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“Azita and her husband approached their youngest daughter with a proposition: “Do you want to look like a boy and dress like a boy, and do more fun things like boys do, like bicycling, soccer, and cricket? And would you like to be like your father?” She absolutely did. It was a splendid offer.”

“All it took was a haircut, a pair of pants from the bazaar, and a denim shirt with “superstar” printed on the back. In a single afternoon, the family went from having four daughters to being blessed with three little girls and a spiky-haired boy…To the outside world—and especially to Azita’s constituents back in Badghis—the family was finally complete.”

“Some, of course, knew the truth. But they, too, congratulated Azita. Having a made-up son was better than none, and people complimented her on her ingenuity.”

–The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg