Opening Paragraphs
The opening paragraphs of Chapter One immediately remove all mystery about what this book is about. The imagery is direct and purposely provocative. It cannot help but push the reader to learn more:
“Our brother is really a girl.”
One of the eager-looking twins nods to reaffirm her words. Then she turns to her sister. She agrees. Yes, it is true. She can confirm it.
They are two ten-year-old identical girls, each with black hair, squirrel eyes, and a few small freckles…The twin sisters, their legs neatly folded underneath them on the sofa, are a little offended by my lack of reaction to their big reveal. Twin number two leans forward: “It’s true. He is our little sister.”
The Afghan Way
The way of life in Afghanistan is conversely also a philosophical view toward death. The country has not really known any peace since at least the 1980’s when Soviet tanks unwitting rolled into a decade-long quagmire that cost only cost them almost everything. The Afghan way is not one built upon eternal optimism:
“Azita subscribes to the regular Afghan argument: When your time is up, it’s up. God decides when that may be. She cannot spend every morning ride to work thinking of whether the moment has arrived. Azita and her driver have missed explosions by seconds before. Each day, she takes a risk just by stepping out of her house. She logs about two anonymous death threats a week at her office or at home, when she is warned to quit parliament.”
A History of Gender Subversion
The underground girls of Afghanistan in which brothers are actually sisters is not an entirely modern phenomenon in this complicated country. The Afghanis trace a history back to the glories of the extolled in classic literature and splashy MGM films of the forties. Part of that history also involves gender manipulation:
“In the yellowed black-and-white shot taken in the early years of the twentieth century, women dressed in men’s clothing stand guard in Habībullāh Khan’s harem. The harem could not be supervised by men because they posed a potential threat to the women’s chastity and the king’s bloodline. These women dressed as men solved the dilemma, indicating that such solutions may have been used historically in the highest echelons of Afghan society as well.”
Somewhere Under a Rainbow
The long history of Afghanistan provides a wealth of fascinating facts about myth, superstition, and religion. The amazing thing is how much of this history relates to the concept of gender manipulation. Or, at least, attempts at making it so:
“The rainbow, a favorite element in every mythology from the Norse to the Navajo people, often symbolizes wish fulfillment. In Afghanistan, finding a rainbow promises a very special reward: It holds magical powers to turn an unborn child into a boy when a pregnant woman walks under it. Afghan girls are also told that they can become boys by walking under a rainbow, and many little girls have tried…Setareh did it too, she confesses when I probe her on it. All her girlfriends tried to find the rainbow so they could become boys.”
