The Afghan Girls Who Live as Boys

[A Little Weird]

5. Women in Afghanistan

Given this, who would not walk out the door in disguise—if the alternative was to live as a prisoner or slave? Who would really care about long hair or short, pants or skirt, feminine or masculine, if renouncing one’s gender gave one access to the world? A great many people in this world would be willing to throw out their gender in a second if it could be traded for freedom.

Women in Afghanistan are treated so badly. I had never heard of this practice - the article makes it seem that it is not all that uncommon. I'll bet it's awfully hard on these girls when they finally have to stop pretending to be male and lose all the freedom they have known.