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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/18/world/bacha-posh-afghanistan-as-equals-intl/index.html">https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/18/world/bacha-posh-afghanistan-as-equals-intl/index.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Website Link Includes Video.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">AFGHANISTAN – A FAMILY WANTED A SON SO MUCH THAT THEY MADE THEIR DAUGHTER LIVE AS A BOY<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img border="0" width="716" height="403" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D52906.E9DE9A00" alt="Bacha Posh child Mangal Karimi and her family"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#595959"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">By <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/sheena-mckenzie" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">Sheena
McKenzie</span></a> - Video by <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/profiles/edward-kiernan" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">Edward Kiernan</span></a></span><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">June 18, 2019 - Sanjoor, Afghanistan</span></i><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"> —
At first glance, 13-year-old Mangal Karimy could be any boy living in a small village in western Afghanistan, hauling firewood and feeding cattle on his father's farm.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Silently he hurries between chores -- a slight figure in luminous white trainers, lugging jerry cans of water across barren fields.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Until the age of two, Mangal was Madina, one of seven daughters chosen by her parents to live as a boy under an Afghan tradition
called "bacha posh," a Dari term that translates to "dressed as a boy."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">For as long as Mangal can remember, he tucks his long hair under a woolen cap, pulls on his jacket and trousers and helps his father
tend their wheat and dairy farm in the snow-capped village of Sanjoor, in Herat province.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">In Afghanistan's deeply patriarchal society, sons are highly valued over daughters -- to the point where a family is deemed "incomplete"
without a boy, says <a href="https://nadiahashimibooks.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">Nadia Hashimi</span></a>, an Afghan-American pediatrician and author of the best-selling 2014 bacha posh novel "The Pearl That Broke
Its Shell."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Girls are brought up believing they are a burden on the family, said Sodaba Ehrari, Chief Editor of the <a href="http://www.awna.af/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">Afghanistan
Women News Agency</span></a> (AWNA), who has <a href="http://www.awna.af/1395/11/03/%D8%AF%D8%AE%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D9%87-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AE%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%AF%DA%86%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%AA-%D9%85%DB%8C/?fbclid=IwAR3ioL5bqCH_qdyaBC7R-5H_VRo5qcfaWmE1BLiyYWB2RKHPoNg6TZbVrWo" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">interviewed </span></a>several
parents of bacha posh children. Women "cannot earn money to support their families, they cannot live alone -- and so many reasons (like this) lead them in this patriarchal society to practice bacha posh," she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">The centuries-old tradition says much about the discrimination faced by Afghan girls quite literally from the moment they're born.
After all, "no one who has only sons is transforming them into a daughter," Hashimi says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">The transition is temporary, and bacha posh children are expected to shed their male identities once they hit puberty and return
to living as girls -- something that doesn't always come easily.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Underpinning the custom is the superstition that a bacha posh child will "turn the hand of fate, so that the next child born into
the family will be a boy," Hashimi says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Mangal's father, Khoda Bakhsh Karimy, told CNN that should the family have a son, the child would return to living as a girl. Until
then or the point when Mangal hits puberty, Khoda and his wife Amena Karimy were "happy" with Mangal and the responsibilities he carries out, like "welcoming guests to our home and offering them tea or food."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">After having two girls, Mangal's parents longed for a son. "We made her like a son to help her father," said mother Amena.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"I made my daughter like a boy to serve me food and water when I am working in the desert," father Khoda said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">In the Dari language there are no gender pronouns "he" and "she." But Mangal told CNN he preferred being referred to by his male
identity -- and the English equivalent "he."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">His parents meanwhile, believe that Mangal's gender at birth -- female -- remains unchanged. The English translation of their conversation
uses the pronoun "she."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Mangal is a cherished extra pair of hands for the family of nine who earn around 6,000 Afghani (around $80) per month -- meager even
by Afghanistan's standards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"I love all my daughters but I love Madina more as I ask her to do work like 'go take care of the cattle' or 'bring something to
a neighbor,'" says Khoda. "Otherwise there is no difference between them."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Author Hashimi says that Afghanistan's love for its sons has practical roots. In this agricultural economy it's the boys who chop
wood, plow the field, travel independently and work outside the home, she says. And when they marry, their wives -- and the next generation of children -- are absorbed into the family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">For girls, it's a very different story. A daughter is expected to be "demure" and "help with domestic chores," says Hashimi. Outside
the home, a girl "haggling in the market" or "looking adults in the eye" would come as a shock for some people, she adds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">For parents without a son, bacha posh is a workaround to these obstacles that cuts across socioeconomic lines. Data on the practice
is scarce, but Hashimi says almost every Afghan she interviewed for her book knew of a bacha posh child -- regardless of region or class.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Sitting beside his father in their simple mudbrick home, softly spoken Mangal keeps his answers brief. With a shy, quick smile, he
says that "yes" he likes being a boy and prefers being referred to by the English pronoun "he."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">But, he adds: "I would like to go back to being a girl when I grow up."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">When not helping on the farm, Mangal says, he likes to play football with other boys in the village, where he is the only bacha posh
child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">His father, Khoda, says neighbors have been accepting of Mangal, only telling him that the child "should wear girl's clothes when
she grows up."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">To which Khoda replied: "Of course."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Even when people realize a child is, in fact, a girl dressed as a boy, "they kind of go along with it," explains Hashimi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"There's this understanding that the family is using this loophole to get around this void, to try and right their family, and have
a source of honor and pride," she says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Mangal occupies a blurred space between daughter and son. When not working on the farm, he attends a girls' school along with four
of his sisters. But he does so dressed as a boy and known by his male name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"No, I don't consider him like a son," says Khoda. "We know she is a girl, in the future she must wear girl's clothes and marry someone."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Each family has their own take on bacha posh. Journalist Ehrari said some parents told her they were "trying to hide or don't want
to show others that they have daughter." A son is a source of pride, whereas "having a daughter is a shame," they said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Other parents said they desperately wanted their daughters to "have achievements." But in a society where "everything is just for
men," bacha posh was the only way "their daughters could live in freedom," said Ehrari.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Their clothes might be different, but the inequality remains, said Ehrari. "This is an injustice against women, that they can't be
themselves and live like a woman freely."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Making the transition back to living as a girl -- particularly after a brief glimpse of male freedoms -- can be a painful process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Shazia, who did not want her last name published, was nine years old and living in Kabul in 1990 when her parents decided to transition
her to bacha posh for five years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">With civil war raging, Shazia's parents had already sent her two older brothers away to Russia to avoid them being drafted. But when
her father -- a middle-class businessman dealing in imports and exports -- lost his leg in an accident, her mother and the remaining six daughters were left without a breadwinner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"That's when my family decided for me to dress up as a boy," says Shazia, who, as the third daughter, was deemed old enough to help
her mother outside the home -- but still young enough to pass for a boy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"I had to play the role of a son," says Shazia, who went by the male name Mirwas and was made to cut her hair and wear boys' clothes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Practically overnight Shazia's daily chores changed dramatically -- from "cleaning and feeding the chickens" to "accompanying my
mum at the local market." Sometimes Shazia would even get groceries alone, something she described as a "huge undertaking, especially for a young girl."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"There were so many advantages and disadvantages to being bacha posh," says Shazia, today a 37-year-old mother of three daughters,
working for a women's NGO in the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">As "Mirwas" she could "fly kites, play soccer with neighborhood kids, ride my dad's bicycle -- all of which were not ordinary activities
for a girl in Afghanistan," Shazia told CNN by phone from her New York home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">But she was also bullied by her sister and cousin for wearing boys' clothes and tasked with the most grueling chores. "During the
harsh winter I would have to stand in a line and receive bread to feed my family," Shazia says. "I was jealous of my sisters in the house, warm."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">While the immediate family knew Shazia's true identity, the wider neighbourhood was unaware, and she describes the torment of "playing
two different roles in society."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"I felt particularly insecure about my facial features, my clothes, my stature compared to boys my age," she says. "This imposed
lifestyle was not my choice. I was stuck between being a girl and boy."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Hashimi says this transition between genders is "essentially imposing an identity crisis on a young psyche." She says that the bacha
posh tradition could induce a "gender dysphoria" where children are "simply not content with their biological gender and feel like they belong in a different world."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Shazia's return to girlhood came at 13 when one of her older sisters intervened, telling the family "this is enough."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"My sister was really, really tough," says Shazia. "She beat me up, she threw out all my male clothes, she said 'you have to become
a girl.'"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Shazia's parents agreed and gradually she emerged into the world as a girl again, at first fearful of going "outside because my neighbors
would see me" and "wearing a big scarf until I had grown my hair long enough."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">A few months later, the family moved to Pakistan and Shazia was able to fully embrace her female identity. But years of boyhood,
or having a masculine identity, "left me confused about my identity," she says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">For many bacha posh children, becoming a girl again can be bittersweet says Hashimi. "It's an experience of what it's like to be
on the other side, in a country where those two sides are remarkably different." In extreme cases, she says, they may even refuse to return to living as women at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">With so little data available, it's hard to say whether the practice is dwindling or growing. But Hashimi believes bacha posh will
ultimately "die out as Afghan society continues to advance the place of women in society."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">In recent years the Taliban has<a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/02/middleeast/36-hours-with-the-taliban-intl/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none"> strengthened
its grip</span></a> over Afghanistan -- between 60% and 70% of the country is now contested or under its control. As the Islamist militant group gains ground, gender inequality -- and the need for bacha posh -- will continue, said Hashimi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Each year, the advocacy group <a href="https://womenforafghanwomen.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">Women
for Afghan Women</span></a> assists at least two bacha posh cases at its <a href="https://womenforafghanwomen.org/womens-protection-centers/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#006598;text-decoration:none">women's shelters</span></a> across the country. The
girls, aged between 14 and 18, "are not in a stable emotional, mental and financial state," said the group's executive director, Najia Nasim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Many are referred to the shelters by police. The girls are usually "friends with boys and have more freedom," said Nasim. She added
that they "often end up being abused" by people making them "dance, drink and (take part in) sexual activities."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Such girls might end up in a "special prison for children under 18 called a rehabilitation center," Nasim said. With the help of
mediators and mental health services they could also be re-integrated into their families, she added.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">CNN contacted the Afghan government for comment on its position on bacha posh but did not receive a reply.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img border="0" width="716" height="403" id="Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D52906.E9DE9A00" alt="Bacha Posh child Mangal Karimi and her family"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#595959">Bacha Posh child Mangal Karimi and her family<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#595959"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">But the Afghanistan Women News Agency's Ehrari said that the government has traditionally not spoken out against bacha posh, because it believed the practice
"comes from the Afghan culture and was a custom which couldn't be changed."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Through family connections, Shazia was married at 18 to an Afghan man living in New York. While her husband is "fully supportive"
of her bacha posh past, the couple have never discussed it at length, she says. Instead, it was her 17-year-old daughter who encouraged Shazia to share her story publicly for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"I have three girls. And people would tell me 'oh you should really have boys, try to have boys.' I said 'No, there's nothing boys
can do that girls can't,'" Shazia says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">"Girls are not a burden. They are really a blessing."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">Meanwhile back in Sanjoor, Mangal continues with his daily chores, diligently shoveling soil alongside his father in the winter chill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">A group of younger neighborhood boys watch from a short distance. Mangal's sisters remain inside the home, hidden from view.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#262626">_____________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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