What happens now?
This book begins and ends in Afghanistan. But when I was editing the final draft, I kept thinking of the millions of Afghan refugees who live as expatriates, forced to leave their own country due to decades of war.
Some grew up as bacha posh. I kept wondering what happened to them when they abruptly found themselves in societies where women had more freedom—did they still want to continue living on the other side, wearing their adopted male identity?
I heard about one bacha posh who had gone to the United States to study. Arriving in America as Faheem, she had eventually graduated college as Faheema and was now living in a small New England town. When we first met, she had already read my book. She told me she liked it and that it had inspired her to to share her own story.
As she prepares to go back to Afghanistan in the spring of 2015, I am hoping that she will be a part of the community that Shahed—the Afghan special forces soldier—once dreamed of: a place where bacha posh can find their own voices, share their stories, and connect with others who have had similar experiences.
Women who have lived as men and boys—and still do—exist everywhere. They are both an important part of history and a reflection of the world we currently live in. But what if they could learn from one another and at the same time educate us more about the resilience, resistance, and struggles of women and girls against a global system of oppression? I think it’s time for these women to speak for themselves. They have spent far too long in hiding.
For the next chapter of their journey, I have created bachaposh.com.
I also hope that you, as a reader of this book, will join me in contributing your own experiences and thoughts at bachaposh.com.
With gratitude,
Jenny Nordberg