I am a Pashtun, born and raised in Peshawar, where the echoes of Pashtunwali, our ancient code of honor, family loyalty, and resilience, still shape the rhythm of daily life. My father taught me that a daughter’s strength is quiet but unbreakable, yet even then I have felt the weight of a culture that sometimes values sons more visibly. Across the border in Afghanistan, that weight has become a cruel necessity under Taliban regime. When I read the NPR report published on March 9, 2026, about young girls being turned into “bacha posh”, literally “dressed like a boy”, my chest tightened with rage. This is not some distant tragedy. This is happening right next to us in our neighbourhood.

The practice is centuries old, rooted in Afghanistan’s deeply patriarchal society. Today, under the Taliban’s forceful regime, the reason is brutally simple, that of survival. Families with no sons, or no men available to work, dress a daughter as a boy so she can earn money, run errands, and even serve as a mahram, the male guardian women and girls are now forced to have just to step outside. The Taliban regime’s Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of........

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