An 18-year old Afghan teenager, Sitara Wafadar, has been living in disguise for more than a decade, forced by her parents to be the “son” they never had.
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Sitara has five sisters and no brothers. Her parents wanted a son, so Sitara followed the custom of “bacha poshi”, which in Dari refers to a girl “dressed as a boy”. The custom enabled her to perform the duties of a son in the patriarchal country, according to an AFP report.
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Bacha poshi has a long history in deeply conservative Afghanistan, where boys are valued more highly than girls and women are often confined to the home. Normally it is families with no male heirs who make a daughter dress as a boy so she can carry out the duties of a son without getting harassed, or worse, says the report.
Sitara has been working in a brick kiln factory with her father since she was eight years old. She does not want her 13-year old younger sister to face the same fate.