| Cross-dressing |
|---|
| History of cross-dressing |
| Breeches role · Breeching Travesti · In film and television In wartime · Pantomime dame |
| Key elements |
| As a transgender identity Passing · Transvestism |
| Modern drag culture |
| Ball culture · Drag Drag king · Drag pageantry Drag queen · Faux queen List of drag queens |
| Sexual aspects |
| Autoandrophilia · Autogynephilia Feminization · Pinafore eroticism Transvestic fetishism Sissy · Transgender sexuality |
| Sexual attraction to cross-dressers |
| Andromimetophilia Gynemimetophilia |
| Other aspects |
| Bacha posh · Crossplay En femme Female masking Girlfag and guydyke Gender disguise |
| Passing as male |
| Breast binding · Packing |
| Passing as female |
| Cleavage enhancement Hip and buttock padding |
| Organizations |
| Tri-Ess |
| Books |
| My Husband Betty She's Not The Man I Married |
Bacha posh ("dressed up as a boy" in the Dari language) is a cultural practice in areas of Afghanistan where a family in which there are no sons may have a girl dress in characteristic male clothing and have her hair cut short, occupying an intermediate status in which she is treated as neither a daughter nor fully as a son. In Afghan culture, pressure exists to have a son to carry on the family name and to inherit his father's property. In the absence of a son, families may dress one of their daughters as a male, with some holding the superstition that having a bacha posh will make it more likely for a woman to give birth to a son in a subsequent pregnancy.[1]
As a bacha posh, a girl is more readily able to attend school, escort her sisters in public places and find work, in addition to helping overcome the shame that a family experiences at not having any male children. The girl's status as a bacha posh usually ends when she enters puberty. Women raised as a bacha posh often have difficulty making the transition from life as a boy and adapting to the traditional constraints placed on women in Afghan society. While historical records are unclear as to how far back the practice dates, anecdotal evidence exists that places the custom going back several generations. Historian Nancy Dupree told a reporter from The New York Times that she recalled a photograph dating back to the early 1900s during the reign of Habibullah Khan in which women dressed as men guarded the king's harem, as men could not be trusted to protect the women.[1]
Azita Rafaat, a legislator elected to the National Assembly of Afghanistan to represent Badghis Province, has had no sons and has raised one of her daughters as a bacha posh. She said she understood that "it's very hard for you to believe why one mother is doing these things to their youngest daughter", and that "things are happening in Afghanistan that are really not imaginable for you as a Western people."[1]
Osama, the 2003 film made in Afghanistan written and directed by Siddiq Barmak, tells the story of a young girl in Afghanistan under Taliban rule who disguises herself as a boy, Osama, in order to support her family, as her father and uncle had both been killed during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and she and her mother would not be able to travel on their own without a male "legal companion".[2]