Girls Dressed as Boys for Social Status

Under social pressure in Afghanistan to have a son, Mehran’s parents began dressing and treating her as a boy when she was 5-years-old.

Like many Afghan mums, Azita Rafaat dresses her 3 daughters for school in the morning. The two older girls, Benafsha and Beheshta put on black dresses and head scarves while Mehran, the youngest, wears green pants, a white shirt and a necktie. Mehran has spiky, short black hair. Mehran, a six-year-old girl, is made to dress like an Afghan boy.

Mehran, dressed as a boy, is the daughter of Azita Rafaat, right, a member of Parliament who also masqueraded as a boy when she was a child. Credit: Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

Under social pressure in Afghanistan to have a son, Mehran’s parents began dressing and treating her as a boy when she was five-years-old. There are no statistics about how many Afghan girls masquerade as boys. But when asked, Afghans of several generations can often tell a story of a female relative, friend, neighbour or co-worker who grew up disguised as a boy. To those who know, these children are referred to as neither “daughter” nor “son”, but as “bacha posh,” which means “dressed up as a boy”.

Afghan families have many reasons for pretending their girls are boys, including economic need, social pressure to have sons, and a superstition that doing so can lead to the birth of a real boy. Lacking a son, parents decide to cut the hair of a daughter and dress her in typical Afghan men’s clothing.

In the tribal culture, only a son can inherit the father’s wealth and pass down a name. Families without boys are the objects of contempt. A ‘bacha posh’ can also more easily receive an education, work outside the home, and even escort her sisters in public.

Azita Rafaat said:

“And I know it’s very hard for you to believe why one mother is doing these things to their youngest daughter. But I want to say for you, that some things are happening in Afghanistan that is really not imaginable.”

For most such girls, boyhood has an inevitable end. After being raised as a boy, they switch back once they hit puberty — when their bodies begin to change and they approach marrying age. Hitting puberty can be disorienting. A girl raised as a boy may be abruptly plunged into an arranged marriage once she gets her period. These girls will have to learn to be a woman again and adapt to wearing burqas and married life.

For Mehran, the Rafaats have not yet made a decision as to when she will be switched back to a girl, but Azita Rafaat said she hoped it need not happen for another five or six years.

Miss Vanda

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