The Underground Girls of Kabul is a fantastically informative, provocative, and depressing look at the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. Author Jenny Nordberg begins with a quest to unravel the mysteries of those girls who are raised as honorary sons in boy-happy Afghanistan. The practice, which she traces across much of the former Zoroastrian empire, is hundreds (thousands?) of years old, and practiced by families from every ethnicity and income bracket. In fact, Nordberg first considers the issue when she learns that one of the female Parliamentarians has an honorary son - and was once one herself.
Nordberg approaches to her subject matter thoughtfully, delving into the historic, religious, and cultural origins of the practice, as well as the present day norms. Nordberg is also careful to consider how such fluid gender designations - accompanied by rigid gender roles - impact the identities of those who experience life as girl-boy-woman. (Perhaps not surprisingly, little if any attention has been paid to this issue in Afghanistan.)
Through this lens, Nordberg also provides a glimpse of daily life in Afghanistan - and, boy, is it depressing. Although, as long time Kabul resident and expat Carol le Duc observes to
Nordberg, "This can be an awful place to be a woman. But it's not
particularly good for a man, either." No matter: however rich, intelligent, or ambitious, the lot of an Afghan woman's life is unquestionably bleak; it's certainly a study in contrasts to those women profiled in All the Single Ladies. Such notions of independence are clearly many generations are away for All the Afghan Ladies.
Five stars.
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