According to a 2014 UN report, Afghanistan is the worst country in the world to be born a girl. The average life expectancy of a woman is 44 years. Given such harsh gender segregation, many families are bringing up their daughters as sons. They are known as bacha posh – the literal term translated from Dari for a girl “dressed like a boy” in Afghanistan.This is a photo of Mehran Rafaat, a girl disguised as a boy, with her twin sisters outside their family home in Afghanistan. Photograph: Adam Ferguson, courtesy of The Guardian.According to Afghan teachers, midwives and doctors, it is “not uncommon” to find a bacha posh in each school or extended family, because it is easier to have access to an education in the most conservative areas, where few girls are able to go to school. The family may also need a child who can move around more, who can work or run errands for the family, or escort sisters. In 1996, when Deborah Ellis read about the Taliban occupation of Afghanistan, and about their brutal treatment of girls and women, she decided that she had to get involved. She visited refugee camps in Pakistan, met Afghan women and heard about their experiences. She was particularly struck by the story of a young girl who cut off her hair and disguised herself as a boy so she could earn money to support her family. Deborah knew she had to turn that story into a book and the result was The Breadwinner trilogy. The trilogy has been a phenomenal success, both critically and commercially, receiving several literary awards, including the Peter Pan Prize and the Middle East Book Award in 2002.The first novel in the trilogy, The Breadwinner, was published in 2000. It is about an 11 year old girl called Parvana, who is forced by circumstances to be the breadwinner for her family in the war-torn Taliban-era of Kabul, in Afghanistan. Parvana lives with her mother and father, her older sister Nooria and two younger siblings, Maryam (sister) and Ali (brother). Nooria hadn't always been the oldest. Hossain had been the oldest child. He had been killed by a land mine when he was 14 years old.Landmines kill or injure thousands of people around the world every year. The large number of amputees in some mine-infested countries create entire societies. Both of Parvana's parents had come from old respected Afghan families. They both received their education overseas, returning to Afghanistan to settle. Her father was a teacher at a local high school and her mother a writer for a local radio station. The novel starts during the Taliban militia ruling. Kabul is in a state of ruin. Various rules are in place; - girls are forbidden to go to school, - no woman can work, - all girls and women have to stay inside their homes, - all windows have to be painted over with black paint so that no one can see the women inside, - buses are not permitted to carry women who do not have a man with them, - photographs are illegal, and many other atrocities. Soon after the novel starts, we learn that Parvana's family have gone from a relatively comfortable life to one where they live from day to day. The five family members live in a one room apartment of a bombed apartment complex. It was during a bombing at the local high school that Parvana's father loses a leg. Amputees are an alarmingly common sight in Afghanistan.Photograph: courtesy of DWEach day Parvana must accompany her crippled father to the market, where he earns money by reading and writing letters for the largely illiterate population of Kabul. One night, Taliban soldiers storm into her house and arrest her father for not having an Afghan education, but instead going to university in a different country. At the capture of her father, her mother becomes depressed and lies in the one spot, unable to move. The family starts to starve, as they have no male escort and therefore can't travel outside. It is at this point that the family decides that they will disguise Parvana as a boy. They cut her hair and dress her in her dead brother's clothes. They hope that this disguise will enable her to freely roam the city without suspicion. She earns money in any way she can: by writing letters, digging up bones from corpses, and selling cigarettes with her friend Shauzia. One day she discovers a young woman refugee hiding, and Parvana brings her home to keep her safe. Finally Parvana’s father returns home, to Parvana’s great joy. At the book’s end, the family’s future is still uncertain, since Parvana’s mother, sisters, and brother, are en route to another town that has been suddenly captured by the Taliban, and Parvana and her father must travel to meet them.The Breadwinner is an important book and one that girls (and guys) everywhere should read to learn how women are treated in some societies. It reminds us how courageous and strong women are around the world, and how in difficult circumstances, they often have to make hard choices and find strength to deal with them. This book, in my mind, accurately depicts war-torn regions. Deborah Ellis has created characters and a world that feel realistic and familiar to me. Her writing and story telling is inspiring.And as to the practice of bacha posh? It begins to crystallise as one of the clearest symptoms of a segregated society so dysfunctional that it inevitably must change. When one gender is so suppressed and so unwanted, there will always be those who try to pass over to the other side, to reach for the small freedoms every human should have. It also has historical parallels throughout societies that were repressive to groups for reasons of religion and race.That bacha posh has existed right under the surface as a way to creatively buck a system of gender segregation for this entire time should prompt us to ask what else we were missing in our decade-long effort to turn around one of the world’s poorest and most undeveloped countries, where being born a girl always required survival efforts and a resilience that we could have never imagined.A MUST READ book for everyone.
