and neglect. She said that she had developed an appreciation for being a foster child here in the US as compared to other countries. Afghanistan, from this book, has to be the worst place in the world to try and survive. Between wars, invasions, grinding poverty, rugged terrain, and especially the subjugation of women, suicide seems like a viable option. I am not a fan of "poverty porn". I try to keep learning, and this book forced my eyes to be opened to my charmed life as a woman of the first world. I am now changed and a bit humbled. There but for fortune/Go you and I.
    • 4/5
      This is not a good book. But it is a necessary book. The world needs to know the extent to which women and girls are enslaved and dominated. We need to know that the birth of a daughter is cause for mourning, so much so that families without sons at times will sometimes dress a daughter as a boy and the community "accepts" that child as a cherished son. We need to know how these [i]bacha posh[/I] enjoy freedom, privileges and esteem from their families and are one day ordered to become daughters. They must revert to being second class citizens and give up all they've enjoyed. Some go willingly, some reluctantly, some not at all. The stories were heartbreaking. They were enraging. They were horrifying. And there seems to be no end in sight for their plights. This is not a good book. Everyone should read it.
    • 5/5
      I found this book interesting, but emotionally hard for me to digest. It took me longer to read than the average book because it felt "heavy on my mind." Coincidentally, this is my first year teaching at an international baccalaureate school and our first unit was on values and beliefs. I happened to be reading this at the same time the kids were reading Andrew Clement's Extra Credit which is partially set in Afghanistan. That made for some interesting connections and discussions based on the practices described in this book. It certainly helped me to understand a side of this culture I previously didn't know existed, and led to some inquiry questions for the students and I.
    • 4/5
      What Underground girls of Kabul is about: "In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child – a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom."

      It took me longer to read this book than other books. Why? Because every time I sat down and read it I would get so angry reading about the complete ignorance of both the men and women of Afghanistan. Our country (U.S.A) might have gone in and helped to set-up some type of government that is supposed to be democratic but it is far from that. The few women that are a part of the parliamentary system do not speak at all except for one Azita but the men basically ignore her. The seats of the parliament are still corrupt with the taliban, drug smugglers, gun runners, etc. Azita is an educated women who is part of the Afghanistan parliament that has a daughter who is a bacha posh since she could not have a son. Azita still believes in all the ignorance of Afghanistan.

      Women/girls are treated as cattle to be sold to the family who can offer the best price or a better social standing for the woman's family. To quote the book "Her virginity is capital belonging to her father, and it is his to be traded. The more sheltered, demure, and quiet parents can demonstrate a daughter to be, the higher the value of her virginity". Even if it is her first cousin. Mothers tell their daughters at a young age that the only thing for them in life is to give their husbands boys when they are sold off. Women will have as many children as they possibly can. If they are unable to birth a son it is the woman's fault because they are yet able to understand that the male sperm determines the sex of the baby. So this is where the bacha posh comes into play.

      A girl will be turned into a boy for many reasons. Afghanistan's believe that if a little boy is present in the house for the mother to look at it will increase the woman's chances of having a boy. In a poor family girls will be used as boys for physical labor at whatever the family does to make a living. The majority of the time the mother just does not give birth to a son and the whole family is looked down upon so until puberty is about to arrive the girl will live as a boy. This will than give a little girl the rare opportunity to go outside and experience the world they live in. Many people in their community know that they are bacha posh and look the other way. So a bacha posh lives with all this freedom in the years that they as a person are developing and their mind is growing maybe or maybe not understanding that they will lose all this and become a slave to a man. Most change back to their birth sex with no problem they say but some do not feel as they are women anymore.

      There is now a major problem since women can not live on their own in Afghanistan and are property to be sold.
      Have they been brainwashed into feeling like boys? Is it a deep seeded fear about losing their freedom and having to go be a baby machine? Or could it possibly be something deeper than both of those and that they are really are transgender or gay? Why do this to a child?

      I did not give away much of the book. There is so much more to it. I gave it 4 stars due the incredible writing and for the exposure of how the culture might be ruled by men but the women are just as much to blame for their own situation.

