Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20220115

A30 world news
Diasabra 15 Januari 2022

Afghan tradition allows girls to access the freedom of boys

consider it a status symbol, Once she grows up, Sanam
and some believe it will bring said, she wants to be either
good luck for the next child a doctor, a commander or a
to be born a boy. soldier, or work with her fa-
ther. And she’ll go back to be-
But for others, like Sanam’s ing a girl.
family, the choice was one of
necessity. Last year, with Af- “When I grow up, I will let
ghanistan’s economy collaps- my hair grow and will wear
ing, construction work dried girl’s clothes,” she said.
up. Sanam’s father, already
suffering from a back injury, The transition isn’t always
lost his job as a plumber. He easy.
turned to selling coronavirus
masks on the streets, making “When I put on girls’ clothes,
the equivalent of $1-$2 per I thought I was in prison,”
day. But he needed a helper. said Najieh, who grew up
as a bacha posh, although
The family has four daugh- she would attend school as a
ters and one son, but their girl. One of seven sisters, her
11-year-old boy doesn’t have boy’s name was Assadollah.
full use of his hands follow-
(AP) — In a Kabul neigh- It is unclear how the practice posh tradition is “one of the ing an injury. So the parents Now 34, married and with
borhood, a gaggle of boys is viewed by Afghanistan’s most under-investigated” said they decided to make Sa- four children of her own, she
kick a yellow ball around new rulers, the Taliban, who topics in terms of gender is- nam a bacha posh. weeps for the freedom of the
a dusty playground, their seized power in mid-August sues, said Barfield, who spent male world she has lost.
boisterous cries echoing and have made no public about two years in the 1970s “We had to do this because of
off the surrounding apart- statements on the issue. living with an Afghan nomad poverty,” said Sanam’s moth- “In Afghanistan, boys are
ment buildings. family that included a bacha er, Fahima. “We don’t have a more valuable,” she said.
Their rule so far has been less posh. “Precisely because the son to work for us, and her “There is no oppression for
Dressed in sweaters and jeans draconian than the last time girls revert back to the female father doesn’t have anyone to them, and no limits. But be-
or the traditional Afghan male they were in power in the role, they marry, it kind of help him. So I will consider ing a girl is different. She gets
clothing of baggy pants and 1990s, but women’s freedoms disappears.” her my son until she becomes forced to get married at a
long shirt, none stand out as have still been severely cur- a teenager.” young age.”
they jostle to score a goal. But tailed. Thousands of women Girls chosen as bacha posh
unbeknown to them, one is have been barred from work- usually are the more boister- Still, Fahima refers to Sanam Young women can’t leave
different from the others. ing, and girls beyond primary ous, self-assured daughters. as “my daughter.” In their na- the house or allow strang-
school age have not been able “The role fits so well that tive Dari language, the pro- ers to see their face, Najieh
At not quite 8 years old, Sa- to return to public schools in sometimes even outside the nouns are not an issue since said. And after the Taliban
nam is a bacha posh: a girl most places. family, people are not aware one pronoun is used for “he” takeover, she lost her job as
living as a boy. One day a that it exists,” he said. and “she.” a schoolteacher because she
few months ago, the girl with With a crackdown on wom- had been teaching boys.
rosy cheeks and an impish en’s rights, the bacha posh “It’s almost so invisible that Sanam says she prefers living
smile had her dark hair cut tradition could become even it’s one of the few gender is- as a boy. “Being a man is better than
short, donned boys’ clothes more attractive for some sues that doesn’t show up as being a woman,” she said,
and took on a boy’s name, families. And as the practice a political or social question,” “It’s better to be a boy...I wear wiping tears from her eye.
Omid. The move opened up is temporary, with the chil- Barfield noted. (Afghan male clothes), jeans “It is very hard for me. ... If
a boy’s world: playing soccer dren eventually reverting and jackets, and go with my I were a man, I could be a
and cricket with boys, wres- to female roles, the Taliban The reasons parents might father and work,” she said. teacher in a school.”
tling with the neighborhood might not deal with the issue want a bacha posh vary. With She likes playing in the park
butcher’s son, working to at all, said Thomas Barfield, a sons traditionally valued with her brother’s friends “I wish I could be a man, not
help the family make ends professor of anthropology at more than daughters, the and playing cricket and soc- a woman. To stop this suffer-
meet. Boston University who has practice usually occurs in cer. ing.”
written several books on Af- families without a boy. Some
In Afghanistan’s heavily pa- ghanistan.
triarchal, male-dominated “Because it’s inside the family
society, where women and and because it’s not a perma-
girls are usually relegated nent status, the Taliban may
to the home, bacha posh, stay out (of it),” Barfield said.
Dari for “dressed as a boy,”
is the one tradition allowing It is unclear where the prac-
girls access to the freer male tice originated or how old
world. it is, and it is impossible to
know how widespread it
Under the practice, a girl might be. A somewhat simi-
dresses, behaves and is treat- lar tradition exists in Albania,
ed as a boy, with all the free- another deeply patriarchal
doms and obligations that society, although it is limited
entails. The child can play to adults. Under Albania’s
sports, attend a madrassa, or “sworn virgin” tradition, a
religious school, and, some- woman would take an oath of
times crucially for the family, celibacy and declare herself a
work. But there is a time lim- man, after which she could
it: Once a bacha posh reaches inherit property, work and
puberty, she is expected to re- sit on a village council - all of
vert to traditional girls’ gen- which would have been out
der roles. The transition is of bounds for a woman.
not always easy.
In Afghanistan, the bacha