Analysis Of The Underground Girls Of Kabul

Honor, acceptance, survival, these words convey the motives that Afghan women experience as a bacha posh. The Underground Girls of Kabul, revolves around the use of bacha posh to pose as boys in Afghan society. This supposedly practical solution for Afghan girls comes with benefits for not only her, but for her family as well. However, after their experiences as bacha posh, these women realize the disadvantages they face in their social and psychological being. Nordberg’s accounts on the practice of bacha posh exposes the benefits and disadvantages that leave a psychological and social impact on women who were once bacha posh.

The novel focuses on multiple women and their experiences with the practice of bacha posh. The first woman presented

Sakina is an example of a psychological disadvantage, because she explains that how she feels about becoming a woman is that “she was not unhappy. The right word might be confused.” (Pg. 131), because of how she grew up as a boy. An example of psychological effect is seen in Part Two, which looks into the life of Zahra, and how her attempt of being a bacha posh affects her femininity or lack of femininity. It is noted that throughout the novel that in Zahra’s case, “the experience of a bacha posh also begins to leave a more permanent mark when a girl goes through puberty as a boy,” (Pg. 147) because of how she understands the restricted lives of Afghan women. Zahra’s point of view on her refusal of reverting back to a female shows how “any potential empowering effects of living on the other side seemed to be preserved in an adult woman only if her time as a boy is brief,” (Pg. 147). Another example of a negative psychological effect is when the novel focuses on Shukria, and how she always saw herself as failure of being a woman. After her divorce, she says “first I was a man and then a woman, and now I will be a divorced woman,” (Pg. 260), confirming her belief of failing as a woman. This is also a negative social consequence for Shukria because in Afghan society, “a divorcée is a fallen woman, who loses all privileges