      "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful look at what life in Afghanistan is like for females. In a society where only men matter, where girls are used to enhance a family’s position through arranged marriages, where few girls are educated or can work outside the home, it is an eye-opening tale. For some families the pressure of producing sons is so great that when they do not, they “make over” a daughter into a son. While it is a fairly common practice, it is not one openly acknowledged much. This book looks at this practice and examines how it impacts these children, their families and their society. Fascinating read about a culture much different than ours.
    • 5/5
      In Afghanistan, the culture is ruled almost entirely by men, and women have very few rights. A birth of a son is celebrated, while a daughter is mourned; a family without sons is seen as "weak" and on a lower level of society. In this book, journalist Jenny Nordberg tells the true stories of a third kind of child, a "bacha posh"; a girl temporarily raised and presented as a boy to the outside world. This way, before they are married, they can enjoy, at least for a short time, freedoms that boys have but girls do not. Sometimes it is done because a family needs the girl to work to bring in extra income for the family, but since women are not allowed to hold jobs, the girls must be disguised as boys do so.This book follows the stories of a few girls and young women living as bacha posh; Azita is the mother of 4 girls and works in the parliament, and who sees no other choice than turn her youngest daughter into a boy. Zhara is a tomboy teenager who struggles with puberty and rebels against her parents attempts to turn her back into a girl. Shukria is a married mother of 3 who lived for 20 years as a man, and two other young women, Nader and Shahed who choose to remain in male disguise as adults.It was heartbreaking to read of the violence against women in this country, and the struggles of all the women and girls for such things as the right to an education and to be safe from domestic violence. It was also heart rendering to read of the girls raised as boys who had no choice in the matter, and then were expected to simply give up all the freedoms they enjoyed living as males to marry and have children, in marriages arranged by the parents. It really makes me appreciate the fact that I live in a country where I can come and go as I please, dress I please, and choose whether I want to marry (and to who) or not.I won a free paperback copy of this book from Goodreads. It will not be on sale to the public until September 16th. I consider it to be an honor and a privilege to be among the first to read this wonderfully written book.
    • 4/5
      In The Underground Girls of Kabul, journalist Jenny Nordberg uncovers a practical solution to a dysfunctional society. In Afghanistan, the sexes are segregated and women have no power. Their purpose is to have sons. A family with no sons is shamed, possibly even in jeopardy. Some families choose to solve the problem by presenting a daughter as a son (bacha posh), and having her live as a boy until she reaches puberty. There are many reasons that some families do this. Some do it to increase the chances of having a son, and many say that it works. Some do it to allow daughters to work a job, as females may not work outside the home in most places in Afghanistan. All families who dress a daughter as a boy enjoy the social status of having a son, even among neighbors who know that it is a girl dressed as a boy. Even a faux son is better than a daughter. The author learns of this practice by chance when interviewing a female Afghan politician (rare enough to be of interest), and is intrigued. She tries to find out if this is a unique choice of one family, or if there are more. What she finds is a little discussed practice that is not prevalent, but common enough for many people she asked to have known of other bacha posh in their village or city. Ms. Nordberg explores a nation in which half of its people are denied any freedom or rights, but she finds resistance. All of the bacha posh have a different perspective on life, having lived the early part of their life with the freedom of males. Some are not willing to relinquish the freedom when the reach puberty. Ms. Nordberg sees hope in the resistance, but only if the resistance includes men. If all the men want to keep all the power, freedom, and any financial resources as theirs, there can be no parity in Afghanistan. Parity may be reached, slowly, if fathers educate their daughters and value them as people, rather than as chattel to be traded as brides to have sons. The book includes information from interviews with several bacha posh and their families, plus extensive research Ms. Nordberg did about women posing as men throughout history. I received a free copy of this book for an honest review. This did not affect my review. I recommend this book to anyone interested in world affairs or women's rights as people. It was interesting from beginning to end.
    • 5/5
      This is a fascinating look into an interesting subculture in Afghanistan. There exist a number of girls who, for a variety of reasons, live as boys -- dress as boys, go by male names, play with the boys, etc. Jenny Nordberg has become the greatest expert on these people simply because she's the only person who knows anything about them. For her book she met with a number of these girls and interviewed them and their families. She records not only the results of her research but the sort of experiences she herself had traveling around Afghanistan to meet these families.This book was fascinating. I would recommend it particularly for anyone interested in Afghanistan and/or women's studies.
    • 5/5
      I so much enjoyed this book - it was a window into a culture I know little about, and the type of book I don't usually read - non-fiction, but not a memoir. I say not a memoir, and yet it was so much more enjoyable than a dry non-fiction book because Nordberg put herself in there, instead of just reporting. It was very personal, yet objective and well-researched, all at the same time.So interesting how much she was able to find out, after being rebuffed in the beginning ("No, there are no women living as men in Afghanistan").At first I thought I didn't care for her digressions into women as men in other countries, history, and other religions, but came to see that this put the book in context; gave it perspective.
    • 5/5
      This was a fascinating book about women in Afghanistan, focused on exploring the practice of raising girls dressed as boys. The primary focus is on this tradition in Afghanistan, where they are known as "bacha posh," but the book also reviews similar practices in other countries, and the possible historical commonalities between them. Much like Jason DeParle's "American Dream," this is non-fiction that reads like fiction in terms of drawing you in to the stories of the main characters the author interviewed, and interweaving those stories in the appropriate academic context and analysis. While I had little prior knowledge of Afghanistan beyond the news reports of the past decade, I found this a very interesting and worthwhile read that was hard to put down. Thanks for the Early Reviewers copy!