The novel The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis is a book concerning human rights. In this novel the main character Parvana, an eleven year old girl is living in a one room home with her five family members in Afghanistan. At the time, the Taliban are ruling their town and orders all the girls and women in Afghanistan to stay inside their homes. They even forbid girls to go to school or walk outside without a man. Throughout the novel Parvana comes across many challenges such as loosing her father, cutting her hair off, almost loosing her mother and watching her family leave her. However, all of these tragic events only make her a stronger person. Parvana is one of the youngest in the family and the most important. She helps get the family money for food and she fetches the water. I think this novel was very inspiring and clearly addresses the issue of human rights throughout the book. Although this book is very sad, it is very interesting to see how children younger than I am look after a family of five, and survive the Taliban. One of the themes in this novel is doing what is right and being brave. These two themes are connected in the novel because Parvana is very young and at times in the novel she has to act as if she is older than she really is. She also has to be brave and do what was right for her family. This is seen in the novel on page 52 and 53 when the author writes, “She looked at Ali, worn out from being hungry and needing his parents. She looked at Maryam, whose cheeks were already beginning to look hollow, and who hadn’t been in the sunshine in such a long time. Finally, she looked at her big sister Nooria....Instead of turning her back, she took the money from her sister’s hand.” This quote shows that even though Parvana was scared and did not want to go out, she took the money for the food and left for the market. This was very brave of her and shows that she knew what was right for her family and she knew what she had to do. Another quote that shows that Parvana did the right thing at the right time is seen in the text on page 65-66, “Parvana realized Mrs. Weera was right. They could hold her down and ut off her hair, but for anything more, they needed her cooperation. In the end, it really was her decision.... ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll do it.’” This quote shows that Parvana was scared and did not want to cut her hair. However, she knew that she had to get more money and food and the only way to do that was to become a boy and go to the markets in the day. Parvana ends up cutting her hair and goes into the market for days long work and earns her family more money. She was very brave to do this and knew that even though it was scary, it was the right think to do. Another theme of human rights seen in this novel is to never turn your back on something and to keep going at rough times. This is also a very important theme because if we keep going we get things accomplished. This theme is seen in the novel on page 147, “With a but of gently pulling, Parvana got the women to her feet....She smiled pretending to be brave. She knew it was too dark in the doorway for the women to see her smile, but it made Parvana feel better.” This quote shows that although Parvana was frightened, she did not want to worry the women so she acted brave. She didn’t turn her back on the women and leave her there and she helped her back to her house. This was very brave and helped the women greatly. The Breadwinner is an inspiring novel about a brave young girl named Parvana who is very courageous in very tough times. She raises a family and saves her father and shows children like me how thankful I should be for the environment I am in. It also shows the reader that not all people have human rights. I recommend this book to people who want to know more about women rights and see how in certain places their rights are taken away right from underneath them.
What do You think about The Breadwinner (2001)?
After reading The Breadwinner, I'm still struggling to put my thoughts into words. This is a powerful story of a young girl named Parvana whose family lives in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Parvana's father has been arrested by the Taliban, and because of Sharia Law the women in Pavana's family are no longer allowed to be seen outside their home without a male escort. In order to survive, Parvana agrees to cut her hair and disguise herself as a boy so that she can continue to work and earn money to support her family. There are so many difficulties that Parvana faces throughout the story - from dodging land mines to witnessing the horrors of Sharia "justice" - and yet she holds on to hope. Author Deborah Ellis shows the beauty and resilience of the Afghani people in this book written for children, but powerful even for adult readers.I'm not sure whether or not I would use this book with my fifth graders, and I definitely wouldn't teach it to any group younger than fifth grade because of the mature subject matter, but I could definitely see this book as a powerful literature circle text in middle school. There are so many themes that are still relevant for American preteens, and our students could learn so much about diversity and global understanding by reading this beautiful and heartbreaking story.
—Amber Harper
The novel The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, is about a family, living in Afghanistan, that was very wealthy and educated. The kids went to school and both of the parents were successful teachers. After the war in Afghanistan began, many bombs were dropped, they ruined cities, houses and killed many people. The family lost most of their property and the oldest son was killed. The family arrived at Kabul, the capital, and lived there in terrible conditions under the Taliban rule. Life there was ve
—Rotem Rozner
This book had potential. A children/young adult book set in a country ravaged by war COULD have been an interesting, dark book, but simple bad writing ruined it. The whole book was written in the style of: My mother cried and started hitting them. They shot her. I cried and hid. They went away. I came out. It's very bland, clunky and downright painful. There is little exploration of their religion, and characters who hasn't been educated is quickly dismissed as stupid and unimportant, even if they haven't had any opportunity. There's an awkward attempt to explore moralities and the idea of the Taliban as real people, but the theme is quickly dropped to focus on more of Parvana saying the same thing over and over again. The vocabulary is very simple, and the story is as well. As a year seven I had this assigned, and couldn't get over how patronizing and filtered it is. A horrible book that I would never recommend.
—Confidential Ness
