theramonline.com – By Eric Horbath – Staff Writer
A recently published article in the New York Times about gender orientation in Afghan children complicates the simplifying notion that only “boys will be boys.” The article discusses the common cultural practice of dressing Afghan girls as boys for social and economic benefits, a practice that labels a girl a bacha posh, which literally means “dressed up as a boy” in Dari. The practice is employed when a family does not have a son; Afghan culture places tremendous prestige on sons and families without one are socially ridiculed.