“The Underground Girls of Kabul” with Author Jenny Nordberg

In Afghanistan, a society ruled almost exclusively by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration while the birth of a daughter is often considered a failure. As a consequence, many Afghan families opt for a third kind of child whom they call a bacha posh – a girl who is temporarily raised as a boy and presented to the world as a son.

Journalist Jenny Nordberg broke the story of the bacha posh for The New York Times in 2010. She returned to Afghanistan to widen her research and the result is her new book The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan.