The Underground Girls of Kabul

Meet Azita, wife, politician and mom who's fourth daughter is a bacha posh. ("Dressed like boy") Why is she dressing her daughter like a son? And is she the only one doing so in Afghanistan? That's what Jenny Nordberg is determined to find out. But the lips of the Afghani people are tight lipped with foreigners about their secret customs. But Nordberg is able to find more clues to her puzzle when shadowing a much respected Dr. Fareiba at her family clinic. Her she gets a behind the scenes look into what really happens when a mother brings a daughter verses a son into the world. And it's unlike any other place in the world, it is said Afghanistan is the most dangerous place to be a woman. Here at the clinic men wait outside while woman bring life into this world, the babies gender determining if they will go home in honor or disgrace. Or in reality, if they will go home at all, and estimated 50 women per day in Afghanistan die daily due to childbirth complications. And then meet the others of this book. There's Zahara, who after being brought up as a boy is now full of anger, worrying and vexing her mother with the idea she will get a sex change. And then what about Shukria, who knew nothing about the conceiving of babies until a few weeks before her wedding, at twenty years old, because she too was not raised as her true gender. What about Nader? She doesn't want to be a woman after her thirty years of masquerading as a boy, because she enjoys all the freedoms she has now that a woman, dressed as a woman could not have. (Just to name a few) It's a culture steeped in age old traditions that even most the country men/woman don't necessarily believe in, but will shrug their shoulders as if to say, it is what it is... Driven to do what's respectable by their families, and having little choice being born female, you'll find these underground girls of Kabul and the stories that make them. Really fascinating read! I am always excited to find out about other cultures, and especially if the author can draw me into their world with the ease of a good story teller. And that I found here. Not only was the content interesting, if not sad at some points, Norberg did a great job pulling me in. I loved all the differnt stories and applaud her not only breaking an uncovered story, but doing her research, providing facts and sayng nothing that held any sort of bias or ignorance towards cultures so juxtaposed to our own.