"You will be a boy, my daughter"

I am currently taking a class called Dress and Culture. In this class, we learn about how people express themselves through dress and how they convey their cultures, religious beliefs, gender, personality and many other things through the way they dress. The latest video that we watched in this course was called "You will be my son, my daughter". http://www.javafilms.fr/spip.php?article862 This link is a segment from the video, but is not the video in its entirety. This film is on the Iraqi tradition of Bacha Posh. Bacha Posh is when a family, makes a daughter dress like a boy at a young age so that she can work for the family and have the same rights as other boys. This process is very interesting. Young girl put a cap on their head to cover their hair and wear clothes similar to that of a male so that when a girl goes to work, to provide for the family, she is not perceived as a girl. This is very political because in Iraq, if a girl is caught lying about her identity she will be taken away and not get to stay with her family. Government officials search for people like this, which causes families to hide their daughters if they are disguised as a boy. In the film, one particular girl decided to stay a boy as she grew older. She did not want to turn back because she had the freedoms that males have such as working, education and normal every day activities. In cases like these, it is very controversial because she is not legally supposed to be a male and this causes her to live in fear of being exposed of her true identity. This situation is also confusing because she could be perceived as a lesbian. Would this tradition be accepted if it were brought over to the United States? I believe that this tradition would be rejected by our culture and very looked down upon. In the United States, we have many freedoms and are able to express ourselves in different ways. We are able to chose what we want to do, what career we want, where we want to go to school, how we want to dress and many other things. This concept is so foreign to us that we would not be able to adapt to something like this. Where women and men have to same rights here in America, we wouldn't need to have the women disguise themselves as men. If we were already accustomed to these practices, we would not know anything else, therefore it would not be out of the ordinary. It would be a huge political issue in the United States, whereas in Iraq, it is normal. However, the issues that come along with it like women lying about their identity and not having the same rights as men, is very political.
 This image shows how the two girls who dress like young girls and would be identified as young girls. The girl that is dressed as a Bacha Posh, is standing and doing the same expression as the girls as if she wants to be like these girls. Many of the young girls that have to work for the family would rather be doing things that normal girls do. they feel left out and out of the norm, like this image shows. This image also shows that, with the girls standing, it represents how they do not have to work and how they can have fun or relax while the Bacha Posh has responsibilities and is not able to rest like the girls. This is also depicted by the bright colors that they are wearing. The boy is standing and wearing all white because he has to work and be taken seriously by adults and by his family. The white also maybe makes him fit in so that people won't question his gender or sexuality. With the girls wearing the fun, bright colors, we know that they are young girls. This issue is just very strange and very different from what we're used to as Americans.