Hidden violence

In certain areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan, the lack of a male child in the family is a disgrace and to remedy this, a female child is required to dress and behave like a male until the age of puberty. This custom is known as "Bacha posh". Having reached this stage she will have to become a woman again and therefore submit to her husband and renounce the social rights acquired as bacha posh. While on the one hand this is the only possibility in life that forces these girls to appear or become different, on the other hand, they can enjoy greater freedom, study and work for a period. It is easy to understand the psychological problems that can arise in these girls, especially when they have to become "women" again on command and change their behavior and mental state, especially in the case in which they are promised brides and find themselves not knowing how to do the things that women Afghan women have learned to manage the house, running the risk of suffering further mistreatment, abuse and violence. In this work of mine we see children playing in a dimension characterized by the domination of a patriarchal world generated by ancient customs and religious beliefs and bacha posh girls discriminated against for their gender identity and, above all since the return of the Taliban, deprived of every basic right.

Unfortunately, in addition to bacha posh, there are bacha-bazi, "children for play", male minors kidnapped or sold, forced to wear women's clothes to be sexually exploited. Even if among kids the kite game may seem liberating, here freedom is illusory, it could be reflected in the kite because it floats in the air but unfortunately it is always held back by a thread and this thread in some cases can turn out to be a mere chain of 'steel. This appeal of mine is intended to be a message against every type of oppression, abuse, violence, mutilation and exploitation of women and minors that occurs, disguised as tradition, in different parts of the world, just as it occurs in our society, even if in a different or less brutal. Enough violence!