San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Custom lets girls temporarily gain freedom of boys
KABUL — In a Kabul neighborhood, a gaggle of boys kick a yellow ball around a dusty playground, their boisterous cries echoing off the surrounding apartment buildings.
Dressed in sweaters and jeans or the traditional Afghan male clothing of baggy pants and long shirt, none stand out as they jostle to score a goal. But one is different from the others.
At not quite 8 years old, Sanam is a a girl living as a boy. One day a few months ago, the girl with rosy cheeks and an impish smile had her dark hair cut short, donned boys’ clothes and took on a boy’s name, Omid. The move opened up a boy’s world: playing soccer and cricket, wrestling with the neighborhood butcher’s son, working to help the family make ends meet.
In Afghanistan’s heavily patriarchal, male-dominated society, where women and girls are usually relegated to the home, Dari for “dressed as a boy,” is the one tradition allowing girls access to the freer male world.
Under the practice, a girl dresses, behaves and is treated as a boy, with all the freedoms and obligations that entails. The child can play sports, attend a madrassa, or religious school, and, sometimes crucially for the family, work. But there is a time limit: Once a
reaches puberty, she is expected to revert to traditional girls’ gender roles. The transition is not always easy.
It is unclear how the practice
Sanam (center), a girl living as a boy through the tradition, attends class at a Kabul mosque last month. Her family chose the role out of necessity; she can help her father at work.
is viewed by Afghanistan’s new rulers, the Taliban, who seized power in mid-August and have made no public statements on the issue. Their rule so far has been less draconian than the last time they were in power in the 1990s, but women’s freedoms have still been severely curtailed. Thousands of women have been barred from working, and girls beyond primary school age have
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not been able to return to public schools in most places.
The reasons parents might want a vary. But for Sanam’s family, the choice was one of necessity. Her father lost his job as a plumber and turned to selling virus masks on the streets. But he needed a helper. His 11-year-old boy doesn’t have full use of his hands following an injury. So the parents said they decided
to make Sanam a
“We had to do this because of poverty,” said Sanam’s mother, Fahima.
Once she grows up, Sanam said, she wants to be a doctor, commander or soldier, or work with her father. And she’ll go back to being a girl.