The
Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan
by Jenny Nordberg
Take a country who rejoices in the birth of a boy
and buries one’s face like at a funeral at the birth of a baby girl and you
have Afghanistan. Journalist Jenny
Nordberg treads the path of the streets of Afghanistan in search of a common
activity in the country, namely bacha posh.
This action taken by many families amounts to treating a young girl like
she was a boy all the way until puberty.
She dresses like a boy, eats like a boy, and even carries herself and
all her mannerisms like a boy. What
seems like a terrible and frightful thing is in fact, in some circumstances, a
way of shielding one’s children from harm.
In the begging we meet Azita, whose fourth daughter
Mehran, is turned into a boy. Azita is
very well to do parliamentarian in Afghanistan with a solid education behind
her. Early on, Azita says, “They gossip
about my family. When you have no sons;
it is a big missing, and everyone feels sad for you” (13). We also meet Dr. Fareiba, who helps women
with their pregnancy from far and wide in Afghanistan. Nordberg writes as she witnesses the work of
Dr. Fareiba, “A total of four or five children is perfectly acceptable to most
parents in Afghanistan – but only if that number includes mostly boys. The life expectancy of a woman here is
forty-four years, and she spends much of it being pregnant. Most couples know how to limit pregnancies if
they want to, but the pressure to have another son often overrides any concern
for a woman’s survival” (42). Then we
meet Zahra, for “She knows her power is in the exterior, and her walk
successfully signals that she is a typical teenage boy with some attitude”
(98). Yet, Nordberg mentions that the
Taliban explicitly forbade women wearing men’s clothing but this didn’t stop
them from treating women poorly.
It is hard to imagine a culture in which God’s good
creation, women, are spitefully spit on and seen as none other than
refuse. Yet, the reporting of Nordberg
helps us unenlightened Westerners a glimpse into the world of Afghanistan.
Thanks to Blogging for Books and Crown Publishers
for the copy of this book in exchange for an hones review.
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