ABSTRACT
In an era where showing one’s true colours has become encouraged as the path to freedom, one must not lose sight of the reality that, at times, hiding is the sole means for an individual’s chance at freedom. This is the reality countless Afghan women are presented with whilst attempting to survive within the established patriarchy. The bacha posh practice, whereby pre-adolescent girls are nurtured into boyhood, represents a chance at ephemeral freedom in a country where being born a girl is regarded as the moral equivalent of committing a crime. The bacha posh practice is one of a number of coping mechanisms women have adopted to navigate entrenched social roles, whilst remaining symbolic of the double-edged dynamics inherent in gender ideologies. Although stemming from tradition, the proliferation of the bacha posh practice intensified due to decades of armed conflict, poverty and increased restriction on girls and women. Additionally, parallels can be drawn between bacha posh girls and child soldiers insofar as both engage in precarious practices as a means of survival. Despite the prevalence of the bacha posh practice, existing literature inadequately addresses the psychological traumas associated with it. This gap obscures key issues and inadvertently perpetuates the suffering.
