KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In a Kabul neighborhood, a gaggle of boys kick a yellow ball around a dusty playground, their boisterous cries echoing off the surrounding apartment buildings. Dressed in ...

Jenny Nordberg’s new book, “The Underground Girls of Kabul,” hit the shelves in the United States this September. Nordberg’s work details the Afghan custom of Bacha Posh – a practice in which families ...

CHAO: So, I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your background. When did you first come across this practice of bacha posh? HASHIMI: So, it's interesting -- when you grow up, within ...

In Afghanistan, there are girls, there are boys, and then there are the bacha posh, a temporary third gender for girls who live as boys. The practice is at least a century old and is used by families ...

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, after the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s, life for women and girls was ghastly. As a report from the Congressional Research Service put it, “Taliban ...

For centuries, families in Afghanistan with no male heirs have turned to the tradition of bacha posh. Daughters are transformed into sons — their hair cut, names changed, dresses swapped out for boys’ ...

Bacha posh, directly translated as "dressed up like a boy" from the Persian dialect Dari, is an ancient practice that still occurs in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan today. Brought to the world's ...

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a Kabul neighborhood, a gaggle of boys kick a yellow ball around a dusty playground, their boisterous cries echoing off the surrounding apartment buildings. Dressed in sweaters ...