Sharing Space
Alexandra Brown reflections on ‘Bacha Posh’
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The Breadwinner is a powerful film, that both my students and I thoroughly enjoyed. Whilst there were many themes that the film brilliantly addressed, one that truly caught my attention and reminded me of a snippet of a news coverage I had seen as a child was that of the ‘Bacha Posh’.
Bacha Posh is the unspoken Afghan tradition which sees some families (typically ones that only have female children) select one of their daughters to ‘become a boy’. The practise also typically occurs in families that are very working class/ living in poverty.
I remember catching the tail end of this news coverage as a child, and not truly knowing what to make of it. In retrospect I think it’s ironic that years later I have returned to this topic with more insight, dare I say more wisdom. I think I was more intrigued then threatened/or even surprised because I too knew what it was like to be both unable and unwilling to conform to stereotypical gender roles.
The tradition is practised for the following reasons,
- It brings honour to the family of fathers who only have daughters. Primarily because, ‘having a son’ removes a lot of social stigma
- It is also said to bring good luck to such families as they believe that if there is a ‘Bacha Posh’ then there is a higher chance that the next child the mother bears will be a boy
- It allows for the father to be supported (in terms of bringing in an additional wage to the household). This is particularly helpful when the father is old/ has a disability and is thus limited in what he can do- as we saw in The Breadwinner
Though it must be noted, that this social phenomena becomes more prevalent and more of a necessity, when the Taliban are in power, and women are heavily restricted/ excluded from education and accessing the workplace (lose their financial independence).
The period in which a female becomes a ‘Bacha Posh’ can start as early as six or seven and lasts until she reaches puberty. After which, she is expected to naturally step out of this ‘gendered persona’ that she had assumed for so many years and begin to prepare for marriage and motherhood. In short, she is expected to return to her culturally and religiously ordained duties.
In my research of this gendered identity, I saw the following responses to this seemingly ‘inevitable’ transition
- Lament- as they grieve the life and freedoms, they are no longer able to enjoy
- Resentment and relief- Resentment, because this was not the life that they had chosen for themselves. Relief, because they can be a girl/ woman again
- Resistance and rejection- despite reaching puberty, some decide to continue and enjoy the freedom and privileges that comes with ‘presenting as a boy/ man’ in a patriarchal society. These Bacha Posh fundamentally believe that dressing like this is as entrenched into their identity as being an Afghan is.
Some who resisted commented on how they were respected by men (more so than their feminine presenting counterparts). They believed that men gazed upon them, more as equals and less as property.
In a video on the life of a Bacha Posh, a teenage Bacha Posh spoke of how girls that she attends secondary school with, have often referred to her as a ‘handsome woman’ with some professing their love for her. What I found interesting about this particular response was that whilst this Bacha Posh’s account of such instances came across as though she was bragging, she said that she would often respond to such declarations with the following statement ‘Don’t be fooled, we are both women’
I am aware that The Breadwinner is a book in a series, so I am intrigued to know if Deborah Ellis pursues this theme, in the following books. In terms of its relevance to the RE curriculum, I think it would be particularly powerful in the AQA themed paper ‘Relationship and Families’.
Within a RWV curricular, perhaps The Breadwinner could feature in conversations/ themes that explores the extent to which ‘Gender colours, shapes, constructs and determines our life experiences and lens’. I think it could be explored in some of the following ways,
- Exploring notions of gender as ‘fixed’ and ‘biologically determined’
- How religious orthodoxy ironically blurs understandings of gender binaries
- In what way are performed gender expressions impacted by the following:
- Religious orthodoxy enshrined into law eg/ Shariah Law
- Class, exploring how:
– Poverty
– Low education attainment
– Sole financial agency through menial labour
act as a tool for gender expansiveness and as a means of survival