In the article posted by The New York Times and written by Jenny Nordberg Afghan girls will cut their hair and wear boy clothes in order to receive the same treatment and benefits of the boys. Families will disguise their girls as boys so that they can gain economic success and because boys are more "valued". The child is usually disguised until puberty. After this the child sometimes can become confused at what "gender" they are.. the "girls" may not feel like girls anymore because they were raised to be a "boy" in society.
The children may have become confused because they were acting out a different gender then what they were told they were when they were born. Gender is also influenced by the environment, if the children are growing up in an environment where males are valued over females. Children would have learned that in order to have any type of respect of the community they need to be "males".
Photo by Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/asia/21gender.html?_r=1
Wow, that's a really interesting story. I had never really thought about what would happen if you raised your child as one gender and then at puberty it's kind of like "Surprise! You're not really a boy at all. You're a girl and therefore you will never be respected or thought of as valuable again. Congratulations." You would have to relearn everything about being a girl or be lost among the sexes. It's so sad that families feel pressured to do this to their children because girls are so undervalued and underappreciated.
ReplyDeleteI thought stuff like this only happened to Mulan. That's so interesting, but so sad at the same time. It's a shame that countries like this can't see past a gender to identify people as individuals.
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