r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Key_Skirt_1858 • 1d ago
This Afghan woman disguised herself as a boy to attend school, a disguise she had to maintain since she was just 5 years old.
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u/Alternative_Arm_1300 1d ago
I feel so bad for her :(, it’s sad what they are doing to girls and woman, like seriously no education??? That’s terrible! I think every woman and girl deserves to have a education and freedom like everybody else in Afghanistan :(❤️
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u/Downright-Delicious 1d ago
But how would men retain their complete power over women if the women were given agency to change and manage their own lives?
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u/mycoctopus 51m ago
I really hope they manage to take their power back during my lifetime (as in asap) and that somehow I can do something to help in some way, even if only a couple of people.
Its one of the greatest travesties of our time.
I've tried sharing info on how to get access to tonnes of software and educational tools like academic papers that are usually pay walled and free books just whatever you can think of (fmhy.net/educational, read beginners guide on main page 1st though or read the pinned megathread on r/piracy )
Shared it with a bunch of Palestinians and people from some other massively underprivileged places and its helped some a good amount but its hard for many to get enough electric and or internet to make much use of it currently and for Afghan women like how tf could anyone even contact them and how are they supposed to use such a thing and particularly in english 😔
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u/okymoney 1d ago
You could easily make a movie about this… lots of stories from the middle east could be movies… but i dont think that industry wants to make us empathize.
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u/killsforpie 1d ago
There is one, not about this woman. Osama (2003). Very sad.
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u/HolidayInLordran 1d ago
It originally was going to have a happy ending but the director became so disillusioned with the war that he changed it.
Sadly it's more fitting considering nothing changed for the better since then.
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u/SapphicSaionji 9h ago
The closest thing to this movie that exists would likely be Persepolis. I haven't seen the movie but I've read the book- it's by a woman named Marjane Satrapi about her time growing up in Iran under the oppressive misogynistic regime. She doesn't ever disguise herself as a boy but it goes into the reality of growing up and living such a cruel reality.
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u/Neither-Werewolf9114 1d ago
dont worry it is coming to US and Europe in your next states
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u/JustKimNotKimberly 1d ago
Not on my watch, it isn't. And there are a *lot* of people who think like I do.
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u/Zayoodo0o132 1d ago
Hollywood would never do it because it would show the reality of the US as the bad guys.
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u/gottabekittensme 19h ago
I mean... the true villains are the ones who refuse to let women get an education, but sure. OnLy uS bAd!!1!!
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u/AnnaGorgeousss 1d ago
She wasn’t trying to be someone else. She was trying to be a kid who could go to school
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u/Fun-Letter-1814 1d ago
Who even downvoted this. What a brave soul. It’s painful to see what is happening over there
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u/Thelastreddditor 1d ago
Five is an impossible age to start living as someone else. The photo looks ordinary until you realize she already had to disappear just to sit in a classroom. That’s the part that doesn’t leave you.
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u/Yappingpaper 1d ago
It reminded me of something that happened last year. I got into a heated argument with an Afghan woman living in Germany who was posting about the beautiful culture of Afghanistan. When I pointed out that women are still systematically oppressed back home, she immediately called me Islamophobic lol
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u/boriicha__ 1d ago
It's extremely hard to reject your entire culture because that's like rejecting your own identity. It's easy enough for you to reject an entire culture when it's not a part of your identity.
It's not even a healthy thing to do psychologically, as losing your identity is very traumatic.
Usually people find beautiful things even within the ugly, just because they need to survive. You can understand that misogyny is very common in your culture, while also seeing the beauty in the clothes, music, food, language, art, and community/relationships (with other women/neighbors) in your culture.
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u/Nico280gato 22h ago
The culture that doesnt even let women have windows????? The culture that wont let women talk in public??
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u/boriicha__ 16h ago
You know their culture wasn't always like this right? They used to be able to go to school and walk/talk in public before. There's more to their culture than their current government and misogyny. And a lot of that culture has been created/influenced by women (the clothes, food, art, music, etc).
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u/Prestigious_Flow6029 1d ago
Wow I mean criticizing the govt. and people is never Islamophobic unless you bring in the entire muslim population which I hope you weren't doing.
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u/retr0ctv 1d ago
Things are great with worlds most peaceful and tolerant religion
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u/Interesting_Emu_6123 1d ago
To be fair, they aren't even allowed to pray. So you can't say it's be cause of religion, it just for the fun of the game. The game being oppression
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 1d ago
A person’s culture is not a representation of the religion. Stop it with the over generalisation.
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u/OrgasmicTrilobite 1d ago
Because you sound so tolerant and peaceful. Empathy for the girl? Nah, hatred feels better
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u/Shprintze613 1d ago
You’re right, this is his fault. Not the tyrannical patriarchal religion. They are on exactly equal footing. And some things should be hated.
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u/SteakDouble 3h ago
It's crazy to think that some people had to do that just to gain their basic right such as education.
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u/hundreddollar 23h ago
School started after summer holidays for my 13yr old son today. I had to FORCE him to go to school.
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u/Ironlion45 21h ago
There's a curious phenomenon in West Asia, though it is not widespread, where in the absence of male children, one of the female children will instead be groomed as a boy, to sort of fulfill the "eldest son" role, at least until she reached a certain age.
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u/danjpn 1d ago
If all cultures are equal, cannibalism is just a culinary choice
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u/outacontrolnicole 1d ago
Wtf
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u/Arktikos02 1d ago
No, it's not that all cultures are the same, it's that old culture should be judged equally. However unfortunately that's not the case. When a culture in the Middle East for example does something it's often seen as an inherent part of not just that culture but sometimes those people sometimes even down to their blood essentially saying that they are genetically more likely to do that thing but when people in the west do that same thing even if it is a cultural element then sometimes those people are given more excuses and things like that.
We need to judge cultural practices regardless of where they come from and not just make excuses simply because they come from a culture that we like.
Or as to put it more simply, it's not a good idea to do the
Thing: 🤨
Thing Japan: 🤩🥰😍😍
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u/AwarenessNo4986 20h ago
5 year old girls can go to school even in today's Afghanistan. Why would she have to disguise while the American forces were there?
I don't get it
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u/tamimm18 1d ago
When i was in 5th grade there was a girl disguised as a boy in 4th grade, and i only found out after 2 years and by then she had left school. She had given herself a fake name and had short hair. There are many stories like that here.