The Underground Girls of Kabul - Jenny Nordberg

This book was a real eye-opener for me.  I've read a bit about Afghanistan, their culture, their women's rights issues, etc, but I've never heard or read anything about the bacha posh (a girl who is raised and presented to the public as a boy).  After reading this, it doesn't surprise me that this happens, given the freedom and special status that boys/men are given in their culture.

     

Jenny Nordberg does a really nice job of telling the story of these bacha posh's through the life experiences of several girls and women.  She does a good job of covering some of the many reasons that families come to this decision.  And I very much enjoyed the book.

I will add that I feel like she could have left out several side trails that she includes that seemed out of place such as the history of Zoroastrianism, foreign aid, etc.  It's not that they aren't important issues or worthy of discussion, just that they felt irrelevant to the main story being told and was mostly just distracting for me.

Saying that, I still highly recommend this book for anyone interested in life in Afghanistan (for girls, boys and the poor bacha posh).

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.